Sea to rise 1.5 metres by 2100

Researchers from the UK-based Proudman Oceanographic Laboratory have predicted that because of climate change, sea levels could rise by as much as 1.5 metres before the end of the century.

This is over three times higher than previous predictions made by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), who estimated a rise of between 0.28 and 0.43 metres.

The results of the research, conducted by a team of British and Finnish scientists, were presented last week at the European Geosciences Union conference in Vienna.

To make the predictions, the scientists used a computer based model that linked sea levels to temperature for the last 2,000 years.

This allowed them to predict the additional water that would melt into the seas due to ice dynamics - the extra rapid movements of ice sheets because of melt water. This rapid movement speeds up the melting process.

Ice dynamics were not taken into consideration in IPCC predictions because not enough was known about the process at the time of their research.

The new predictions state that sea levels are likely to rise between 0.8 meters and 1.5 metres by 2100.

This is bad news for low-lying countries such as Bangladesh; around 85% of Bangladesh is less than one metre above sea level.