Study Reveals Stunning Acceleration of Sea Level Rise

Study Reveals Stunning Acceleration of Sea Level Rise

So apparently a recent study on the sea levels around the world has determined that the sea levels have risen at an unprecedented rate compared to the last 2800 years. Now before anyone talks to me about sea level depth greater than 2800 years ago, human civilization wasn't as wide spread or even existed longer than 2800 years ago.

The sea level rise is DIRECTLY going to cause a decrease in available land in an already cramped world. Expect MASSIVE amounts of relocations of refugees as they are displaced from lack of land to live on. This is going to become a SERIOUS issue going forward (link to some outside reading) and apparently it's only going to get worse. People really need to stop sticking their heads in the sand about these problems. They ARE happening and they WILL effect us all.

Oh btw, yes this sea level rise has been directly correlated to global warming.

The oceans have heaved up and down as world temperatures have waxed and waned, but as new research tracking the past 2,800 years shows, never during that time did the seas rise as sharply or as suddenly as has been the case during the last century.

The new study, the culmination of a decade of work by three teams of farflung scientists, has charted what they called an “acceleration” in sea level rise that’s triggering and worsening flooding in coastlines around the world.

The findings also warn of much worse to come.

The scientists reported in a paper published Monday in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences that they have greater than 95 percent certainty that at least half of more than 5 inches of sea level rise they detected during the 20th century was directly caused by global warming.

“During the past millennia, sea level has never risen nearly as fast as during the last century,” said Stefan Rahmstorf, a physics professor at Potsdam University in Germany, one of 10 authors of the paper. “That was to be expected, since global warming inevitably leads to rising seas.”

Here's the study, and below I posted the chart from the article.



Here's something interesting:

“The new sea level data confirm once again just how unusual the age of modern global warming, due to our greenhouse gas emissions, is,” Rahmstorf said. “They also demonstrate that one of the most dangerous impacts of global warming, namely rising seas, is well underway.”

Wait, so a prediction that Global Warming scientists made is coming true? HOLY COW! Say it ain't so!

Oh and finally, to anyone who wants to come in and blindly say, "well ACTUALLY climate has been changing on this planet since before humans got here." I have this to say to you:

Were it not for the effects of global warming, the researchers concluded that sea levels might actually have fallen during the 20th century. At the very least, they would have risen far less than was actually the case.

What?

No humans before 2800 years ago?

humans existed much longer than 2800 years ago

I guess all we can do is grab some buckets and start bailing. How as (1) person can I stop a massive sea from rising?

Thanks for strawmaning my argument in an attempt to be funny but I never said that humans didn't exist outside of 2800 years ago. I said this, "human civilization wasn't as wide spread or even existed longer than 2800 years ago."

a reply to: Krazysh0t

I guess it all depends on where you get your data from. The Sea level has been rising at a steady rate since long before we found the "new land". Ancient cultures are buried under 30 feet of water and sand off the coast. and look, a chart showing sea level rise that isn't anywhere near as dramatic as the one you showed:



www.realclimate.org...

or is my source bad?

a reply to: network dude

or is my source bad?

No, you are just arguing a strawman. I never said that sea level hasn't risen in the past or that humans haven't been displaced by it in the past. What I was talking about was the rate of change of sea level rise over the last 2800 years. In other words, the derivative.

Words like this from the OP source:

never during that time did the seas rise as sharply or as suddenly as has been the case during the last century

imply rate of change.

a reply to: Krazysh0t

but your information is DRASTICALLY different then mine. Why is that? I thought we were both looking at sea level rise for the planet Earth right?

Look at my chart. The rise looks very steady. Then look at yours. It almost looks as if it happens overnight. Now one of us is dishonest here. Would you agree?

a reply to: Krazysh0t

sorry wasn't trying to be funny thanx for sharing

originally posted by: Krazysh0t
or even existed longer than 2800 years ago

That part does it...

Nothing to strawman.

Get simple basic well acknowledged facts right first.

a reply to: Krazysh0t

Looks debatable. Less than four months ago there was this thread on ATS
Sea level rise is no longer a threat, Antarctica and Greenland GAINING ice.

originally posted by: network dude
a reply to: Krazysh0t

but your information is DRASTICALLY different then mine. Why is that? I thought we were both looking at sea level rise for the planet Earth right?

