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Good news for those who fear sea level rise

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Bags Sat 15-Sep-12 07:34:16

All the paragraphs below are quoted from the article referenced at the bottom, where you can read the whole thing if you want.

"The bottom line is this: the more people look for the anticipated acceleration in the rate of sea level rise, the less evidence they seem to find in support of it. All the while, we eat into the 21st century with a rate of sea level rise not much different from that experienced during the 20th century—and one which was hardly catastrophic, readily proven by a simple look around.

there is much more evidence that no anthropogenic global warming-related acceleration of sea level rise is taking place.

A couple of months ago, an important paper was published that examined the changing historical contribution of ground water removal (for human water needs, primarily irrigation) to global sea level.
Once this non-climate signal is removed, there remains no evidence for a climate-related acceleration.

Another paper has just been accepted in the journal Geophysical Research Letters that identified multidecadal cycles in the historical mean sea level observations from many ocean basins"

www.worldclimatereport.com/index.php/2012/09/10/sea-level-acceleration-not-so-fast/#more-552

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vampirequeen Sat 15-Sep-12 08:08:47

I've also read research that shows that although some glaciers are receding others are growing at a greater rate that they have previously.

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Greatnan Sat 15-Sep-12 09:05:06

It is not the level that bothers me, but the temperature. After El Nino, the coral in many places was bleached. I know, because I was very disappointed on a visit to the Maldives. I have no idea why the current flowed the way it did and I don't think anybody else either.

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Bags Sat 15-Sep-12 09:41:55

G, you might find Prof Terry Hughes of James Cook University interesting on this subject. Here's a reassuring quote from a paper of his:

a paper in Current Biology (April 2012) which finds that natural variations in pH along the Great Barrier Reef are larger than anything likely under global warming:

The good news from the research, says Professor Hughes, is that complete reef wipeouts appear unlikely due to temperature and pH alone.

"However, in many parts of the world, coral reefs are also threatened by much more local impacts, especially by pollution and over-fishing. We need to address all of the threats, including climate change, to give coral reefs a fighting chance for the future."

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Greatnan Sat 15-Sep-12 10:09:07

Thank you, Bags. I have done a lot of research on coral reefs, as I am passionate about them and my grandson studied them as part of his marine biology MSc. It is encouraging that people are beginning to understand the effects of mass tourism and pollution, but fishing is the big danger and where big money is involved I am afraid the environment comes a poor second.
I know people are 'seeding' frames and putting them back in suitable places in an attempt to recolonise reefs which were broken by the tsunami. I am hoping to snorkel in Australia on my next trip to NZ - the coral will last for my lifetime, but I would hate to think that my grandchildren could not enjoy it - and, of course, the coral is an essential part of the food chain underwater and provides shelter for so many small creatures.
Oh, dear, I am on my hobby horse!

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Bags Sat 15-Sep-12 16:29:02

Report about a paper by Ilya G Usoskin at Sodankyl ?a Geophysical Observatory (Oulu unit), University of Oulu, Finland on the relationship between sun-spot numbers per cycle, heliospheric magnetic field at Earth orbit, and sea-level rise and fall

The conclusion seems to be suggesting that we are likely to descend into a cooling phase from early 2015.

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