The temperature would rise enough to melt the the entire Antarctica ice sheets if all the oil, natural gas and coil were burned. The sea level would rise by more than 160 feet, leading to catastrophic consequences like putting the entire East Coast and large parts of Europe and Asia under water, having to rapid retreat from coastal big cities like New York, Miami, London, Tokyo and Sydney.
As we studied, if the Antarctica keeps melting at this pace, half of the ice sheets would disappear leading to a rise of a foot per decade (10 times faster than it is now). World top leaders have assumed the dangers of remaining burning all fossil fuels. This is why the most powerful nations will meet in Paris in another attempt for reducing emissions, yet they have been dealing with this problem for the last 30 years and so far the limit has not been effectively set.
However, the ice sheets act slowly enough to changes in the climate that takes more than a hundred years for large-scale melting to begin. So though the climate is still in the earlier stages of this shift, the Western part of the Antarctica are displaying severe signs of instability. By 22nd century, a complete destruction of the world’s land ice would be melted.
References:
- Gillis, J. (2015, September 11). Study Predicts Antarctica Ice Melt if All Fossil Fuels Are Burned. Retrieved February 21, 2016, from http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/12/science/climate-study-predicts-huge-sea-level-rise-if-all-fossil-fuels-are-burned.html
- Antarctic ice is melting so fast the whole continent may be at risk by 2100. (2015, October 12). Retrieved February 21, 2016, from http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/oct/12/antarctic-ice-melting-so-fast-whole-continent-may-be-at-risk-by-2100