The Myth Of Sea-Level Rise And Ocean Acidification

sea level rise hysteria

CCD Editor’s Note: The following is a third excerpted chapter from Lynne Balzer’s new book, The Green New Deal and Climate Change: What You Need to Know, available from Amazon in paperback and Kindle. You can read her previous chapter here and here.

MYTH Due to human-caused global warming, the sea level is rising rapidly at an accelerated rate, and as a result, many coastal areas will soon be underwater.

An article by Brandon Miller, “Satellite observations show sea levels rising, and climate change is accelerating.” CNN.com, March 13, 2018: “Global sea level is on the rise at an increasing rate, according to a new study. By the end of the century, it could rise another 2 feet.”

THE FACTS This map appeared in November 2013, issue of National Geographic magazine. The projected sea-level rise used in this map is based on a sea-level increase of 262 feet that was predicted in 2000 by the US Geological Survey (USGS). But such a sea-level increase could occur only…

  • If all of Alaska’s glaciers melted. In that case, sea level would rise -0.05 meters (about 0.16 feet).
  • If all of Earth’s temperate glaciers melted. That would cause the sea level to rise -0.3 meters (about one foot).
  • If all of Greenland’s glaciers melted, sea level would rise -6 meters (or 19.7 feet).
  • If all of Antarctica’s glaciers melted, the Earth’s sea level would rise -73 meters (about 240 feet).

In other words, such a phenomenon would occur only if all of the ice on Earth were to melt. Although there have been periods in Earth’s history when there were no glaciers or ice caps, nothing like that has occurred for at least fifteen million years.

The periods of warming that have occurred in the last few hundred years, within natural limits, have provided no evidence that this could occur for a long, long time.

So, this picture in National Geographic magazine is a figment of the imagination and obviously another scare tactic. The editors of National Geographic should be ashamed that they ever published such a picture.

The fact is that the Earth’s sea level has been slowly rising at a constant rate for the last few thousand years. Recently Nils-Axel Mӧrner, a UN IPCC scientist who is a world-renowned expert on global sea level measurement, warned the IPCC that it was publishing false information which would inevitably be found to be incorrect.

When they ignored him rather than heeding this warning, he resigned. Dr. Mӧrner has affirmed that Earth’s climate is cooling and that ocean levels will decrease.

He states that the sea level has been rising at an average rate of only 1.1 mm – about the thickness of your fingernail – per year. This figure is confirmed by NOAA. It amounts to about seven inches per century, not the 1-2 meters per century predicted by some government agencies.

Sea level is tricky to measure because the level of the land can be rising or sinking, a phenomenon called isostasy. For example, freed from the weight of glaciers that covered it in the last ice age, Scotland is rising.

Meanwhile, Miami, Florida, is sinking partly because of the removal of so much water from the water table and the construction of many large buildings close to the shoreline.

Currently, the northern end of the North American continent is rising, due to the melting of the mile-thick Laurentide glacier that covered it 20,000 years ago.

When that glacier melted between 15,000 and 8,000 years ago, the land it had covered slowly started rising, causing the southern end of the continent, bordering the Gulf of Mexico – including the Miami area – to sink.

These facts are simply ignored by the alarmists. So we still see statements in articles such as the following: “The rate of sea-level rise has tripled over the last decade, according to a recent study from the University of Miami, bringing with it more frequent coastal flooding.”

But this is because Miami and the surrounding area are sinking due to isostasy and other causes.

Sea level measurements are made both by averaging tidal gauge data and by satellite altimetry. It was reported to Dr. Mörner that the satellite data had been tampered with to show a rise in sea level.

Another system called GRACE – made up of gravitational-anomaly satellites – computes the mass of the ocean, from which changes in sea-level can be directly calculated. According to these data, sea level fell slightly from 2002-2007.

Media reports falsely claim that, due to the rising sea level, the Maldives Islands in the Indian Ocean are being submerged underwater and that its people will thus have to be relocated.

However, Dr. Mӧrner stated, “Clear observational measurements in the field indicate that sea level is not rising in the Maldives, Bangladesh, Tuvalu, Vanuatu, and French Guyana. (Mӧrner, 2007abc, 2010ab). All these are key sites in the sea level debate, where the IPCC and its ideological associates have predicted terrible flooding.”

A group of Australian environmental scientists uprooted a 50-year-old tree that was near the shore because it was a landmark showing where the sea level had been. There are too many such instances of dishonesty to promote a political – not scientific – agenda.

“The president of Tuvalu continues to claim that his islands are being flooded. Yet the tidal-gauge data provide clear indications of stability over the last 30 years. In Vanuatu, the tidal gauge also indicates a stable sea level over the last 14 years.”

