Melting ice risks sea level rise

In a report, UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) researchers warned that hundreds of millions of people are at risk from melting ice in the planet’s polar regions, which is also linked to sea level rise. “87 per cent of glaciers along the west coast of the Antarctic Peninsula have retreated in the last 50 years, with most of these showing an accelerated retreat in the last 12 years,” said World Meteorological Organization spokesperson Clare Nullis.

According to the recent special report on the ocean and cryosphere (SROCC) by IPCC, there are two main controls on how much global sea levels will rise this century: future human-caused greenhouse gas emissions and how warming affects the Antarctic ice sheet.

Reports: Sea levels could rise 3 feet by 2100?

Generations will face rising oceans and coastal inundations. Global sea level rise could reach as much as 1.1 m by the century end if emissions aren’t curbed, says reports. According to new research, mass melting of the West Antarctic ice sheet, driven by warmer ocean temperatures, was a major cause of extreme sea level rise more than 100,000 years ago.