Ice melting in Antarctica and Greenland may rise seal levels more than 3 feet by the end of the century, according to a scientific poll of experts.

Estimating how much sea levels will rise based on the tracking of ice sheet melting is a difficult project, especially since the speed of glaciers melting is related to changes in ocean and atmospheric temperature and natural variability. These climate changes and forces are both hard to measure and track but the calculated rise in sea levels noted in the new study would be dangerous in more than one way if it were to occur, NBC News reported.

Millions of people would be displaced from low-lying countries such as Bangladesh, and coastal, and big-time commercial cities like New York and Tokyo would be required to spend billions of dollars to construct sea walls and other infrastructures to combat the high tides.

"The consequences are horrible," Jonathan Bamber, a glaciologist and a co-author of the study published Jan. 6 in the journal Nature Climate Change, told NBC.

The ice sheets of Greenland and Antarctica contain about 99.5 percent of the Earth's glacier ice, according to TPC Trending.

Bamer and his colleague, Willy Aspinall, sent 26 of the world's leading glaciologists a series of questions about the patterns of the Antarctic and Greenland ice sheets. Those who were willing to be involved in the study, replied in 2010 and the respondents were again polled in 2012 to see how the answers would differ.

The median estimate from the experts was as following: "the melting ice sheets will contribute 1 foot (29 centimeters) to sea level rise by the year 2100 with a 5 percent chance their contribution could exceed 2.8 feet (84 centimeters). When the effect of thermal expansion (water expands as it warms) is taken into account, the high-end estimate is more than 3 feet (1 meter)."