Sea Level Rise – Jo Abbess

The Rate of Change

I well remember the huffing and puffing over the release of James Hansen’s paper “Target Atmospheric CO2: Where Should Humanity Aim?” :-

https://www.columbia.edu/~jeh1/2008/TargetCO2_20080407.pdf

“…Decreasing CO2 was the main cause of a cooling trend that began 50 million years ago, large scale glaciation occurring when CO2 fell to 425 +/- 75 ppm…”

The sceptic-deniers laughed and scoffed and said things to the effect that clearly there’s nothing to worry about that the current concentration of Carbon Dioxide in the air is over 390 parts per million – it won’t melt the polar ice caps.

What the sceptic-deniers haven’t understood, or pretend not to have understood, is that it is a combination of factors that caused major lasting glaciation on Earth. Yes, the level of Carbon Dioxide in the air is important. But the rate of change of Carbon Dioxide in the atmosphere is a significant component.

If the levels of Carbon Dioxide in the atmosphere change rapidly, the heating or cooling effect is amplified, in effect. You have to take account of the relative change in levels of Carbon Dioxide, not just its level at any particular point in time.

Sea Level Propaganda

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…”