The Times of London has developed what looks like a Climate Change Denier streak of late, reinforcing anti-Science propaganda currently in circulation.
Here they are with what I consider to be an unhelpful treatment of a story about Professor Stefan Rahmstorf :-
https://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/environment/article6982299.ece
“From The Sunday Times : January 10, 2010 : Climate change experts clash over sea-rise ‘apocalypse’ : Critics say an influential prediction of a 6ft rise in sea levels is flawed : Jonathan Leake : Professor Stefan Rahmstorf : Climate science faces a new controversy after the Met Office denounced research from the Copenhagen summit which suggested that global warming could raise sea levels by 6ft by 2100. The research, published by the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research in Germany, created headline news during the United Nations summit on climate change in Denmark last month…”
Of course, The Australian crashes in on the discussion, too :-
Remember, Professor Stefan Rahmstorf is not the only scientist who warns of serious sea level rise, and that not from the heating from future Carbon Emissions, but from current levels of Greenhouse Gas in the atmosphere :-
https://www.agu.org/pubs/crossref/2009/2008GL036309.shtml
“Sea-level rise from glaciers and ice caps: A lower bound : David B. Bahr, Mark Dyurgerov, Mark F. Meier : One of the most easily measured dimensions of a glacier, the accumulation area, is linked to future changes in glacier volume and consequent changes in sea level. Currently observed accumulation areas are too small, forcing glaciers to lose 27% of their volume to attain equilibrium with current climate. As a result, at least 184 ± 33 mm of sea-level rise are necessitated by mass wastage of the world’s mountain glaciers and ice caps even if the climate does not continue to warm. If the climate continues to warm along current trends, a minimum of 373 ± 21 mm of sea-level rise over the next 100 years is expected from glaciers and ice caps. When compared to recent estimates from all other sources, melt water from glaciers must be considered as a particularly important fraction of the total sea-level rise expected this century. Received 10 October 2008; accepted 24 December 2008; published 11 February 2009.”
The Times should desist from furthering Climate Change Denier propaganda in my view. The Climate Change Deniers are clearly sniping at Professor Stefan Rahmstorf. I think The Times should hold back from joining in with this collective blame game. The Times should report more widely on the subject of sea level rise, to put this story in its proper perspective.
Science is full of cases where one group of people claim one thing, and another group of people claim another, and it takes some time to navigate through the evidence until the theories are validated or rejected.
There is a wide spectrum of Scientific opinion on sea level rise, strongly dependent on projections of Fossil Fuel use over the next few decades.
It is not representative of the Science merely to focus on the work of one person, and whether they may or may not be mistaken.