Experts Warn These 3 Cities Could Disappear If ‘Doomsday Glacier’ Melts
Climate experts have long warned us about the dangerous effects of global warming. We’ve already seen how it causes higher temperatures and rising sea levels, and they’ve cautioned that the future could be even more alarming if real action isn’t taken soon.
The growing concern has been underscored by new findings about the Thwaites Glacier in Antarctica. Known as the ‘Doomsday Glacier’, it contains enough ice to push sea levels up by over two feet if it fully melts and that’s just the beginning.
If that were to happen, some of the world’s most iconic cities—including London, New York, and Bangkok could find themselves underwater. These global hotspots, which attract millions of tourists each year, would be left completely unrecognizable or worse, wiped out altogether.
Researchers have been studying the Thwaites Glacier intensely, trying to figure out exactly how much damage it might cause and how quickly things could change. But finding concrete answers has proven to be incredibly complicated.
The International Thwaites Glacier Collaboration (ITGC) has been monitoring the glacier closely since 2018. Their findings suggest that rapid melting and ice loss are going to speed up dramatically in the years ahead. In fact, the entire glacier could collapse within the next 200 years if trends continue.
Professor Noel Gourmelen, who led a study published in March 2025 and is part of the ITGC team, said: “We expected that water draining from the underside of the ice sheet plays a role in modulating ocean melting, the sheer magnitude of this lake drainage gave us the opportunity to finally observe and quantify its impact.”
So far, 2025 has brought hotter-than-expected conditions in the Southern Hemisphere, which experts believe have only made the problem worse and sped up the glacier’s retreat.
“This year is really different. It’s very difficult to recover from this in one season. The game has changed.”
