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08 Sep 2008: Sea Levels Could Rise
Six Feet by 2100, New Study Says

Melting glaciers and ice sheets are likely to increase sea levels by 2.6 feet (80 centimeters) to 6.2 feet (two meters) by the end of this century, according to a new study in the journal Science. That is considerably higher than the forecast of 2 feet (60 centimeters) by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. A sea-level increase of 6 feet would have profound impacts, inundating large areas of Bangladesh, Florida, and other low-lying regions. Still, W. Tad Pfeffer of the University of Colorado, Boulder, estimated that 6 feet was the upper limit of sea-level rise this century and that forecasts of a 10-foot rise by 2100 would require glaciers to melt and slide into the sea far faster than is occurring. The IPCC acknowledged its estimates were conservative and did not take into account increases from sections of land-based ice sheets breaking off, forming icebergs that eventually melt. Pfeffer and his colleagues factored this into their calculations as they studied sea-level rise from melting and fracturing ice sheets in Greenland and West Antarctica, as well as from melting glaciers on other continents.

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