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How much is sea level rising?

What the science says...

Select a level... Basic Intermediate

A variety of different measurements find steadily rising sea levels over the past century.

Climate Myth...

Sea level rise is exaggerated

"We are told sea level is rising and will soon swamp all of our cities. Everybody knows that the Pacific island of Tuvalu is sinking. ...

Around 1990 it became obvious the local tide-gauge did not agree - there was no evidence of 'sinking.' So scientists at Flinders University, Adelaide, set up new, modern, tide-gauges in 12 Pacific islands.

Recently, the whole project was abandoned as there was no sign of a change in sea level at any of the 12 islands for the past 16 years." Vincent Gray).

At a glance

You'd think it would be obvious, wouldn't you? If ice (or snow) melts, you get water. Water flows downhill through gravity and collects wherever it can be retained. In areas that see regular winter snowfalls, the processes involved are familiar. Snow-capped mountains look photogenic but along comes the eventual thaw and the river levels rise sharply with all the meltwater.

Now apply the same basic principles to glaciers and ice-caps. It should not come as a surprise that exactly the same thing happens and where that meltwater collects is ultimately the oceans. Note here that we're talking about land-based ice, not sea-ice: sea-ice is already part of the ocean so does not affect sea levels as it forms and melts every year. But melt enough land-ice and you get very significant change indeed.

What do we mean by very significant? Well, let's look at the transition out of the last ice-age that dominated the last 20,000 years. It began with ice-caps over parts of Europe and North America and ended not so long ago with much of that ice gone but with sea levels having risen by more than 120 metres. If that's not significant, what is?

There's not enough ice left on Earth to raise sea levels by that whopping amount now, but there is enough to raise the oceans by more than 60 metres. Over what sort of time-frame? Well, we know that the current rate of sea level rise is some 3.7 mm a year, or nearly an inch and a half per decade. A lot of that is due to the expansion of the oceans - as things are warmed up they expand. But the rate is accelerating. How fast do we think it can get? 

We do have the past to consider: during the glacial meltdown of the past 20,000 years, there was a period ominously named Meltwater Pulse 1A that began some 14,700 years ago. During this enhanced period of melting, sea levels rose by between 16 and 25 metres in about 400–500 years. That's roughly 40–60 mm per year or 16-23 inches a decade.

Could such drastic rates of sea level rise happen again? Probably not but nevertheless it shows what is possible as ice-sheets collapse in a warming world. But even if sea level rise stays at its current rate (it won't), that's getting on for a two-metre increase over the coming 300 years and a one-half to one-metre increase over the next 100 years. Now go anywhere affected by tides and think about all the communities of people that live and work along the shore. Pick the biggest spring tides, take a look at where they reach at high water, maybe watch the waves and surge when a storm occurs, then imagine an extra two metres of water on top of that.

And try to imagine being the decision-makers in the coming decades and centuries, who will have to work out what best to do. What would you think of the people all those years ago, who went around pretending this was not happening? Not favourably, for sure - because of such behaviour, that is how history will remember them.

Please use this form to provide feedback about this new "At a glance" section. Read a more technical version below or dig deeper via the tabs above!


Further details

The climate myth set out in the coloured box above gives an insight into the minds of climate change deniers. Why? Because it's entirely made-up. It annoyed the Realclimate blog's Gavin Schmidt sufficiently for him to write an eloquent debunking in 2012 that is well worth reading because it demonstrates so clearly what we, the scientific community, are up against.

The claim that tide gauges on islands in the Pacific Ocean show no sea level rise is nonsense: the data presented in the Realclimate link above show a variably rising sea level trend at each station. But what about global sea level rise?

Sea level rises as ice on land melts and as warming ocean waters expand. As well as being an existential threat to coastal habitation and environments (think about many of the world's capital cities here), sea level rise corroborates other evidence of global warming 

The black line in the graph below (fig. 1) clearly shows sea level is rising; its upward curve shows how sea level is rising faster as time goes on. The upward curve agrees with global temperature trends and with the accelerating melting of ice in Greenland and other places.

Because sea level behaviour is such an important signal for tracking climate change, the misinformers seized on the sea level record in an effort to cast doubt on this evidence. As fig. 1 clearly demonstrates, sea level bounces up and down slightly from year to year so it's possible to cherry-pick data and falsely suggest the overall trend is flat, falling or linear. You can try this yourself. Starting with two closely spaced data points on the graph below, lay a straight-edge between them and notice how for a short period of time you can create almost any slope you prefer, simply by being selective about what data points you use. Now choose data points farther apart. Notice that as your selected data points cover more time, the more your mini-graph reflects the big picture. The lesson? Always look at all the data rather than being fooled by selective presentations.

