Sea Levels Rising at Alarming Rates, Scientists Warn

Scientists identified yet another problem caused by global warming: sea levels rising at alarming rates. A study by Harvard and Rutgers Universities was recently published in the journal, Nature, showing that sea level readings had been incorrect for much of the 20^th Century, up until around 1990. The sea level was actually 30% lower than originally thought, having risen 5 inches instead of 6. While this may sound like a good thing, it actually means that sea levels have been rising much quicker since that time.

Although an inch may sound like a small difference, it actually equates to around two quadrillion gallons of water across the world’s oceans. This extra water has been causing scientists problems for a long time as they try to match up their statistics with readings from harbors. It also means that tides have been rising about 2.5 times faster than they did from 1900 to 1990. This has been blamed on melting ice sheets and shrinking glaciers in Greenland and Antarctica, both of which can be blamed on global warming.

Sea levels have been traditionally measured by tide gauges, and while there are hundreds of them around the world, they are mostly located in Europe and North America, with very few giving readings of Polar Regions or the middle of the ocean. There are also issues with the land they are attached to having moved and wind and ocean currents can affect readings. New methods of reading sea levels use statistical analysis and computer models to attempt to fill the gap that the gauges cannot account for. Even so, the researchers do not claim this to be entirely accurate.

If the paper can stand up to scrutiny, it will give a much greater understanding of climate change and the effects it has on the sea levels. However, the results are worrying. Estimates now suggest that the sea is rising at around a foot per century, whereas even a rise of a few inches has cost governments billions in the fight on coastal erosion. There is also evidence that the breaking of the great ice sheets will push quadrillions of extra gallons of water into the oceans, which is likely to have a huge impact on coastal towns and cities across the world.

Image Source: The Crusader

Michelle Teller

Global Warming Scientology is State Sponsored Religion.
- Jane Liveson
  
  8th cut n paste
callitlikeitis

This article is pure hog bologna! It doesn’t matter if sea levels are rising. Governments are going to spend billions in maintenance anyway as the waves are rising and falling continuously. They MUST think we are all stupid.
Robert Vandyk

The Florida Bay is a shallow oolite covered bay with many small islands forming an estuary south of and part of the Everglades National park. Some have claimed a sea rise of 10″ in the past 100 years because of the islands that disappeared in the 1930s however a major Hurricane washed the sand off the rock base. Also some people collected data that could be manipulated into showing a sea level rise was generated and added to a model that supported thier claims. The areas I canoe through have not changed since the 1960s. I do KNOW from local geological evidence found through out Florida the ocean water levels have changed over periods of time, some much higher than now and some much lower than now. But not in inches or centimeters but in feet and meters, And over longer periods of time. The land areas where Sebring and Highlands Florida are today were Islands not that long ago and the Islands of the Florida Keys and the Bahamas were high and dry fairly recently.This current politically driven campaign to promote more government control is scary at best and is too strong at worse. The whole thing needs to be stopped. I am surprised at how many people sit in their homes or condos and read this data and accept it without getting out doors and seeing for themselves that some thing is wrong with this stories, that data just does not add up. Up in Alaska the weather has shifted warmer or HOTTER. Did the climate change? I cannot say but it raises questions because there is evidence of something happening locally in Alaska. Here in South Florida the argument needs a hard sell. Things do not happen in 10 or 20 or 30 years on this earth geologically but over thousands of years with the exception of a comet impact or a super volcano eruption. In the Florida Bay about 2000 years ago the Tequesta Indians dug a canal in the area today named Snake Bite. That area is under water year round today and has been for a few hundred years. The sea level came up and covered that area over a thousand years,