sea level
illconsidered | March 26, 2013Jeff Masters reports on these studies:
Grinsted, A., J. C. Moore, and S. Jevrejeva, 2012, "A homogeneous record of Atlantic hurricane surge threat since 1923," PNAS 2012, doi:10.1073/pnas.1209542109
Grinsted, A., J. C. Moore, and S. Jevrejeva, 2012, "Projected Atlantic hurricane surge threat from rising temperatures" PNAS March 18, 2013 201209980, doi: 10.1073/pnas.1209980110
There is a press release here.
And apparently this is on top of the effects from sea level rise, of which rises measured by metres are not out of the question. I believe that a 1 cm rise in sea level equates to a…
milhayser | December 4, 2012A new look at twenty years worth of research shows that polar ice is in fact melting, and raising sea levels, faster than anticipated. Greg Laden writes "Greenland is losing ice about 500% faster now than it was in the early 1990s, while Antarctica is losing ice at about the same rate." Altogether, ice melt since 1992 "has contributed to about 0.44 inches of sea level rise." On Stoat, William M. Connolley says "Still – that adds up to 0.6 mm/yr. So it will have to grow if its to become interesting by 2100." With ice-bound methane poised to mingle with carbon dioxide and accelerate global…
illconsidered | February 26, 2011Thingsbreak has a great overview of recent research on ice loss in the Antarctic (east and west) and Greenland.
For anyone who has had enough of the freedom vs responsibility of the press discussion (mandas?), perhaps there are some interesting bits in Thingsbreak's post to mull over.
I have posted on sea ice dynamics before (here), the two topics are not unrelated as stable ice shelves act as resistors to out flowing glaciers. Lost sea ice leads to faster glacial outflow which leads to thining ice sheets.
[Update: I have just observed out my window that it is snowing, I imagine this can…
illconsidered | March 4, 2010This is interesting. I have mixed feelings about it but it is probably a necessary step in forcing the reality of this issue into the correct legal and political context. Actions have consequences and actors have responsibilities.
The only question I have is that the respnsibility is really shared by all of us as consumers of fossil fuels, in some sense it is not fair to place all the respnsibility on the fossil fuel companies.
Of course when they intentionally create misinformation to avoid addressing the problem, the face a corresponding increase in culpability.
Read it below:
Katrina…
amillikan | January 29, 2009The potential for various geo-engineering proposals to offset the effects of climate change is often not factored in to near- and long-term climate scenarios. In a study conducted by NOAA, released this week, the authors predicted "irreversible changes," but noted, "we do not consider geo-engineering measures that might be able to remove gases already in the atmosphere or to introduce active cooling to counteract warming." Days later, one of the first in-depth analyses of these measures was published, considering both the feasibility and potential payoffs of several geo-engineering schemes.…
illconsidered | November 10, 2008From New Scientist, here is a short article discussing five cases of small populations forced to relocate or plan to relocate due to sea level rise, caused by climate change.
It is a little anti-intuative to think that the 15-25 cm or so rise we have observed on average over the last hundred years could affect an island, even one whose highest point is only 2.4 metres above sea level, like the Maldives.
The relevant thing to remember is that it is not pure and simple submersion of existing land that is at work, rather it is erosion accelerated by both direct and indirect means. As waves lap…
illconsidered | June 27, 2006This is just one of dozens of responses to common climate change denial arguments, which can all be found at How to Talk to a Climate Sceptic.
Objection:
According to the latest state of the art satellite measurements from over the Arctic, sea levels are falling! Guess all that ice isn't melting after all.
Answer:
Yes, a new study using Europe's Space Agency's ERS-2 satellite has determined that over the last ten years, sea level in the Arctic ocean has been falling at an average rate of around 2mm/year. This is very new and very interesting news, though it is preliminary and not published…