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25 Years of Satellite Data Shows Global Warming Is Accelerating Sea Level Rise (usnews.com)

An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Associated Press: Melting ice sheets in Greenland and Antarctica are speeding up the already fast pace of sea level rise, new satellite research shows. At the current rate, the world's oceans on average will be at least 2 feet (61 centimeters) higher by the end of the century compared to today, according to researchers who published in Monday's Proceedings of the National Academies of Sciences. Sea level rise is caused by warming of the ocean and melting from glaciers and ice sheets. The research, based on 25 years of satellite data, shows that pace has quickened, mainly from the melting of massive ice sheets. It confirms scientists' computer simulations and is in line with predictions from the United Nations, which releases regular climate change reports. Of the 3 inches (7.5 centimeters) of sea level rise in the past quarter century, about 55 percent is from warmer water expanding, and the rest is from melting ice. But the process is accelerating, and more than three-quarters of that acceleration since 1993 is due to melting ice sheets in Greenland and Antarctica, the study shows.

45 of 343 comments (clear)

  1. It's the Knights Templar! by KeensMustard · · Score: 2, Funny

    Clearly, this is yet more evidence that the whole thing is just a massive Chinese time travelling zombie conspiracy! They've teamed with the Knights Templar and the Masons to litter the sea floor with cheap, Chinese hair dryers, which are blowing on the ice and melting it! And the fairies, loyal to the Maoist regime, are taking our good western made CO2 from the atmosphere and replacing it with cheap Chinese made CO2! Wake up sheeple!

    1. Re: It's the Knights Templar! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

      Only one of those papers says what you imply. The others either explicitly agree with the posted article or are consistent with it (though the first link is unreadable in my browser so I canâ(TM)t really speak to that).

  2. Hypocrites by Locke2005 · · Score: 2, Informative

    Donald Trump claims global warming is a myth... and yet he's building sea walls for his golf resort in Ireland to protect it against the sea level rising!

    --
    I've abandoned my search for truth; now I'm just looking for some useful delusions.
  3. Just more Fake News by cosmicl · · Score: 2

    Satellites? Show me the guy with a beard, surrounded by pairs of animals, and building a big wood boat. Hell, it's not even raining yet.

  4. Meh. by msauve · · Score: 4, Funny

    I don't (can't afford to) live that close to an ocean, you insensitive clod.

    (But I'm thinking that an investment in property on Lake Superior or Hudson Bay may pay off as the next French Riviera. Kashechewan=Monaco?)

    --
    "National Security is the chief cause of national insecurity." - Celine's First Law
  5. yes, but few care by WindBourne · · Score: 4, Informative

    Seriously. The only way to stop the CO2 is to have ALL NATIONS STOP ADDING COAL and back off rather quickly. This is ESP TRUE for China. Yet, there will be many here (including a chinese troll that follows me) that will actually DEFEND China's adding 750+ GW of new coal plants over the next 11 years. And that is just CHINA. That does not include the large number of extra coal going in, nor does it include the massive number of ICE vehicles being sold.
    If ppl want to stop this, then ALL NATIONS MUST STOP. Not just 1 or 2.

    --
    I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
    1. Re:yes, but few care by Hal_Porter · · Score: 3, Informative

      Getting a net CO2 cut would basically require that China stop industrialising. If the Chinese government tried that, they'd be overthrown in a bloody revolution

      https://photos.mongabay.com/09...

      tl;dr - global CO2 emissions will continue to rise until China has a way to generate energy which is cheaper than coal and doesn't emit CO2.

      Until then it doesn't matter what the US, UK and EU do. All of those having falling CO2 emissions, but there's no way they can fall fast enough to compensate for the enormous CO2 increases from China.

      --
      echo -e 'global _start\n _start:\n mov eax, 2\n int 80h\n jmp _start' > a.asm; nasm a.asm -f elf; ld a.o -o a;
    2. Re:yes, but few care by WindBourne · · Score: 3, Interesting

      No longer adding NEW COAL plants will not lead to any issues. In fact, it would likely increase the lifespan of more citizens.
      As to cutting coal, far better to simply replace those with AE and Nukes.
      And I fully agree with your last bit there.
      Right now, the ENTIRE WEST puts out less CO2 than what China is adding JUST IN COAL PLANTS over the next 10 years.

