The University of Tasmania’s Professor Nathan Bindoff said  climate projections indicated that sea levels would continue to rise in the Southern and Pacific oceans over the next 85 years.

By the turn of the century, sea levels around Tasmania could rise up to one metre, promoting strong storm surges off the East and West coasts of Tasmania, not unlike what Sydney experienced last month.

‘‘What this means for storm surges, particularly on the East and West coasts, is that one-in-100-year events could drop to one-in-one-year events,’’ he said.

‘‘I am astonished by that, and most of it is driven by the underlying rising global sea temperatures.’’

Professor Bindoff said the projections were first calculated in 2011 and were reaffirmed in 2014.

He believes it’s not too late for human intervention, however.

‘‘This is a scenario and humans may intervene, but in the scenarios without policy and no climate change mitigation, this is what happens,’’ he said.

‘‘We can actually avoid the worst. But another issue is whether we collectively have the will to mitigate against those changes. That is very much the final question.’’