Australian research indicates sea levels rising by several inches through the next century, a rate unlikely to inundate low lying coastal areas as ice caps melt due to global warming. According to the Antarctic Co-operative Research Center, rising temperatures of two to three degrees were unlikely to cause the catastrophic melting forecast by some researchers. However, the center reported it is possible that the projected warming could increase the flow rate of grounded ice into the sea, adding perhaps three to six feet to sea level over a stretch of the next one or two thousand years.

The Antarctic ice sheet is an important aspect of climate change research as it helps to cool the earth and reflects the sun's energy back into space. If the ice sheet were to melt completely it would add 180 feet to global sea levels. But the Antarctic CRC says a warming of just two or three degrees would not be enough to melt the ice sheets.

"One often hears the sort of implication [for devastating rise of sea levels] when, for instance, somebody reports that a particularly large part of an ice shelf has broken off from somewhere in Antarctica. It seems well worthwhile to make the point that informed scientific opinion does not agree with such extreme scenarios, " the center?s director, Professor Garth Paltridge, told BBC News Online. In the short term, there will be relatively little melting of the ice-sheets with perhaps even an increase in volume of the Antarctic sheet as a result of greater snowfall caused by higher evaporation from warmer oceans. Thus, for the next century or two, the rise worldwide rise in sea levels will come mainly from thermal expansion of the oceans and the melting of non-polar glaciers.

Critics argue that the task of forecasting climate accurately even ten years ahead is beyond current technology, and assert that the computer models of global warming are deeply flawed. The models have to incorporate a multitude of complex interactions, including cloud formation, precipitation, oceanic heat transport and sea-ice formation. Many of these measurements have to be averaged, otherwise the computing task would simply be impossible, and the fact that there is an incomplete understanding of the processes involved further complicates prediction models.