      --
      I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
    3. Re:yes, but few care by Uberbah · · Score: 2

      Getting a net CO2 cut would basically require that China stop industrialising. If the Chinese government tried that, they'd be overthrown in a bloody revolution

      Ah, yes. Pretending that China with 4-5 times the population of the United States is the problem, and then ignoring that much of China's pollution comes from producing crap for American consumers.

    4. Re:yes, but few care by thegarbz · · Score: 2

      That's an interesting graph. Curious that it doesn't show the sudden drop in emissions from China in 2010 that happened due to a mix of economic crisis, lower steel demand and loss of appetite for dirty coal projects. Nor does your graph show that Chinese emissions are growing at almost 1/5th of the rate that they were 10 years ago. Nor do they show that emissions per GDP are plummeting (a sign that dirty industrialization of a 3rd world nation has already peaked).

      Until then it doesn't matter what the US, UK and EU do.

      Yes because somewhere someone else is producing 1/5th of the emissions per capita of the people in the USA it is all *their* fault and we can't do anything.
      "America First! ... in emissions per capita".

    5. Re:yes, but few care by thegarbz · · Score: 2

      Right now, the ENTIRE WEST puts out less CO2 than what China is adding JUST IN COAL PLANTS over the next 10 years.

      Major fucking citation required. The EU+USA emissions alone are higher than that of China. The worst case prediction for China peaking in 2035 shows that the emissions at that time will be only marginally higher than those of the EU+USA and then will fall at a far higher rate than the west will ever achieve as their old coal plants come online.

      The rising emissions in China over the next 30 years are predicted to be small compared to the rise between 1995-2010 and China's coal demand is plummeting, something that if you don't believe the emissions charts, then believe the many export miners who's share prices are struggling due to poor demand.

      Cite> Frederick S. Pardee Center for International Futures, World Bank, and the stock market.

    6. Re:yes, but few care by AmiMoJo · · Score: 2

      China hit peak coal a few years ago and has been in decline ever since.

      http://ieefa.org/ieefa-update-... (article from a year ago, so 4 years past now)

      The new plants are just replacing old ones with cleaner technology and better load following capability to back up wind.

      --
      const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
      SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
    7. Re:yes, but few care by BlueStrat · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Yes because somewhere someone else is producing 1/5th of the emissions per capita of the people in the USA it is all *their* fault and we can't do anything.
      "America First! ... in emissions per capita".

      Per capita is meaningless in relation to *TOTAL GLOBAL* levels. But you likely already know that and are simply hoping you can blow it by others because 'muh Party!'.

      Australia has a very high CO2 per capita average, but a small total population so the total amount of CO2 Australia contributes is small. China and India have a low per-capita average but enormous populations, so they contribute a large percentage of the total CO2 released. Sort of a CO2 emission "economy of scale'.

      China, India, and other developing nations are producing more total CO2. The US cannot make up for their increases even if the US reduced CO2 emissions to zero. If the US stops trading heavily for consumer goods with china then their economy goes in the crapper, their budget for infrastructure will shrink, and new power plants will be coal and CO2 emissions will then begin to increase even more rapidly.

      Strat

      --
      Progressivism (aka US 'Liberalism'): Ideas so good they need a police/surveillance-state to enforce.
    8. Re:yes, but few care by houghi · · Score: 2

      But DOES matter what the rest does.
      1) If you ask 5 people to stop pouring buckets of water in a bath, because it will overflow. Even if 1 does not stop, the difference will still be significant and the 4 that do will be able to stop the fifth one if they want to.
      2) We can forbid import from countries that fail the emission targets.

      Why will the second part fail? Because we care more about cheap shoes and tv screens than we care about the world for out kids and grand kids. And we use childish excuses like "but HE is doing it." as if we are 6 year old. Yes it will increase prices, just like having a sewer will increase the price of living. At this moment we ARE shitting in our own backyard and try to find excuses so we can keep doing it.

      Because if we where willing to block trade, you will see how fast China and every other country will change.

      --
      Don't fight for your country, if your country does not fight for you.
    9. Re:yes, but few care by dj245 · · Score: 4, Interesting

      If ppl want to stop this, then ALL NATIONS MUST STOP. Not just 1 or 2.

