Comments on: Nature sea level rise shocker: Coral fossils suggest “catastrophic increase of more than 5 centimetres per year over a 50-year stretch is possible.” Lead author warns, “This could happen again.”

By: Jimmy

Jimmy — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 23:03:43 +0000

I would like to point out that rock and soil (sometimes entire continents) shift, carrying any objects inside them. However, if the land containing these fossils did not shift this proves that fossil fuels are not responsible for ‘climate change’ because 121,000 years ago people were burning thousands of gallons of diesel fuel to ship ‘green’ cars, assembles in a factory in China that used copious amounts of diesel fuel, wich were shipped using more diesel fuel from Saudi arabia, across the pacific.
In fact, I doubt people were burning any fossil fuels 121,000 years ago.

By: paulm

paulm — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 02:50:29 +0000

There have been a few studies that have indicated a rapid rise of sea level.

Coral reef clue to fast sea rise
http://www.guardian.co.uk/ world/ 2005/ feb/ 24/ australia.environment
…
Most scientists believe it was a gradual rise over the past 9,000 years. But the existence of relic mangroves 70cm (27in) below the floor of the Barrier Reef, some with leaves and branches still intact, suggests an abrupt rise.

Dan Alongi, a biologist at the Australian Institute of Marine Science, said it appeared that sea levels rose about 3 metres in less than 30 years, drowning forests and flooding estuaries, 20 times faster than previously thought.

By: lgcarey

lgcarey — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 23:24:54 +0000

One of the comments at the Dot Earth blog regarding this study has given me “the willies” and I’d appreciate it if anyone who knows more about the cryosphere than I do has any thoughts – the author describes this event as the beginning of “a century of climate havoc” about 120 kya. Basically, in his post David Stoney points to a 1995 Scientific American article that discussed research on limestone deposits in the Bahamas that found basically the same abrupt sea level event — a rapid twenty foot sea level about 120 kya, during a climate regime similar to today’s in terms of temp, CO2 and sea level. However, it appears that the sea level then plunged 50 feet — these events all seem to have occurred within the space of only a century or so and were immediately followed by the onset of the last ice age.

The post is here: http://community.nytimes.com/ blogs/ comments/ dotearth/ 2009/ 04/ 15/ do-old-corals-hint-at-fast-sea-rise.html?permid=72#comment72
The text of a related 1998 article from Earth Island Journal is here:
http://ces.iisc.ernet.in/ hpg/ envis/ doc98html/ globalcll1119.html

I am reminded of Wally Broecker’s comment about climate being an angry beast and us busily poking it with sharp sticks.

By: paulm

paulm — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 13:23:16 +0000

Ouch Joe. Things are looking bad. Scary thread.

By: Chris S

Chris S — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 10:33:17 +0000

With regard to the robustness of the biosphere.

It should be noted that one of the major ways species adjust to change is through dispersal – as evidenced (for example) by insect species now known only from Siberia found in glacial deposits in the UK.

There is, however, a major problem with this in today’s world – habitat fragmentation. It is practically impossible for many (most?) species to utilise the contiguous habitat that has existed through major climate episodes of the past. Agriculture, urbanisation, mining, land reclamation and other anthropogenic land-use changes have effectively corralled the natural world across many parts of the globe.

By: jorleh

jorleh — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 07:00:40 +0000

Is Washington Post going to put this new information on it`s front page?

By: caerbannog

caerbannog — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 04:16:46 +0000

Actually, to me this speaks to the robustness of our biosphere.

This is rather like a chef saying to the lobster, “this speaks to the robustness of the pot and stove.”

By: paulm

paulm — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 03:58:19 +0000

“John Holdren spoke of a car driving towards a cliff in the fog with dodgy brakes. ”

Rabid Doomsayer,
Its worse than that….

Its a truck craning towards a cliff, down hill… and there’s ice on the road.

By: paulm

paulm — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 03:56:55 +0000

Yes Aasparilla,

Whatever the scientist say today is out of date, usually within 6 months.

So taking that as is, I would expect a big sea level rise jump between 2015 – 2020, probably of several inches.

By: Sasparilla

Sasparilla — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 03:37:06 +0000

As A Siegal said, “Thank you for this (terrifying) study news.”

While I had read of more rapid sea level rise projections recently, ~8 foot rise in 50 years would literally be a catastrophe for our societies to deal with. Joe said these kinds of numbers are coming from other scientists from unrelated studies, which makes is much scarier.

The rate at which we keep finding out how much deeper the hole is we’re digging for ourselves and how much faster than anticipated these changes are happening is staggering. The fact that all this seems to be continually accelerating (as the science tries to catch up with what the scientists are observing) over the years without apparent letup is extremely frightening.