Climate security

Ice melt could make seas rise 6 feet by 2100, study says

The drumbeat of warnings about the dire effects of rising sea levels accelerated this week, with two reports calling into question whether some parts of the planet will become impossible to live in.

The latest, published Thursday in the scientific journal Nature, says melting ice in Antarctica has the potential to contribute to a rise in sea levels of 1 meter -- more than 3 feet -- by the end of this century.

And it says with ice also melting in other parts of the world, seas could rise 5 or 6 feet by the end of this century, far more than predicted in a 2013 U.N. study.

"We're looking at the potential for a rate of sea level rise that we will be measuring in centimeters (rather than milliliters) per year -- literally an order of magnitude faster," said Robert DeConto of the University of Massachusetts Amherst, one of the study's authors.