      And that will never happen. I see a lot of talk about China in this thread but Russia is the #2 emitter of pollution. The US is reducing emissions, both per-capita and overall. Russia's emissions per GDP are increasing (albeit not as rapidly as China). Here's a nice graph of emissions per capita for the top 3. The difference is that China is seeing a lot of negative effects related to pollution, and politicians are under pressure to fix the problem or risk destabilizing the country. China has incentives to act.

      Russia, on the other hand, doesn't have many developed low-lying coastal areas. Weather patterns are becoming more habitable, arable land is increasing, icecaps limiting shipping are melting, more natural resources (fishing, oilfields, etc) are becoming accessible, etc. Climate change may cost Russia's economic competitors in both money and political stability. A decent chunk of the Russian economy is based on oil and natural gas exports. Many other countries have some of these incentives, but Russia is the big winner of climate change, and they have every incentive not to take action. I would not be at all surprised if Russia was actively promoting anti-climate change ideology. They have a strong motive, means, and opportunity.

      Disclaimer- I am an engineer in the North American fossil fuel industry

      --
      Even those who arrange and design shrubberies are under considerable economic stress at this period in history.
  6. Re:Sure, however... by Waffle+Iron · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Okay, but will this rise affect me in my lifetime, or can I safely ignore it and pass this problem off to the next generation like I plan on doing with the national debt?

    The key difference between the two is that the national debt is little more than a pattern of bits on some spinning disks (as the GOP seems to have suddenly realized), whereas the rising sea levels are a serious physical threat (which they have unfortunately not yet realized).

  7. Re: Yawn, This again by ClickOnThis · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Okay, but will this rise affect me in my lifetime, or can I safely ignore it and pass this problem off to the next generation like I plan on doing with the national debt?

    Because people generally like living above water. Because there are existing places that will become untenable to maintain and/or unsafe with higher water levels and fixing that doesn't seem like a lot of fun.

    There are are a whole lot more 'becauses' to add.

    Because arable regions may shift faster than the plants can evolve to grow in them.

    Because mass migration will cause significant upheaval and displacement of human society.

    ...and so on... and finally:

    Because when the human race is confronted with a lack of something, it goes to war over it.

    --
    If it weren't for deadlines, nothing would be late.
  8. Not quite accurate by Okian+Warrior · · Score: 3, Informative

    Donald Trump claims global warming is a myth... and yet he's building sea walls for his golf resort in Ireland to protect it against the sea level rising!

    He doesn't say it's a myth, he says it's a hoax.

    He agrees that the climate is changing, but believes that it's not due to man-made changes in the environment.

    1. Re:Not quite accurate by quantaman · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Donald Trump claims global warming is a myth... and yet he's building sea walls for his golf resort in Ireland to protect it against the sea level rising!

      He doesn't say it's a myth, he says it's a hoax.

      He agrees that the climate is changing, but believes that it's not due to man-made changes in the environment.

      Trump never said climate is changing, Kellyanne Conway claimed he believed that, which is completely in line with their standard practice of spinning Trump's outrageous statements into orthodox GOP doctrine.

      Conway tells us nothing about what Trump believes, Trump is absolutely notorious for contradicting his administration's official positions, his spokespeople, and even himself.

      Trump only ever has two kinds of comments about climate change, either some variation of "it's a hoax" or "it's cold, therefore no global warming!". The position you give Trump is something far more nuanced than he's ever expressed himself.

      --
      I stole this Sig
    2. Re:Not quite accurate by AmiMoJo · · Score: 2

      From your own link:

      NBC News just called it the great freeze - coldest weather in years. Is our country still spending money on the GLOBAL WARMING HOAX?

      Snowing in Texas and Louisiana, record setting freezing temperatures throughout the country and beyond. Global warming is an expensive hoax!

      Ice storm rolls from Texas to Tennessee - I'm in Los Angeles and it's freezing. Global warming is a total, and very expensive, hoax!

      Trump really doesn't seem to think that the world is warming, or at least doesn't understand the different between weather and climate. Maybe he has changed his tune since those tweets were posted.

      --
      const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
      SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
    3. Re:Not quite accurate by Luckyo · · Score: 3, Insightful

      To deny that there are clear cut benefits to global warning is asinine. My country for example is looking at massively increased agricultural production and reduced costs associated with extreme cold winters.