Look at my chart. The rise looks very steady. Then look at yours. It almost looks as if it happens overnight. Now one of us is dishonest here. Would you agree?

Actually no, the tail end of your graph has a steep line. You know, this graph is also located at your source:

originally posted by: gspat

originally posted by: Krazysh0t
or even existed longer than 2800 years ago

That part does it...

Nothing to strawman.

Get simple basic well acknowledged facts right first.

I never said humans didn't exist outside of 2800 years for the SECOND time. Stop strawmanning me.

What that line meant (and within context since you took it out of context there) was that human civilization either wasn't as wide spread as it was now OR it didn't exist at all. Timeframes greater than 2800 years ago encompass QUITE a bit of Earth's history you know? Reading comprehension (and apparently Boolean logic) is your friend.

originally posted by: gmoneystunt
a reply to: Krazysh0t

Looks debatable. Less than four months ago there was this thread on ATS
Sea level rise is no longer a threat, Antarctica and Greenland GAINING ice.

This is from the source article from that OP:

“The good news is that Antarctica is not currently contributing to sea level rise, but is taking 0.23 millimeters per year away,” Zwally said. “But this is also bad news. If the 0.27 millimeters per year of sea level rise attributed to Antarctica in the IPCC report is not really coming from Antarctica, there must be some other contribution to sea level rise that is not accounted for.”

Basically it is saying that if Antarctica isn't contributing to the sea rise, then something else is. Climate change.

The thread itself was sensationalized.

Interesting. Thanks for sharing, Krazy.

Hopefully we can come to a point in the near future in which we can talk about these climate issues without it being divided on political lines.

a reply to: introvert

I'd love to hope for such a thing, but going by the first couple responses to this thread, it's just juvenile denials and no attempt to even address any of the larger points I presented.

a reply to: Krazysh0t

I'd like to correct you on one point.

This world is far from cramped.I believe I read somewhere that the entire worlds' population would fit in the state of Texas with room to spare.

I don't know if that's true but our world is VAST and mostly empty.

a reply to: Krazysh0t

Their data is flawed, they only used tide gauge records

The water level measured at a tide gauge is affected by a number of oceanographic and meteorological phenomena, including the astronomical tide, changes in atmospheric pressure, wind, river discharge, ocean circulation, changes in water density, and added water volume due to the melting of ice. The astronomical tide is caused by the gravitational effects of the moon and the sun, creating very long waves in the ocean, which propagate over the continental shelf and into shallow bays, where amplifications and nonlinear distortions take place. Increased atmospheric pressure decreases water level and vice versa. In shallow areas the onshore-offshore wind component can directly push water toward the shore (wind setup) or away from it (setdown). The usually more dominant effect is caused further offshore by the longshore wind component, which can raise or lower the water level because the Coriolis force causes transport to the right of the wind direction. Along certain coasts wind also causes upwelling, which affects the temperature and density of the water column. Steric sea level changes, that is, water level changes due to density changes, are caused by temperature changes in the water column and the resulting thermal expansion or contraction. Changes in ocean circulation, especially at the western boundaries of oceans, affect sea level through changes in density and through geostrophic adjustments (i.e., through maintenance of a balance between Coriolis and the cross-stream pressure gradient). River discharge can raise water level at a station in the river due to a frictional effect, or to a lesser extent at nearby stations by the addition of less dense fresh water. Some of the river runoff may have been in the form of snow or ice for months of each year or for several years. Additional freshwater volume (that has been in the form of ice for centuries) can be added by the melting of glaciers or the ice sheets on Greenland and Antarctica. All of these phenomena produce signals much larger than the estimated 1 to 2 mm/yr sea level rise signal, and thus complicate the task of calculating such a trend.

Sea Level As an Indicator of Climate and Global Change

a reply to: Ericthedoubter

This is true, but living in this world requires more than just room to place your stuff. There's water, food, resources, technology, etc.

a reply to: Discotech

How do you know the data is flawed? Your bolded part merely says that it complicates the task of calculating the trend. It doesn't say it is impossible or that all attempts to do so result in flawed information.