Question: how long do you think untill the ice caps will melt

Daniel Parsons answered on 10 Nov 2014:

Great question. Well we are not 100% sure on this. We think that, if current warming continues that the North Pole (Arctic) could be ice free in winter within the next 100 years. Even now it is now pretty much ice free at the height of our summers, but it re-forms in the winter months. In Antarctica it is going to take a much longer time, mainly because a lot of the ice is on land at the south pole. This is likely going to take several thousand years (perhaps up to 5 thousand) however! But when all this ice does melt the map of Earth will look quite different! see here:
The last time that the World was ice free is thought to be about 34 Million years ago, but it has happened several times before, like when the dinosaurs lived in the Jurassic period. There have also been times when the wold world froze over, about 650 Million years ago the world was like a giant snowball!