How long has climate change been around for and how much have the sea levels risen?

This is a very good question. Our climate has changed since Earth was formed. These changes have resulted in radically different environments on Earth with very different plants and animals existing throughout the Earth’s history. During this time sea levels have fluctuated greatly also. One estimate of sea level rise over the past 40,000 years is about 105cm, or 1.05m.

Between 1920 and 2000, average sea level rise around Australia has been estimated as 1.2mm per year. The rate at which sea level is rising has increased since 1990, however.

The plot below shows how sea level has changed across the world. You can look at the website below the Figure to find out more information about sea level rise.

Climate models suggest that if humans undertake serious action to combat climate change, we can expect sea level to further increase by about between about 30 and 60cm by 2100. This increases to between 50 and 90cm if we continue living like we currently do.

The second image below shows how temperatures have changed over millions of years. You can also see some pictures of what animals may have been around at different times. Notice that human ancestors are only shown from around 4 million years ago.

The rapid climate change we’ve seen over recent decades and that is due to human actions is happening so fast that many species can’t adapt to it and are becoming endangered or even extinct. For example, in Tasmania there are a lot of concerns about some of our unique plants and animals – like Huon pine or Pencil pine. Warming oceans also mean we are seeing more pests like the Pacific Sea Star or Crown-of-thorns starfish in Tasmanian waters that have impacts on native species.