08-11-2008, 01:38 PM
Hi Mark,
Of course they have, and do, and the data is there. Sea levels have been rising, and there's no debate whatsoever about that fact. In areas with large ranges, the magnitudes of the tides have been increasing as well, as it magnify the effect. The number of breakwaters in the N. US and Alaska that are awash in the high tide storms of the winter are a fact of life for boat people.
The only debate that exists with sealevel rise is this one--and so far it is mostly unsettled. Is the observed sealevel rise a result of freshwater melt of the icecaps or of the thermal expansion of the mass of water in general? It's a big unknown, and is the source of uncertainty among climate change experts. If the source of observed sea level rise is run off, not thermal expansion, then the predictions of sea level rise over the next century will be at the low end of the predicted results--about 3 feet. If the source of observed sea level rise is thermal expansion, the predictions of sea level rise will be at the high end of predicted results or about 100 feet. The last time the earth was as warm as today, with the same cumulative load of greenhouse gas in the atmosphere today, with a sun 2 percent cooler, the sea level was 150 METERS higher than it is at the moment. We've a long way to catch up.
Of course they have, and do, and the data is there. Sea levels have been rising, and there's no debate whatsoever about that fact. In areas with large ranges, the magnitudes of the tides have been increasing as well, as it magnify the effect. The number of breakwaters in the N. US and Alaska that are awash in the high tide storms of the winter are a fact of life for boat people.
The only debate that exists with sealevel rise is this one--and so far it is mostly unsettled. Is the observed sealevel rise a result of freshwater melt of the icecaps or of the thermal expansion of the mass of water in general? It's a big unknown, and is the source of uncertainty among climate change experts. If the source of observed sea level rise is run off, not thermal expansion, then the predictions of sea level rise over the next century will be at the low end of the predicted results--about 3 feet. If the source of observed sea level rise is thermal expansion, the predictions of sea level rise will be at the high end of predicted results or about 100 feet. The last time the earth was as warm as today, with the same cumulative load of greenhouse gas in the atmosphere today, with a sun 2 percent cooler, the sea level was 150 METERS higher than it is at the moment. We've a long way to catch up.