Sea levels are rising at an ever-faster rate as ice and snow shrink, and oceans are getting more acidic and losing oxygen, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) said in a report issued to the United Nations.

The report warned that that if steps aren’t taken to reduce emissions and slow global warming, seas will rise three feet by the end of the century, with fewer fish, less snow and ice as well as stronger and wetter hurricanes.

“The oceans and the icy parts of the world are in big trouble, and that means we’re all in big trouble, too,” said Michael Oppenheimer, one of the lead authors of the report and a professor of geosciences and international affairs at Princeton University. “The changes are accelerating.”

According to the report, the effects will be felt on both land and sea and will be harmful to people, plants, animals, food, societies, infrastructure and the global economy.

The oceans absorb more than 90% of the excess heat from carbon pollution in the air. Earth’s snow and ice, called the cryosphere, are also being eroded.

“The world’s oceans and cryosphere have been taking the heat for climate change for decades,” said Ko Barrett, deputy assistant administrator for research at the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. “The consequences for nature and humanity are sweeping and severe.”

Further findings of the report include:

• Seas are rising at one-seventh of an inch per year, 2.5 times faster than the rate from 1900 to 1990.
• Ice melting from Greenland, Antarctica and the world’s mountain glaciers has accelerated. They are now losing 720 billion tons of ice per year.
• Because of climate change, marine animals are likely to decrease 15%, and catches by fisheries in general are expected to decline 21% to 24%, by the end of the century.

But, the report notes that while climate change is already irreversible, many of the worst-case projections can still be avoided, depending on how the world handles the emissions of heat-trapping gases.

IPCC requires that reports be unanimously approved. Because of that, the Nobel prize-winning organization reports tend to show less sea level rise and smaller harm than other scientific studies.

“Like many of the past reports, this one is conservative in the projections, especially in how much ice can be lost in Greenland and Antarctica,” said NASA oceanographer Josh Willis.

Willis also explained that people should be prepared for a rise in sea levels to be twice the IPCC projections.

The report’s authors emphasized that it doesn’t doom the Earth to a gloomy future.

“We have a choice. Whether we go into a grim future depends on the decisions that are being made,” said report co-author Hans-Otto Portner, a German climate scientist.

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