These graphs show that the rate of sea-level increase has not increased but has actually slowed slightly in the past decade.

Sea-level rise since 1880 via globalwarmingart.com

Dr. Mӧrner points out that the sun is the main driver of climate. At the present time the sun has very few sunspots, and, as a result, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn are also showing the effects of decreased solar activity.

He says there’s something “sick” in the IPCC’s methods. “In science we discuss. We don’t forbid or neglect…They are working with lobbyists. They blacklist those who disagree.”

As with everything they do, the IPCC starts with the assumption that their estimates of global warming are accurate and therefore their extrapolation of a perceived trend going forward of increased sea level is also accurate.

Attributing 50 percent of the increased sea level to the expansion of the ocean due to what is done with a computer model that eliminates almost all the variables that cause temperature change is extremely arrogant and foolhardy.

THE MYTH OF OCEAN ACIDIFICATION 2004 saw the beginning of an intense propaganda campaign which stated, in effect, “The oceans are becoming more acidic as a result of all the carbon dioxide man has put into the atmosphere. This will lead to the extinction of all marine species starting with phytoplankton at the bottom of the marine food chain.”

THE FACTS Just the opposite is true. Due to the warming trend that has been occurring since the Little Ice Age ended in the late 1700s, the oceans have been gradually warming.

Since more carbon dioxide can dissolve in cold water than in warm water, some of the vast quantity of carbon dioxide dissolved in the oceans has come out of solution into the atmosphere.

Here’s an experiment you can do that demonstrates this scientific fact:

Pour out two glasses of room temperature soda pop – which is CO2 dissolved in water, syrup and favoring’s – one of which contains ice cubes and the other which doesn’t. In fifteen minutes compare the pop in both glasses. The one with the ice cubes will still have some fizz. The other will be fat. More CO2 remains in the glass of colder soda pop. This shows that colder water is able to hold more carbon dioxide than warmer water.

When ocean water warms, it can’t hold as much carbon dioxide as it did before, so some of it is released. This is a natural cause of the increased CO2 in the atmosphere. So, rather than having more carbon dioxide in warmer ocean water, there is less.

Carbon dioxide reacts with water to form a weak acid [H2CO3: carbonic acid]. So, when CO2 comes out of solution, there’s less, not more acid in the water. Therefore, as the ocean warms, releasing CO2, it becomes less, not more, acidic.

Neutral liquids, containing equal amounts of H+ and OH-ions, are designated a pH of 7.0 on the pH (potential hydrogen) scale. An acid is any liquid having a pH of less than 7.0. A base has a pH that’s higher than 7.0.

The pH of ocean water ranges from 7.5 to 8.3. Therefore, ocean water is basic, and it is extremely unlikely that it could become acidic for many thousands of years.

Due to the unequal heating of water at different latitudes, ocean currents are constantly circulating. Colder water sinks and warmer water rises since colder water is denser than warmer water.

In an uncommon case where there is upwelling, and cold water finds its way to the surface, or if there is a tidal pool into which acid from the land is flowing, the pH in that area could become slightly reduced.

But Dr. Don Easterbrook, a geologist, stated that in no case would ocean water in general ever become close to acidic.

The idea that ocean water is becoming acidic as a result of climate change is nothing but another falsehood perpetrated by fearmongers for the purpose of frightening the public.

It’s a shame that the climate change alarmists’ argument is so weak that they feel inclined to make up stories such as these. Unfortunately, the unwary will accept anything the “experts” tell them.


Lynne Balzer taught science at the high school and college levels for about twenty years. A project director for Faraday Science Institute, she has studied this issue for a long time. Her new book, The Green New Deal and Climate Change: What You Need to Know, is available from Amazon in paperback and Kindle format.

Read more at climatechangedispatch.com

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Comments (10)

  • Avatar

    Dave Walsh

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    How can so many brainwashed people believe all the bull about climate change? We are beinf swindled by the likes of the UN.

    Reply

  • Avatar

    Dave Walsh

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    How can so many brainwashed people believe all the bull about climate change? We are being swindled by the likes of the UN.

    Reply

  • Avatar

    Rap

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    I belong to a discord where there are supposedly a bunch of intelligent people average age 30 something year olds registered. Someone posted one of the usual #TheSkyIsFalling videos in the discord and I replied with no graphs or charts or hysterical claims, but simply with some knowledge hoping that there was at least one person who hadn’t been radicalized.

    I was wrong. In a discord of over 10,000 members from around the globe, I was called a retard and a climate denier. I know there must have been someone else who questions what is going one and it was fear that stopped them from responding. I see a battle with this one as people see proof that the UN and government owned scientists have been falsifying the data to get what they want. My suggestion that we leave this hysteria and get back to cleaning up the growing mess we’ve made of the earth was ignored.