      Negatives? Weather patterns become more extreme, so more repairs to infrastructure will be needed. Former is huge for nation's GDP. Latter is tiny in comparison. Add to that the fact that like most nations that sat under the ice during ice age, our land is rising out of the sea faster than sea is rising, there are clear benefits even on local level.

      And then there's the whole "new paths for maritime travel" aspect which is bound to increase efficiency by a significant margin.

      That's why catastrophism folks like you espouse is just as dangerous as "global warning isn't happening" BS. Both are equally wrong, and both turn people from the sane actions that we actually need to take to make our transition to existing in a slowly but surely warming climate and all changes that brings with it.

      Instead we get "we should do nothing" and "we should do everything" idiocy on each side. When sanity is off the table at the start, and all you have is crazy partisans on each side debunking each other's idiocy, no actual discussion on what should be done can take place.

    4. Re:Not quite accurate by Luckyo · · Score: 2

      The first thing that catastrophists like to do is to argue "but globally!!!"

      Overwhelming majority of people don't care about what happens in everyday life of someone on the other side of the planet. The country you cite, US, most of its citizenry would struggle to identify countries on the other side of the globe, much less actually care if they have to invest one percent of GDP more into infrastructure. And for those that live in productive states, increase in infrastructure spending is a trivially absorbable cost if threat is actually judged to be significant enough. Refer to what US did to itself during WW2 as example of what can be done when people feel that it is needed for survival.

  9. Re:Use Science by ClickOnThis · · Score: 2, Informative

    I'll admit... I'm not an actual climentoligist, but has anybody thought about maybe just making a bunch of ice and hauling it down to Antarctica? I mean if its getting warm, throw some ice on it instead of sitting around poking and measuring it.

    It's pretty clear you aren't a climatologist when you can't even spell the word, but it's also clear you aren't a scientist or an engineer. The laws of thermodynamics, let alone the sheer magnitude of the logistical/technological problem, mean that making ice for Antarctica is a non-starter. You need to consume energy in order to move energy around.

    Better to stop the Sun's energy from being trapped by greenhouse gasses, and harvesting the same energy (via wind and solar) for our needs, rather than using carbon-based fuels. But if you want to make ice for Antarctica with renewables, by all means knock yourself out.

    --
    If it weren't for deadlines, nothing would be late.
  10. Re:Science snowflakes by PopeRatzo · · Score: 4, Funny

    Naah, naah, they just figured it out "now" with TWENTY FIVE years of data.

    You're right. WHY ARE THEY HIDING THE SATELLITE DATA FROM 100 YEARS AGO? HUH?

    Checkmate, libs.

    --
    You are welcome on my lawn.
  11. Re: Slashdot is Broken! by c6gunner · · Score: 2

    Slashdot has ads?

    Did you get lost and stumble onto this site while looking for AOL?

  12. Re:Sick of the alarmism by Jane+Q.+Public · · Score: 2

    Modding this guy "troll" when he simply stated some demonstrable facts is not kosher, folks.

    "I don't like what you said" does not equal "troll".

  13. Re: Sure, however... by Waffle+Iron · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Then you're an idiot. I'm not talking about individuals. This is government debt, and the government itself defines the meaning of those bits arbitrarily.

    All across the political spectrum, the American people seem to be convinced that they are entitled to more government services than they are willing to explicitly pay for. If the current "pyramid scheme" strategy ever stops working, there are plenty of other avenues the government can use to simply redefine or restrict what that debt value means.

    Meanwhile, the actual physical sea level just keeps rising. Ironically, if the worst case scenarios do pan out, the government would probably take on scores of trillions of dollars in additional debt in futile attempts at keeping our coastal cities habitable.

  14. Re:Sick of the alarmism by nadaou · · Score: 4, Informative

    And NYC's elevation is 10m. So it will take 5000 years or so for it to be inundated.

    Yeah, no. For one thing the outcrop of Manhattan Schist in the middle of Central Park is not "NYC", and for another a large part of lower Manhattan*, western Brooklyn, and northern Queens was underwater during Hurricane Sandy which had a surge of about 13 feet (4m). Due to rebound of the continental plate since the last glaciation the city is already sinking at a rate of about 1 foot per century, and most of the gravity driven sewers were built more than 100 or 200 years ago when sea level was lower. Most of the subway entrances are staircases down from street level.

