If global warming continues unchecked, Antarctica will soon move beyond the "point of no return" that could turn the continent into barren, ice-free territory for the first time in more than 30 million years, according to a study published in the journal Nature .

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" Antarctica is simply our last legacy from a distant time in Earth's history . It has been around for almost 34 million years. Our simulations show that once it melts , it will not return to its original state until temperatures reach pre-industrial levels again, an extremely unlikely scenario. In other words, everything we lose in Antarctica now, we lose forever, ”said Anders Levermann, one of the study's authors and a researcher at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK).

The most pessimistic scenario for the climate crisis

PIK researchers have conducted computer simulations to find out what Antarctica will look like in thousands of years, depending on how much global average temperatures will rise as a result of greenhouse gas emissions.

Scientists have found that if average temperatures rise by 4 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, much of the ice in western Antarctica will crumble, so that the global sea level will rise by 6.5 meters. This growth could devastate coastal cities such as New York, Tokyo or London. This scenario could become a reality in just a few decades.

A 5 degree increase in global average temperatures is currently considered the "most pessimistic scenario" if greenhouse gas emission levels continue at the same rate until 2100, according to the UN.

The fate of Antarctica is in the hands of politicians

If the UN's forecasts are wrong, the situation could be even worse, the authors of the new study found. If global temperatures rise by 6-9 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, more than 70% of Antarctic ice will be lost "irreversibly," the researchers wrote.

Many ice sheets in western Antarctica have already begun to melt, with nearly 25% of the region's ice in danger of collapsing, according to a 2019 study published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters.

The fate of Antarctica is in the hands of politicians, the authors of the new study concluded. The Paris Agreement, signed by 73 nations in 2015 but abandoned by the US in 2017 at the behest of Donald Trump, aims to limit the rise in global average temperatures so as to prevent the worst effects of the climate crisis, informs Live Science .

The UN has warned that the world will not achieve the goals set by the Paris Agreement

While emissions fell slightly earlier this year in the wake of pandemic travel restrictions, the UN warned that the world would not meet the targets set by the Paris Agreement, with global average temperatures remaining around 1.1 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels from 2016 to 2020.

The UN report added that there is a 20% chance that the global annual temperature will rise above 1.5 degrees Celsius, at least temporarily, by 2024.