Though we currently face serious climate and geographical change as the planet warms and the great ice sheets of the world melt, the earth is a long way from us traveling the world as nautical nomads on an endless sea. In Antarctica alone, there are places on the continent where the ice is miles deep. So, even with what's going on with the polar ice shelves in both the north and south it will still be quite some time before it all melts!
But don't get that bit of good news twisted. The ice that's already melting has contributed to a lot of the nasty weather changes including the intensification of 'El Nino' and 'La Nina' on the world's coasts and inland areas. Melting glaciers make the ocean cooler in places where it shouldn't be as large ice sheets breaking away take longer to melt and drift much farther out to sea. With the combination of warming air temperatures cooler water where it shouldn't be, storms at sea get more 'fuel' and become stronger giving them the ability to hit harder and farther when they make landfall.
Fortunately, we aren't at the point where coastal communities have to abandon their long established homes due to rising water. Land itself has been a great benefit to 'terrestrial life', especially for we humans. Living on land made for 'special challenges' for our ancestors. Requirements for shelter, gaining control over fire, increased need for new and improved tools and much more made us the technologically dependent species we are. Because of land, we have thrived and become prosperous.
Life in the sea, negates the requirement for shelter unless one is hiding from predators. There are exceptionally 'intelligent' creatures living in the sea that are probably 'smarter' than we are, but aren't required to put their brain power towards 'problems' that are far more difficult on land than in the water. So it's not necessary for whales, dolphins and octopi to build cities or develop specialized tools to make their way through life.
But there's new thought that earth got 'lucky' in having the 'sea to land ratio' that it has. Scientists searching the stars for new planets are moving towards the probability that 'habitable worlds' with water will more than likely be 'Water Worlds'. Not so much as like the Kevin Costner film, but more like the planet found by astronauts in the 2014 film "Interstellar."
On that seemingly 'Ok' rocky planet with an earth-like atmosphere and gravity, a shallow sea (barely above the knees) covered the world. Problem was; the world spinning on it's axis created a 'planetary tsunami' that endlessly circled the world! Needless to say, any life that formed on such a planet would be very different from life on earth. All of which is great fodder for fantasy and sci-fi writers as this new outlook expands on the potential of watery planets that may be out there.
For more info on the possibilities for potential water worlds, check out:
Most Habitable Earthlike Worlds....
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