Countdown to Catastrophe: Which Nations Face Unimaginable Peril if Doomsday Glacier Collapses?

So, here’s the kicker — did you know there’s a gigantic chunk of ice out in Antarctica, lovingly nicknamed the Doomsday Glacier, that’s basically holding the fate of coastal nations in its chilly grip? Yup, if this icy behemoth throws in the towel and collapses, we’re not just talking about a splash in the ocean — it’s a full-on, catastrophic makeover for shorelines across the globe. I mean, rising sea levels creeping up at 4.6mm a year might sound like a slow drip, but trust me, Mother Nature doesn’t have the patience of a caffeinated squirrel when you start messing with her. In just my 30-something years, the seas have already pulled a nine-centimeter sneak attack, and this glacier’s meltdown could seriously flood our future. If you’re living anywhere near the shore — or heaven forbid, below sea level — this is the kind of nightmare you don’t wanna wake up to. Ready to dive into the chilling details of why this icy giant has scientists losing sleep? LEARN MORE

Scientists are worried about the fate of one of the most important glaciers in the world, because if it collapses it’ll have a catastrophic effect on nations around the globe.

Rising global temperatures are resulting in glaciers melting at an increased rate and rising the sea level, which is incredibly bad news for anyone living by the seaside or in a part of the world that’s not elevated high above sea level.

It’s little wonder they’ve said they have a ‘grim outlook’ on the fate of this vital glacier in the Antarctic due to the planet continuing to heat up.

Sea levels are rising by a rate of 4.6mm a year which may not sound like very much, but Mother Nature can be a really patient b***h when you decide to mess with her.

In the course of my little more than 30 years on the planet, global sea levels have risen about nine centimetres and the rate at which we’re doing damage to the environment is speeding up, putting the future of something some scientists have called the Doomsday Glacier at risk.

That sure is a lot of ice (NASA)

The Doomsday Glacier

While the official name is the Thwaites Glacier, some have taken to calling it the Doomsday Glacier because of the impact it could have if it collapses.

It’s about as large as Great Britain, or the US state of Florida, being around 120km wide and in some places the ice that forms it is around 2,000 metres thick.

You may have a hard time imagining such a gargantuan mass could ever fall apart but global warming is chipping away at this thing piece by piece.

The British Antarctic Survey warned that the amount of ice flowing into the sea from this glacier and the ones neighbouring it more than doubled between the 1990s and the 2010s.

Around eight percent of rising sea levels are down to the Antarctic region this glacier is in.

The Thwaites Glacier pictured by NASA in 2001 (NASA)

What happens if the Doomsday Glacier collapses?

That’s the reason some call it the Doomsday Glacier.

Experts have warned that the glacier’s retreat has been ‘accelerating considerably over the past 30 years’ and scientists believe it will ‘retreat further and faster’ in the future.

Should matters continue on their current trajectory then at some point it will be too much and the glacier will collapse, something current projections are predicting by the 23rd century.

If it melts to the point of collapse then it will cause a significant rise in sea levels, resulting in some parts of the world going underwater.

Experts reckon that the Thwaites Glacier going down would lead to a sea level rise of 65cm, which may not sound like much but really is, and if it collapses then you’ll have conditions that lead to other glaciers melting and resulting in an even worse rise.

Countries would lose landmass to the sea as rising levels destroy homes and infrastructure, forcing people inland in the face of the devastation.

It would also be a catastrophe for any wildlife in the area as their ecosystems would not survive being submerged, resulting in a huge amount of habitat loss and death.

The same glacier in 2019, having suffered significant damage (NASA)

Which countries are at risk if the Doomsday Glacier collapses?

The worst affected by rising sea levels are coastal nations that are rather flat, so the Netherlands is always going to be vulnerable to this sort of thing.

About a third of the country is actually below sea level, with the Dutch having reclaimed a decent portion of their land from the sea using clever flood defences.

They reckon their current defences could take a rising sea level of about a metre, but beyond that they could start to be in trouble.

Sadly for those who wouldn’t be alright if sea levels rose by a metre, between 15 and 30 million people living in Bangladesh would find their homes underwater in such a scenario.

Many island nations would be at serious risk of losing lots of their land including the Maldives, Polynesia, Micronesia, Melanesia, Tuvalu, Kiribati, the Marshall Islands and the Solomon Islands.

As an island nation the UK would naturally feel the catastrophic effects.

Meanwhile, seafront property in places like the US would suddenly lose a lot of their value as they’d no longer be on the seafront but in it instead.

Around 230 million people globally live around one metre above sea level, so it would really be in everyone’s interests not to f**k up the planet so badly that they can’t live there any longer.