Story highlights Second study this week makes dire prediction about rising sea levels due to melting ice

Latest study says sea level could rise 5 or 6 feet by 2100, and 50 feet by 2500

That's a much faster rise than a U.N. study predicted three years ago

(CNN) 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 United Nations 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.

"Can we build walls and levies and dikes fast enough to keep up with that? One concern would be that at that point you're sort of looking at managed retreat essentially, rather than geoengineering in a lot of places."

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