20 years of satellite data reveal 'staggering' levels of glaciers melting, sea levels rising

[Admin]

Over the past two decades, glaciers worldwide have lost 273 billion tonnes of ice to a warming world, driving sea levels to rise at an accelerated pace, according to a decades-long comprehensive analysis.

20 years of satellite data reveal 'staggering' levels of glaciers melting, sea levels rising : Read more

 

[Unclear Engineer]

As a home owner who lives daily with the effects of sea level rise (and local land level subsidence), I do understand the effects on property and life style.

However, this article seems to miss some points that are crucial to understanding the situation properly - and tends to use hyperbole to make its points, rather than the more involved science.

The hyperbole is such statements as "Every centimeter of sea level rise exposes another 2 million people to annual flooding somewhere on our planet." OK, but how serious is 1 cm of flood depth to those 2 million people - not likely more than the problems most get from extreme rainfall events.

From my perspective, the problem with an increment in sea level rise comes mainly from adding that to the flood levels that are already a problem for me. My defenses against rising water are not unbreachable, and at some tide height, they will be overcome and cause me major damage. So, the issue is mainly the probability of a major damaging flood increases as the static sea level increases. That is a much harder concept to get non-scientific folks to understand in any sort of quantitative manner.

And, then there are the other aspects of global warming that also affect flooding probability, from both the static sea level parameter and the probability parameter for the frequency and additional rise associated with events like severe storms, wind pattern changes, ocean current changes, etc.

Plus, sea level rise does not come just from adding fresh water that was previously resting on land above sea level. It also comes from the thermal expansion of the water already in the oceans as they also heat up. So, an article such as this should have had some graphical presentation of the sea level data, preferably 2 presentations. One would be the measured sea level from about 1900 to present, to show the "acceleration" in perspective. The other should show the sea level from the last global warm spell, during which sea level maxed out at about 25 feet higher than it is today. It would also show some even more "stunning" fast changes in the past. And, it would drive home the point that we need to expect sea level to rise above where it is today, even if we stop emitting CO2 completely. There is geological data that obviously shows that sea level can rise as much as 760 times that "one centimeter" even without any human causation.

So, we aren't going to turn sea level change around just with solar panels for everyone. We need to be realistic in telling the public both what is happening and to what extent we can really change that.

 

[RockyMtnMan25]

Thank you Unclear Engineer! for your critical thinking and intelligent response & analysis. The author of this article and editors of Space.com could learn from your integrity, better educate their readership, and enhance the value of their content. But I understand that might not fit Space.com's narrative and agenda. Looking at the study, I am not sure about what conflicts there are or might be in terms of the study's funding; however, I do know there are highly complex methods, statistical analyses, projections, and modeling that defy the simplistic, alamist, and selective approach taken by the author and Space.com editors.