Rapid warming, some estimate hundreds of years vs. thousands of years, caused rapid glacial melting.
Rapid melting resulted in a significant rise in sea levels, with a theory that in some areas the rise was so rapid, that catastrophic waves and flooding resulted. E.g. Black Sea
Reduced glacier size, means reduced surface area and lower albedo (reflectivity), lowering the amount of radiation reflected back into space, allowing an increase in atmospheric temperatures.
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As for impact on life, those changes are believed to be significant and rapid:
Rapid temperature rise warmed lower latitudes, creating more arid environments (e.g. Sahara in Africa), significantly reducing or eliminating once abundant food sources.
Rapid change in food sources forced migration of fauna to more abundant sources; many species couldn’t not adapt rapidly and died off.
Rapid change in food sources also forced a change in hunting and gathering techniques, either killing off species because they could not adapt, or forcing evolutionary and technological improvements.
Changes to sea salinity and temperatures caused problems and death of sea life.
Bearing Sea land bridge disappeared, preventing further migration of species to Americas. This is how the Paleo-Indians arrived.
In any case, the changes are were significant and possibly happened very quickly.
