South Asian leaders must act immediately against the threat of rising sea levels and river salinity due to global warming, which endangers millions of poor people in the region, a top Bangladesh official said on Tuesday.

Researchers at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) say that sea ice loss in the Arctic is likely to surpass 40% according to computer models. This can have a profound effect on marine mammals.

This year witnessed the lowest Arctic sea ice level since satellite assessments began in the 1970s.

Earth has experienced mass extinctions over millions of years when tropical seas see several degrees of warming. Scientists now fear that the trend in warming will cause extinctions once again, but this time at a faster rate.

Rising sea levels caused by climate change is threatening Africa’s coastal infrastructure.

According to the government of Indonesia, sea levels are rising at a rate of 0.8mm per year, which will threaten small islands. However, the Ministry of Maritime and Fishery Affairs says that “Indonesia’s seas have the capacity to store up to 245 million tons of carbon dioxide, the main driver of climate change.”

A study that takes into account global warming, local weather patterns and geology have forecasted that sea levels in Puget Sound could rise by half a foot by mid-century.

Scientists studying sea and ocean levels believe that levels will fall over millions of years, despite the current rise.

Climate change is affecting marine ecosystems in Australia by changing the acidity and temperature of seawater. This in turn may cause young reef fishes to get lost as these environmental stresses hinder their ear bone development.

New research predicts sea levels to rise as much as 1.5 metres by 2100 due to melting glaciers, disappearing ice sheets and warming water. This figure is 3 times higher than what the IPCC predicted.