Posted by BenSchiendelman at 1/17/08 10:17 a.m.

We're also seeing much faster melt than the IPCC data suggested. I wonder if this has been updated to reflect the measured Arctic melt increase?

Posted by Seattlewestie at 1/17/08 10:31 a.m.

There goes Alki beach!

Posted by Quintyx at 1/17/08 11:33 a.m.

Six inches over 50 years is nothing compared to the sea level rise over the last 10,000 years. It is about average, I'm so scared, lol.

Posted by unregistered user at 1/17/08 11:34 a.m.

That's nice, but what does that mean practically? Give me some context! Does that have a dramatic effect on the local flora and fauna along our Puget Sound coastline? Does it effect public, residential, or commercial property and/or infrastructure. What is the range of possible economic impact? Or is this just another little factoid that we should be file away with all the other factoids as we get more and more freaked out about the dramatic environmental changes that we have microscopically little to no control over?

Posted by Big Caddy at 1/17/08 11:38 a.m.

So can we assume that Department of Ecology and USACE will immediately adopt a new ideology and allow armoring of shorelines to protect billions of dollars of at-risk waterfront property and development? Or will only ideologies that abhor waterfront development be favored? If the local government has bought into the mantra that a rise in sea level is imminent and refuses to allow a property owner to protect itself, does that amount to a 'taking' entitling the landowner to compensatory relief?

BTW, basing any conclusion on IPCC-generated data is more than a little 'suspect' IMO.

What has been the increase in mean high high water mark over the past two decades?

Posted by Will in Seattle at 1/17/08 12:08 p.m.

Actually, it's accelerating faster than that, but the scientists can only use proven numbers from published studies in doing the calculations.

I love my beachfront property in Fremont!

Posted by Checkyourrealty at 1/17/08 12:08 p.m.

No one can predict the weather next week, so I'm to believe what will happen in 50 years? I don't think so.

Posted by Bellingman at 1/17/08 12:17 p.m.

No one can predict the weather next week, so I'm to believe what will happen in 50 years? I don't think so.

I hope you are joking. If not, then you are hopelessly ignorant of climate science and statistical theory.

If you have no idea what you're talking about, then don't talk! Just listen and learn from people who have something meaningful to contribute.

Posted by journalista at 1/17/08 12:19 p.m.

Might be time to re-think the elevated monorail option. It would take that long to get the project in place around here....

Posted by Lord Sauron at 1/17/08 2:02 p.m.

Have they accounted for the Antarctic ice sheets getting bigger?

If not, then you are hopelessly ignorant of climate science and statistical theory

Well, I'm quite familiar with climate science and an expert on statistical theory, these warnings are a joke - the computer models they use can't even predict the weather we have now based on historical data.

Posted by Lord Sauron at 1/17/08 2:53 p.m.

Actually, it's accelerating faster than that, but the scientists can only use proven numbers from published studies in doing the calculations.

Without a doubt, one of the dumbest statements I've read in a long while. Would you rather they just made up numbers and used them? I mean, sure, Al Gore does that sort of thing all the time, but he's becoming more and more of a joke all the time.

You can't just pull data out of your butt because it suits your preconceived conclusions and run with it. It ceases to be science at that point and becomes propaganda/religion.

Posted by thesmallprint at 1/17/08 2:59 p.m.

How the heck does Al Gore deploy all those secret pumps? Since the weather scientists have obviously wasted their time getting their doctorates, and have no clue how to use computers to generate statistical data, it must be Al Gore's fault. And then there's that teacher on YouTube:

High school teacher spreads the word

Oh wait, the teach might be right.

Posted by roberte at 1/17/08 3:03 p.m.

Lord Sauron,

What's the chances of pointing to some examples of the Antarctic ice sheets growing bigger - especially if cubic measurements are considered?

And perhaps a study citing the inaccuracy of weather reporting by models. Examples please.

Posted by 47plymouth at 1/17/08 3:03 p.m.

Blah Blah Blah!

I hear that the Greenland Ice is melting then I see an article today that its not now because its getting cold again. What a bunch of knee jerk science.

Posted by maggie2u at 1/17/08 4:10 p.m.

Right...And I'll believe this when waterfront property values drop.

Posted by gogetsum at 1/17/08 4:20 p.m.

This is BIG NEWS!!

The sea level HAS NOT changed... EVER!.... Till humans made it happen, and ONLY humans can stop it.

ACT now! Stop the Earth from doing what it does, make it super, super natural!!

I AM GAWD !!!! I have powers....

B amused

Posted by gogetsum at 1/17/08 4:29 p.m.

And... 26 billion dollars in taxes for Carbon Credits?

You believers are kinda weird. No, very weird and borderline fanatical...

Like I have always said, it is about control and money. Something wacko's believe in.

B smarter

Posted by kilroy77 at 1/17/08 7:06 p.m.

Local sea level changes,are they different elsewhere on the planet.Friday Harbor,6 in.,Tacoma,12in.--What about Seattle?And this from a University that spends millions to get rid of a winning football coach as well as a thieving brain surgeon. Simply incredible !

Posted by sane and simple at 1/17/08 8:22 p.m.