    So, we continue to drown our lands and waterways with plastics, garbage, and pollution, but wave signs covered in plastic clothing and hatred. All this done with a rapacious rancor toward any discussion to look at the other side. Who will stand with me…

    Reply

    • Avatar

      Zoe Phin

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      Rap,
      There is not a single scientific experiment that shows CO2 warming BEYOND its provided radiation level.

      Since all thermal energy can be converted to electricity via thermocoupling, why would Big Oil dump CO2 when it supposedly has such a thermal enhancing quality?

      You’re being asked to believe in a large conspiracy by Big Oil to suppress an easy revenue stream!

      Who are actually the retards?

      They are!

      Reply

  • Avatar

    Pierre D. Bernier

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    Oh no. LOOK ! The water has reached the great lakes !

    Reply

  • Avatar

    Pierre D. Bernier

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    The whole premise for GHGE is that the Sun shines on both hemispheres of the Earth at any given time ignoring the fact that there is day and night. That way they are diluting the Sun’s flux by a factor of 2. The Earth is not flat and the Sun shines on only one hemisphere of the Earth at a time, NOT BOTH ! ! ! Therefore the effective black body temperature of the earth is not -18 °C as they claim. The average Sun’s flux on Earth is 1368 / 2 for 684 W/m2. After albedo of 31%, 472 W/m2 hits the Earth for a 302 °K or 29 °C average. NOT -18 °C. Plenty of heat to create the climate. No more need for GHGE.

    DIVIDE BY 2, NOT 4 ! ! !

    The Inconvenient Spotlight

    A spotlight is made of a filament enclosed in a sealed vacuum globe, a back polished parabolic aluminium reflector and a front transparent glass lens. When the power is set on, the filament glows to about 3000K and emits light. We can see the light because it passes through the front lens. We can also feel some Infrared light passing through the lens because the temperature of the lens reaches about 200 C which is 473K. According to the Stefan-Botlzman law, 473K is the equivalent of emitting 2838 W/m2. This 2838 W/m2 is emitted externally and internally from the lens where it will be reflected by the back reflector. Now the lens receives both the filament energy and the internally reflected energy for a total of 5676 W/m2. If the Greenhouse Effect is true then according to the Stefan-Boltzman law this is equivalent to 562K or 289 C. Now, that lens has to emit more energy to cool off, 5676 W/m2 outward and inward which will also be reflected by the back reflector. So, now the lens receives 8514 W/m2 which is equivalent to 622K or 349 C. This continuous heating cycle must result in continuous increases in temperature causing increases in radiative emissions and it has no end. If the Greenhouse Effect is true then no spotlight should ever be operational. They will all blowup instantaneously. Since they do work then the Greenhouse Effect is not real.

    If you want more counter arguments let me know.

    Reply

  • Avatar

    richard

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    Interesting story about the Maldives. In the 1970s tourism took off heavily in the Maldives. Coral was used for building and to feed the frenzy the coral was stripped resulting in damage from the seas and effecting the ground water. In the early 1990s , UNESCO, said at this speed the coral would be decimated in 30 years. A ban was put on the use of coral for building. Today the damage has been averted , the only problem now is China is taking over 7 of the Islands by the back door with heavy investments.

    Reply

  • Avatar

    richard

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    from NOAA, extract from a workshop about the oceans

    “This is often termed “ocean acidification” because it describes the
    process of decreasing pH. Current projections of ocean acidification
    suggest that
    the pH of surface ocean waters will continue to decline. However, the
    term can also lead to confusion
    when it is wrongly assumed that the oceans will become acidic, when in
    reality, ocean pH is never expected to fall below 7.0; i.e., the
    oceans are becoming
    less basic, but not acidic. Such a phenomenon could
    only occur in the unlikely event that CO2 emissions
    reach more than 10,000 Pg C (Caldeira and Wickett,
    2005)”

    “Table 3 shows the different range of pH some countries are implementing. Generally, all
    countries use an average range of between 5.0 and 9.0 in freshwater, and 6.5 and 9.0 for
    marine, all of which are within the limits of optimum fish production”

    http://www.aquaculture.asia/files/PMNQ%20WQ%20standard%202.pdf

    Reply

  • Avatar

    Matt

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    BREAKING NEWS
    Tony Heller’s excellent video is going viral on youtube.
    “my gift to climate alarmists-tony heller-youtube”
    Take a look. Give it a nudge.

    Reply

  • Avatar

    richard

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    Same old , Same old,,

    Greta mark I

    This child was 12 or 13, same words “you adults must change your ways……..”

    “Severn Cullis-Suzuki at Rio Summit 1992”

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oJJGuIZVfLM

    Reply

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