The way the New York Times reports about climate change and sea level rise, you’d think most of Florida will disappear within the next century or two. Here are a few sobering tweets illustrating some of the media alarmism I’ve read in the past week versus the facts about the rising sea level (click through to view the full sized images).
Exhibit A: how the media report sea level rise. Exhibit B: sea level rise since 1860.https://t.co/Glf5EYbg81 pic.twitter.com/YWP8k9tiFC
— Jeremy R. Hammond (@jeremyrhammond) September 5, 2016
Point being, of course, that the sea level has been rising at a pretty consistent rate since well before human emissions could possibly have been the driving force. The Times here is begging the question.
Meanwhile, the actual observed rate of sea level rise post 20 yrs is ~1 ft/century.https://t.co/Glf5EYbg81 pic.twitter.com/CMREOypHQI
— Jeremy R. Hammond (@jeremyrhammond) September 5, 2016
Needless to say, reporting extreme worst-case scenarios based on computer models containing questionable assumptions while not filling readers in on reality is not very objective.
Exhibit A: how media reports present rate of warming. Exhibit B: Post Younger Dryas warming.https://t.co/Glf5EYbg81 pic.twitter.com/35s55n34Hx
— Jeremy R. Hammond (@jeremyrhammond) September 5, 2016
In fact, scientists estimate that, compared to the present 1 foot per century rate of rise today, at the end of the last ice age, the rate of sea level rise reached 2.5 meters per century. The Times‘ claim that the sea is rising today at a rate perhaps faster than any other time in Earth’s history is just outrageous.
Here’s a relevant previous blog post on the subject that goes into more detail: Are You Terrified Yet by Rising Sea Levels? Should You Be?
