Sea Level suddenly rose more than 65 feet (20 m) in about four centuries––more than a foot a decade. That astonishing event happened over 14,000 years ago. A new study this week in the scientific journal Nature points the finger at Antarctica as the probable cause. It is rare for academic articles about something so ancient to get much interest.
Today I had the privilege to dive in the ultra-sophisticated submarine "Super Aviator" named beause it operates more like an airplane than a typical research sub.
A news report yesterday in NATURE that the Himalayan glaciers are not disappearing as anticipated has caused a flurry of discussion in the scientific community -- and also fueled those that want to assert global warming is not happening.
My take is that while interesting, and good science, it is not that surprising, nor does it in any way contradict the larger climate change scenario. Consider:
The chart below is adapted from a similar graph in Dr. Peter Ward's book, "Under a Green Sky." It plots all the mass extinction events of the last 500 million years against the best estimate of carbon dioxide levels (CO2) at the time. According to his analysis, all major extinctions occured when CO2 levels exceeded a thousand parts per million (ppm).
Amid the politics and disappointment from the climate talks this week in Durban South Africa, there has been a little trickle of insight into the real story about sea level rise; one that even good journalists missed. The last major IPCC report on climate change was easily mis-read to say the the forecast for sea level rise this century was only about 7 - 17 inches (18 - 59 cm). Those are the numbers they put in a table; what nearly everyone overlooked was the explanation of what was NOT included in that forecast.
Japan is still struggling to cope with the aftermath of the major tsunami that hit March 11 this year. The destruction ranges from people, homes and entire communities, to wider damage from the nuclear power plant catastrophe, damage to their electric power system, and their economy. It will be a long time before they fully recover from this disaster. And it should be remembered that as tsunamis are produced by undersea earthquakes, that the cause of this problem is geologic, with essentially no connection to the current concern about changing climate.
Today I had the privilege to dive in the ultra-sophisticated submarine "Super Aviator" named beause it operates more like an airplane than a typical research sub.
