Denmark will be completely submerged by the sea over the next thousand years, if the world burns all of the currently attainable fossil fuel resources, reports the science magazine Videnskab.

According to a new study published in the journal Science Advances, burning the remaining fossil fuel resources would produce 10,000 gigatonnes of carbon emissions (GtC), which is enough to melt the entire Antarctic ice sheet and raise the sea level by an average 3 metres per century over the next millennium.

Existential threat to Danes
Scientists warn the West Antarctic ice sheet will probably disappear once 600- 800 GtC of additional carbon emissions have been produced. So far, fossil fuel resources have produced about 400 gigatons of CO2 since the first consumption in the 18th century.

“Looking into the far future, this is almost an existential threat. At the same time, one must remember it will take thousands of years,” Aslak Grinsted, an associate professor at the Centre for Ice and Climate at the University of Copenhagen, told Videnskab.

Slowing down global warming 
Carbon emissions in the atmosphere have large and lasting consequences for the climate – world leaders have already agreed to a so-called 2 degree target by 2100.

Limiting the global warming to only 2 degrees Celsius compared to pre-industrial temperatures could slow down sea level rises considerably.

According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report from 2013, global temperatures have risen by 0.85 degrees Celsius since 1880.