    NYC has some serious problems. Maybe not as bad as Miami, but there's more infrastructure to deal with.

    Stop spreading lies.

    * just maybe the financial district has some huge impact on the national GDP, even if it is shut down for one day?

    --
    ~.~
    I'm a peripheral visionary.
  15. Assumptions? by bradley13 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I just read the abstract. As I understand it, they have 25 data years of very noisy data. Based on this data, they have deduced a quadratic equation (think: upward-curving parabola). They then state: "simple extrapolation of the quadratic implies global mean sea level could rise 65 ± 12 cm by 2100".

    Of course, extrapolation of a quadratic leads to massive increases in the Y-value. Any kid doing 9th grade geometry learns that. The question is: Why should we believe that this quadratic equation - derived from so few data points - is accurate, and wil continue unabated into the future?

    --
    Enjoy life! This is not a dress rehearsal.
    1. Re:Assumptions? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

      You are somewhat right. This is the first study to claim an upward trend in the rate of change.

      Meanwhile, in mainstream science, there has been dozens of papers and theories trying to describe how a steady increase of slightly more than three millimeters per year could have happened. This is what the entirety of our precise data, the satellite data set, shows. The stark linearity has made quite a stir.

      Either the satellites are miscalibrated in some unknown, novel way, the rate of thermal expansion is increasing over time at an absurd rate, the amount of thermal expansion reduction over time is offset by meltwater, or some other unknown mechanism. All the settled science shows, until we have new data stating otherwise, we should have an increase in sea level just over 24 cm by 2100 and no more than 25 cm.

      This paper might be a hard-science pseudo case of "p-value hacking", where they threw everything they could think of at the problem until they coaxed out a plausible formula that they wanted all along.

  16. Does it matter ? by aepervius · · Score: 2

    I mean if a pyroman set a barn is on fire, and a denier pretend the warmth is due to hot summer time the other pretend barn on fire is a natural occurrence, does it matter ? They are both wrong, and in the end you gotta stop the fire anyway.

    --
    C. Sagan : A demon haunted world:
    http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0345409469/
    visit randi.org
  17. While the OP is wrong by aepervius · · Score: 3, Insightful

    There is a gran of truth in what he says. The grain of truth is that shifting climate will make arable terrain less arable, and will open to potential moderate climate terrain which was not arable or is poor. So shifting climate may actually reduce globally the amount of field which are good for agriculture. Nothing to do with evolution.... Just with simply top earth quality for what we currently grow. As for your kip about a repeat of 2017: actually 2017 and the last 3 or 4 decade are decades where there was the LEAST amount of war, compared to last centuries... As for population upheaval , the same can be said qualitatively. 2017 forced mirgation is nothing to compare if whole frigging region decide to go north or south because their agriculture is in the shitter , in say 75 or 100 years.

    --
    C. Sagan : A demon haunted world:
    http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0345409469/
    visit randi.org
  18. Re: Yawn, This again by quantaman · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Because arable regions may shift faster than the plants can evolve to grow in them.

    Right ... that's why there aren't any European plants growing in the Americas. Because we can't just go ahead and plant them; no, they have to evolve first.

    Just because some plants do well in a non-native habitat it doesn't not follow that most plants (particularly crops) can effectively adapt to a very different climate, or equivalent farmland can be found in another region.

    Because mass migration will cause significant upheaval and displacement of human society. ...and so on... and finally:

    Because when the human race is confronted with a lack of something, it goes to war over it.

    So ... basically a repeat of 2017?

    Quelle horreur.

    Americans experienced a mild increase in Muslim migration and a drug epidemic and elected a demagogue Trump, one of the major riots leading up to the French Revolution was caused by a flour shortage, German's experienced massive reparations after WWI and elected Hitler, Russians got hammered in WWI and had the October Revolution, etc, etc.

    In fact, high food prices were one of the causes of the Arab Spring, and the Arab Spring combined with the Iraq War caused the migrant crisis in Europe which is another factor that elected Trump and scared Britain out of the EU. And the Arab Spring looks a lot like the mass migrations you'll see when Climate Change starts to kick in (and the equivalent South American migration into the US).

