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Paging Wild Cobra
SCIENCE and politics are inextricably linked. At a scientific conference on climate change held this week in Copenhagen, four environmental experts announced that sea levels appear to be rising almost twice as rapidly as had been forecast by the United Nations just two years ago. The warning is aimed at politicians who will meet in the same city in December to discuss the same subject and, perhaps, to thrash out an international agreement to counter it.
The reason for the rapid change in the predicted rise in sea levels is a rapid increase in the information available. In 2007, when the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change convened by the UN made its prediction that sea levels would rise by between 18cm and 59cm by 2100, a lack of knowledge about how the polar ice caps were behaving was behind much of the uncertainty. Since then they have been closely monitored, and the results are disturbing. Both the Greenland and the Antarctic caps have been melting at an accelerating rate. It is this melting ice that is raising sea levels much faster than had been expected. Indeed, scientists now reckon that sea levels will rise by between 50cm and 100cm by 2100, unless action is taken to curb climate change.
Konrad Steffen of the University of Colorado, Boulder, leads one study of the Greenland ice sheet. He told the conference that this sheet is melting not only because it is warmer but also because water seeping through its crevices is breaking it up. This effect had been neglected in the earlier report.
The impact of the melting ice has been measured by John Church of the Centre for Australian Weather and Climate Research. He told the conference that satellite and ground-based systems showed that sea levels have been rising more rapidly since 1993 than they were earlier in the 20th century. He is concerned that more climate change could cause a further acceleration in this rate.
Stefan Rahmstorf of the Potsdam Ins ute for Climate Impact Research has examined data stretching over 125 years that link increases in sea temperatures to rises in sea levels. He told the conference that, based on past experience, “I expect that sea-level rise will accelerate as the planet gets hotter.” He was supported in this view by the fourth expert, Eric Rignot of the University of California, Irvine, who called for the world’s leaders to slash the emission of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases.
Advance negotiations on the UN Climate Change Conference are due to begin in Bonn in just over a fortnight’s time. The scientists hope that their startling warnings will change the outcome of that pre-meeting meeting. With much still to argue over, they hope that a clear scientific lead will both help to narrow the room for disagreement and also galvanise the desire to get a treaty agreed.
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Cue another pointless CO2 debate in 3, 2, 1...
Paging Wild Cobra
I guess you better move to higher ground.
maybe it's the ground thats sinking.
Let's fix the economy first. One armageddon at a time.
I think those guys are too modest. If they would say sea levels would rise by 20 feet, they might win a Nobel Prize.
Sincerely,
Algore
Texas used to be part of the Ocean.
Must have been a bunch of SUV's eons ago, huh?
I'm moving from Mississippi to Hawaii...
Ah well, at least it's not New Orleans... lol
ing Dinos and their range rovers.
It's time to buy a boat.
Damn, that's a serious upgrade.
Just build a big ass AC fan and blow it in the direction of the ice caps. Keep that sucka frozen.
Okay, I skimmed the rest so, if they said where and how much sea levels were actually rising twice as fast, I didn't see it.
All I see is that they've rejiggered their models to make it appear sea levels will rise twice as fast as their earlier models predicted so they could scare the money out of a bunch of politicians in December.
Did I miss something?
its fkn easy
why let all that water to waste expecially in the artic and north pole, fkn alot of countries are short on water....tunnel that now
don't worry, I'll open my faucet 24hrs a day
When the sea water warms up, it expands. That's what the majority of the rise is over the last decade or so. Don't worry. The oceans are done warming for a bit. Solar activity is still lower than it has been.
Funny. When you read anything from the IPCC, they don't mention thermal expansion. At least not that I recall.
Please notice, they say "since 1993." I wonder what the complete data looks like. We haven't been warming for several years now, but there are long term lags involved.
Back to thermal expansion. The oceans have a volume of about 1.3 billion cubic km with a surface area of about 261 million sq km. That means the average depth is 4.98 km. Thermal expansion is approximately 0.0125% per Celsius. A one degree change in average ocean temperature would change the level by about 625 mm. That's about 2 feet! Of course, not the entire ocean depths have increased in temperature. This is just to put thermal expansion into perspective.
Don't blame it on the ice.
The 0.0125% is approximate based on 1 gm/cm at 4C and 0.998 gm/cm at 20C. I didn't find the exact value in a quick search. No need to nit pick the number. It is very close. The exact value would be appreciated however.
God forbid you should ever fully read something that might challenge a pre-existing belief.The reason for the rapid change in the predicted rise in sea levels is a rapid increase in the information available. In 2007, when the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change convened by the UN made its prediction that sea levels would rise by between 18cm and 59cm by 2100, a lack of knowledge about how the polar ice caps were behaving was behind much of the uncertainty. Since then they have been closely monitored, and the results are disturbing. Both the Greenland and the Antarctic caps have been melting at an accelerating rate.
That would be a sign of the apocolypse.
That still doesn't answer the question of WHERE and HOW MUCH sea levels have risen.
So, tell me, where -- on this planet -- have sea levels risen due to this predicted melting?
I don't read enough of this to really have the answer to that off the top of my head.
To my understanding though, most of the predicted rises in sea levels before 2100 haven't happened yet.
If, in 20 years, what they predicted to happen though, is roughly what happens, you will still probably deny it as alarmist, I would imagine. That said, my motivation to try and present information to someone who would probably dismiss anything that I give him that might contradict his pre-existing ideas is not all that great.
Respectfully:
I would guess that the information is available, if you were to honestly look for it.
And, if it doesn't happen you will all be fools. And, considering all seas are connected; a rise anywhere due to this phenomenon would cause rises everywhere.
I think your guess is wrong. To my knowledge (and I've looked for reliable sources) there have been no recorded rises in sea level on this planet that can't be attributed to either changes in local geography, topography, and environment; or the daily tides.
If it doesn't happen, then the "us" alarmists will indeed be foolish.
If it does happen, would you admit you were wrong?
If it does happen, how would you explain it? What would you do to fix/allevaite the problem?
What would you call a "reliable" source?
If, as I would suspect, you only read/believe things that reinforce your existing beliefs, and think anybody who doesn't agree with you is lying for some reason, then how I am to know that your evaluation of reliability can be trusted?
Confirmation bias, by its very nature, does not allow for accurate assessments.
I am really not trying to be insulting here, merely point out to you my own problems with your statements on things like this.
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