Sea levels have indeed risen in the past, all without the influence of man. Climate change was a fact before animal life ever existed. Nothing any of us do will ever stop climate change. It happens without us.

I am all fine with being a responsible steward of our planet, I recycle, I advocate better technologies. But, to do it because of climate change is a waste of time and effort. In order for our species to survive we will adapt to the changes. Those who adapt will survive. Those who don't, won't.

Rather than build dikes around New Orlean's in a futile attempt to keep the water out, move the town. Build it somewhere above sea level. If you want people out of their cars, quit building or fixing roads. People will change, they will adapt.

Look at the history of the planet. the coulee's in eastern Washington were formed as a result of climate change. Neandertal man became extinct as a result of climate change. Dinosaurs became extinct because of climate change caused by an asteroid impact. It happens. There are more important things to worry about.

Posted by Lord Sauron at 1/18/08 10:00 a.m.

What's the chances of pointing to some examples of the Antarctic ice sheets growing bigger - especially if cubic measurements are considered?

And perhaps a study citing the inaccuracy of weather reporting by models. Examples please

Take a trip over to "junkscience.com" and start digging. Getting through all the data and links should take a few days, but they have a few primers on the topic of climate to get you started.

Posted by Steve E. at 1/19/08 3:54 p.m.

The reason that sea levels in different parts of the sound are expected to increase differentially is because of differing tides and tectonics.

The denialists deliberate obfuscation of the difference between weather and climate is amusing.
"What's the Difference Between Weather and Climate?
The difference between weather and climate is a measure of time. Weather is what conditions of the atmosphere are over a short period of time, and climate is how the atmosphere "behaves" over relatively long periods of time." www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/noaa-n/climate/climate_weather.html
That's the difference between the weather and the climate. Whether it rains next week is fairly uncertain. but only a fool cannot confidently predict that average temperatures next December will be warmer that those of next July.
------------------
*re: Antarctic snowfall.
Increased snowfall in the Antarctic is predicted due to warming of the ocean there. www.realclimate.org/index.php?p=319
Increased snowfall is entirely consistent with climate models. The stability of the west Antarctic ice sheet has much greater relevancy to whether ongoing climate change will cause sea level rise of such a degree that there will be catastrophic impacts to human civilization. There is some evidence that abrupt collapse has occurred before. http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1200/is_n2_v154/ai_20973054. Warming of the ocean my lead to abrupt collapse of the west Antarctic ice sheet.
Lord Sauron, you give no source for your repeated claim that "the Antarctic ice sheets [are] getting bigger." As stated above, there is thinning and stretching, but the entire Antarctice "ice sheet's mass has decreased significantly from 2002 to 2005." http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2006-028

Lord Sauron, I thought destruction of the Ring would end your existence in the shadow world for good and permanently end your intrusion into the 2nd and 3rd ages. Or have you been reincarnated as Gollum stroking his precious oil stocks in the VP's office? Or are you simply an echo in a computer of the great darkness?

Posted by Steve E. at 1/19/08 3:56 p.m.

Oops! A bad typo:
but only a fool cannot confidently predict that average temperatures next December will be warmer that those of next July.

SHould have read
but only a fool cannot confidently predict that average temperatures next December will be colder than those of next July.

Posted by Steve E. at 1/19/08 8:27 p.m.

Escalating Ice Loss Found in Antarctica
Sheets Melting in an Area Once Thought to Be Unaffected by Global Warming

By Marc Kaufman
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, January 14, 2008; Page A01
Climatic changes appear to be destabilizing vast ice sheets of western Antarctica that had previously seemed relatively protected from global warming, researchers reported yesterday, raising the prospect of faster sea-level rise than current estimates

Part of the Larsen B ice shelf in Antarctica is shown after its rapid collapse in early 2002, which was attributed to global warming. Ice sheets elsewhere on the continent that were considered stable are melting, scientists have found. At right, satellite images show the Sheldon Glacier in western Antarctica in, from top, 1986, 2001 and last October.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/01/13/AR2008011302753.html?wpisrc=rss_print

Posted by unregistered user at 2/8/08 3:38 p.m.

Dozens of sources (Worldclimatereport.com and many otehrs with hard data), indicate that sea level rise has been relatively constant at approx 4 HUNDREDTHS inch per year! Also, net icnreases in ice mass in Greenland and Antartica.

So maybe in 25 years the sea level rises an inch. Maybe in 100 years it rises 4 inches. Maybe humans adapt as they always have. Good grief, the cult of Global Warming hysteria is as nonsensical as it gets. Get a clue you Gore cultists. Yosemite Valley was a glacier a scant 10,000 years ago, North America was mostly covered in an ice sheet, consitions were horrible for sustaining life, especially of the human variety, and mankind had nothing to do with the subsequent warming since that ice age.

Thank God the 10,000 year warming trend current cycle has occurred however, or we'd likely have a different, far less hospitable, far less pleasant planet to live on, if we were even here at all which is doubtful given the consitions we know existed historically.

Cycles occur, get used to it. You don't control it. The Sun pours out trillions of times more energy (and influence) on the Earth daily than mankind will in his lifetime.

Global warmign hysteria is simply one more example of science being co-opted by political power and money hungry agendas which will accomplish nothing positive and do much that is negative.