    It's not a complex formula. When populations are stressed they lash out, they either riot and or elect leaders who raise a ruckus on their behalf. And climate change causes a lot of stress.

    --
    I stole this Sig
  19. Re: Sure, however... by prefec2 · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Economic rules are not the same as physical laws. Physical laws exist regardless you believe in them. Economic rules are human rules. They can be changed. For example you can lower taxes for the rich or deprive people of healthcare. You can even make up rules to limit the ability what you can dobwithnyour money. And even money itself is just a number or a piece if paper. Its value is based in an agreement. Look I have billions of Reichsmark in my attic. Unfortunately, you cannot buy anything with it. You can also see the artificially of value of currency in context of bitcoin.

  20. Re: Yawn, This again by prefec2 · · Score: 2, Informative

    Climate does not change during seasons, because climate is the weather average over 30 years. Global warming is defined by the change if the global temperature. While weather is specfic to you region. For example the US had a cold and snow rich winter and we in Europe had a lot if rain and no snow. So in our region it was exceptionally warm weather while you had snow rich weather.

  21. Sea level rise is small compared to biological ... by 140Mandak262Jamuna · · Score: 5, Interesting
    The annual deep frost would kill so much of the weeds and the bugs. As the climate changes, the USDA agricultural zones are changing. What used to be 3 is now 4 etc. Weeds that were killed every winter and start from the scratch, survive the winter, start early and spread fast. They even get two or three more generations per season.

    The bugs too, are surviving winter. The most ardent climate change denying, conspiracy theory believing, Iowa farmer sees the forsythia blooming in February, tulips emerging in March, crocus in December... Some fields naturalized by daffodils and tulips are going the other way. The bulbs rotting away instead of emerging. These bulbs need six weeks of continuous freezing for them to "sense" the coming and going of winter. Without the frost, they dont emerge and they rot in spring rains.

    One of the most productive agricultural belt is protected by annual frost. It has no natural defense against many of the deleterious organisms. All it takes is one fungus, one virus, one weed to afflict the Idaho potato crop or the corn or wheat... By the time we identify and mitigate the threat we would have lost two or even three years of loss of agricultural productivity. Affluent USA will suck the products from rest of the world, prices will shoot up beyond belief. Poor countries with unstable regimes will see societal collapse, mass migrations and refugees...

    These consequences are far more dire, far more urgent than sea level rise. Sea level rise is important it will lead to very serious climate changes. But that is very indirect and direct cause - effect relations difficult to deduce, difficult to prove, difficult to explain to public.

    --
    sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
  22. Re:25 Years by Geoffrey.landis · · Score: 3, Informative

    25 years of data? Why not 26 years of data?

    Because the earliest data set came from the TOPEX/Poseidon satellite altimetry mission, which launched in 1992, and the paper was received for review in 2017. 2017-1996 = 25 years.

      Paper under discussion: http://www.pnas.org/content/ea...

    The scientists were unable to use satellite data taken before the satellite launched because that data does not exist.

    --
    http://www.geoffreylandis.com
  23. Re:Known since at least 2006 by Geoffrey.landis · · Score: 4, Informative

    Citation. This isn't a new finding, it confirms previous work.

    It is new in that this article shows the satellite altimetry, while the article you cite, showing similar trends, combines tide-gauge and satellite data to get a much longer data set. Basically, that article is using satellite data to calibrate tide-gauges, and then using that calibration to measure historical sea level rise.

    Good article, though.

    Let me know when other "religions" start basing their ideology (or their critiques) on multiple peer-reviewed studies instead of faith.

    Yes, exactly: it is useful when different work by different groups shows the same result. This is reproducability, which is important in science.

    --
    http://www.geoffreylandis.com
  24. Satellite measurements [Re:Oh good] by Geoffrey.landis · · Score: 3, Informative

    And there's no way those same currents could have affected the previous measurements we used to declare sea level was rising. I mean, there's no way they could have been eroding for some period and we thought it was the sea level rising. Climate only works one way!

    That's why satellite altimetry measurements-- what the article being discussed here is about-- are important. You can measure the entire globe, not just the places that have tide gauges, and you can separate out the local effects from the sea level rise.

