What Earth might look like in 80 years if we're lucky — and if we're not

• Last year was the warmest year on record for the planet's oceans, and the fourth-warmest year ever in terms of surface temperature.
• That warming trend has continued into 2019: July was the hottest month ever in Earth's history.
• Scientists are also discovering that melting in Greenland and Antarctica is occurring much faster than they previously thought.
• These changes could spell disaster for coastal economies in the form of sea-level rise and more frequent (and intense) natural disasters like hurricanes and wildfires.
• If greenhouse-gas emissions aren't curbed significantly worldwide - and soon - Earth might be almost unrecognizable by the year 2100.

As humanity nears the end of the 2010s, signs that our planet is irrevocably changing can be found everywhere. In the last year alone, ocean temperatures broke records, Antarctic melting reached unprecedented rates, and extreme weather swept through the US, Europe, and the Arctic.

Accelerated planet-wide warming has been linked to more species extinctions, an increased number of annual heatwaves, and more frequent natural disasters like wildfires and hurricanes.

According to the most recent report from the United Nations' International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), global temperatures will likely rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels between 2030 and 2052 if warming continues at the current rate. Staying under that threshold was the optimistic goal set in the Paris climate agreement.

If we hope to limit some of these climate change-related consequences, nations and industries must make drastic cuts - and soon - to greenhouse-gas emissions from energy production, transportation, industrial work, farming, and other sectors. An increasing number of people are demanding such action: In September, 4 million across 161 countries participated in a worldwide climate strike led by Swedish youth activist Greta Thunberg.

But if emissions continue to increase and Earth's temperature increases by more than 3 degrees Celsius, according to the IPCC , oceans would be an average of 3 feet higher by the year 2100. Those rising seas would displace 680 million people in low-lying coastal zones, along with 65 million citizens of small island states. 

Even if carbon emissions dropped to zero tomorrow, scientists say we'll still be watching human-driven climate change play out for centuries.

"There's no stopping global warming," Gavin Schmidt, a climate scientist and the director of NASA's Goddard Institute of Space Studies, previously told Business Insider. "Everything that's happened so far is baked into the system."

Now it's a matter of trying to "save what we can save," according to Thunberg.

Click through this gallery to see what the Earth could look like by 2100 in our best- and worst-case scenarios.

https://www.msn.com/en-ca/news/world/what-earth-might-look-like-in-80-years-if-were-lucky-—-and-if-were-not/ss-AAJhrxz?li=AAggNb9&ocid=mailsignout

ENJOY!!