But even Alley admits that a polar meltdown would take time.The ice in Antarctica and Arctic locks up nearly nine times the volume of water contained in all the world's rivers and lakes.These are such big “ice cubes” and it would probably take thousands of years to melt them. Another scientist Charles Bentley doesn't think a meltdown will happen at all.“Even if warmer temperatures begin to melt polar­ice，” he says，“the excess moisture would most likely be redeposited as snow.” In other words，the melted ice would evaporate into the atmosphere，refreeze，and fallas rain and snow over the Poles.