THE STATE OF NATURE IS ONE OF CONSTANT CHANGE: The big spill: Flood could have filled Mediterranean in less than two years. “The flood would have had a dramatic effect on local ecosystems, and could even have affected the global climate. The model suggests that global sea level dropped 9.5 meters as a result of the flood. The team points out that a much smaller flood in North America 12,000 years ago has been linked to a worldwide cold snap, and suggests that the Mediterranean flood may have had similarly significant effects.”