    --
    http://www.geoffreylandis.com
  25. Analyze all of the data by Geoffrey.landis · · Score: 5, Informative

    No. It shows a more rapid rise in the last couple of decades, but it does not show an acceleration overall. If you can cherry-pick a 20-25 year period, so can I.

    Just for reference, the 25 years of data was not cherry picked. The article being discussed analyzed satellite altimetry data, and the first of the satellite altimetry missions being discussed was TOPEX/Poseidon, which started giving data 25 years ago. 25 years is all the data that exists.

    When they analyze all the data that exists, that's the opposite of cherry picking.

    --
    http://www.geoffreylandis.com
    1. Re:Analyze all of the data by khayman80 · · Score: 2

      When they analyze all the data that exists, that's the opposite of cherry picking. [Geoffrey Landis]

      Indeed. I made this same point after Jane/Lonny baselessly accused Layzej of "cherry-picking" when Layzej loaded all the UAH data. Jane/Lonny then suggested cherry-picking at 1998, and keeps insisting that this somehow isn't "cherry-picking".

      Ironically, I even gave Jane/Lonny R code which calculates trends and accelerations of global mean sea level (GMSL) data. That graph accounts for autocorrelation- the red lines are 2 sigma uncertainties. The trends and accelerations are calculated over periods which all end at 2009.5. The new significance.zip (backup copies) contains my R statistics folder, including many data sets.

      Again, note that this approach avoids cherry-picking by using the entire dataset. Also note that all the best-fit accelerations are positive.

      Once again, that's consistent with this NOAA article:

      "Sea level is rising at an increasing rate ... There is strong evidence that global sea level is now rising at an increased rate and will continue to rise during this century. While studies show that sea levels changed little from AD 0 until 1900, sea levels began to climb in the 20th century. The two major causes of global sea-level rise are thermal expansion caused by the warming of the oceans (since water expands as it warms) and the loss of land-based ice (such as glaciers and polar ice caps) due to increased melting. Records and research show that sea level has been steadily rising at a rate of 1 to 2.5 millimeters (0.04 to 0.1 inches) per year since 1900. This rate may be increasing. Since 1992, new methods of satellite altimetry (the measurement of elevation or altitude) indicate a rate of rise of 3 millimeters (0.12 inches) per year. This is a significantly larger rate than the sea-level rise averaged over the last several thousand years."

      And once again, that's consistent with the 2013 IPCC AR5 SPM:

      "Proxy and instrumental sea level data indicate a transition in the late 19th to the early 20th century from relatively low mean rates of rise over the previous two millennia to higher rates of rise (high confidence). It is likely that the rate of global mean sea level rise has continued to increase since the early 20th century."

      That's also consistent with the US NAS's statement that "Sea level is rising faster in recent decades".

  26. Fission needs breeder or thorium by Geoffrey.landis · · Score: 2

    Fission could do that, easily. We've shown them how to do fission adequately. Maybe they could teach the rest of us how to do it well.

    Actually, no. If we just use fission, we run out of uranium in a hundred years or so-- it's not a long-term solution. We need fission plus breeder reactors, or else a switch to a thorium-based fuel cycle.

    --
    http://www.geoffreylandis.com
  27. Re: Yawn, This again by nomadic · · Score: 2

    "Right ... that's why there aren't any European plants growing in the Americas. Because we can't just go ahead and plant them; no, they have to evolve first."

    So your argument is that because some plants can grow in different regions of the world, every plant can grow in different regions of the world? So like temperature, precipitation, etc. can have no effect because you can grow lettuce in both England and California. That's...brilliant.

  28. Re:Yawn, This again by nomadic · · Score: 2

    You're forgetting to mention the lizard people who control the Club of Rome. And, of course, Soros' ninjas.

  29. Re: Sure, however... by iamhassi · · Score: 2

    But we are suppose to be underwater now if you believed what we were told in 2000. You can only cry "the sky is falling!" so many times until people stop believing you. Besides, even if this is 100% true, high polluting countries like China with 1/5th of the world's population are the countries that need to do something about it. US makes up 4% of the world's population, even if those 4% made drastic changes to save the environment it would not help if the other 96% does nothing.

    --
    my karma will be here long after I'm gone