An alarming new study published in the journal science recently suggests that our planet could be in for some major changes if things hold the way they are. The study found that, shockingly, ocean temperatures today are about the same as they were more than 100,000 years ago, when sea levels were 20 to 30 feet higher, suggesting that scientists are right to be concerned about our warming trend and what effect it will have on our planet in the years to come.

The Earth has gone through many periods of warming and cooling over its billions of years of existence, which scientists have discovered by studying ancient rock and ice that has preserved this crucial data. These studies are why they know that in the last interglacial period, which happened between 129,000 and 116,000 years ago, the global sea level was much higher although the carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere were about the same as during the pre-industrial era.

It led scientists to ask why the sea levels were higher during this interglacial period than they are now. But there may be a wrinkle in this case: scientists have always assumed climate change happens evenly across the globe, but the latest global warming patterns have shown that this is not the case, and therefore this may influence some of the earlier data. And the research into the phenomenon led to some interesting findings.

“Mostly because of these differences in land motion, estimates of future relative sea level rise vary for different regions,” the EPA says on their website. “Climate change models project that global sea level rise will accelerate in the 21st century. Models based on thermal expansion and ice melt estimate that global sea level is very likely to rise between 1 and 3 feet by the end of the century. Typically, these models do not, however, incorporate all of the possible responses of ice sheets to warmer temperatures, which could further raise sea level, but is unlikely to add more than one foot.”