AR6 WGI Chapter 2 Figure 2_28c

Fig. 1: sea level change, from IPCC AR6 WGI Chapter 2 section Climate Change 2021: The Physical Science Basis. Tide-gauge and, more latterly, altimeter-based estimates since 1850. The full image with all four panels and IPCC caption is available here.

Other denialist arguments about sea level concern the validity of observations, obtained via tide gauges and more recently satellite altimeter observations.

Tide gauges must take into account changes in the height of land itself caused by local geological processes, a favourite distraction for deniers to highlight. It will come as no surprise to learn that scientists measuring sea level with tide gauges are aware of - and compensate for - these factors. Confounding influences are accounted for in measurements and while they leave some noise in the record they cannot account for the observed long-term upward trend.

Various technical criticisms are mounted against satellite altimeter measurements by deniers. Indeed, deriving millimetre-level accuracy from orbit is a stunning technical feat so it's not hard to understand why some people find such an accomplishment unbelievable. It's astonishing that in another breath they are happy to jump aboard an airliner, parts of which are engineered to a similar tolerance!

In reality, researchers demonstrate this height measurement technique's accuracy to be within 1 mm/year. Most importantly there is no form of residual error that could falsely produce the upward trend in observations. 

As can be seen in an inset of the graph in fig. 1, tide gauge and satellite altimeter measurements track each other with remarkable similarity. These two independent systems mutually support the observed trend in sea level. If an argument depends on skipping certain observations or emphasises uncertainty while ignoring an obvious trend, that's a clue you're being steered as opposed to informed. Don't be misled by only a carefully-selected portion of the available evidence being disclosed. Look at it all.

Current sea level rise is not exaggerated, in fact the opposite case is more plausible. For one, sea level rise is not the same everywhere. Many areas around the world already experience much faster rates of sea level rise than the average global rate shown in Fig 1.  As well, observational data and changing conditions in such places as Greenland suggest if there's a real problem here it's underestimation of future sea level rise. Past IPCC synthesis reports offered rather conservative projections of sea level increase based on assumptions about future behaviour of ice sheets and glaciers, leading to estimates of sea level roughly following a linear upward trend mimicking that of recent decades. In point of fact, observed sea level rise is already above older IPCC projections - and accelerating - while at the same time it appears the mass balance of continental ice once envisioned by the IPCC was overly optimistic (Rahmstorf 2010; Otosaka et al. 2023).

Fast-forward to 2023 and the recent IPCC AR6 Synthesis Report is a bit less nuanced:

Limiting global surface temperature does not prevent continued changes in climate system components that have multi-decadal or longer timescales of response (high confidence). Sea level rise is unavoidable for centuries to millennia due to continuing deep ocean warming and ice sheet melt, and sea levels will remain elevated for thousands of years (high confidence). However, deep, rapid and sustained GHG emissions reductions would limit further sea level rise acceleration and projected long-term sea level rise commitment. Relative to 1995–2014, the likely global mean sea level rise under the SSP1-1.9 GHG emissions scenario is 0.15–0.23 m by 2050 and 0.28–0.55 m by 2100; while for the SSP5-8.5 GHG emissions scenario it is 0.20–0.29 m by 2050 and 0.63–1.01 m by 2100 (medium confidence).

The report goes on to state, however:

The probability of low-likelihood outcomes associated with potentially very large impacts increases with higher global warming levels (high confidence). Due to deep uncertainty linked to ice-sheet processes, global mean sea level rise above the likely range – approaching 2 m by 2100 and in excess of 15 m by 2300 under the very high GHG emissions scenario (SSP5-8.5) (low confidence) – cannot be excluded.

If they cannot exclude such risks - and they know what they are talking about - can you?

Last updated on 20 August 2023 by John Mason. View Archives

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Further viewing

From Peter Hadfield (potholer54 on YouTube) published on Dec 5, 2021

Compare two photos 130 years apart and it looks as though sea levels haven't moved. So why all the fuss about rising sea levels and evacuating islands? This video closes the yawning gap between internet myths and science.


 

From Peter Sinclair (greenman3610 on YouTube) published on Sep 24, 2009

Denial101x lecture

Comments

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Comments 51 to 75 out of 109:

  1. Daniel - you're apparently missing the point from both Peter and myself. The data points from that paper (core samples) fit a linear trend. There is no evidence from those samples of any higher frequency changes (short term), since if there were short term changes those data points would be extremely unlikely to all fall on a linear fit line. Peter said that quite clearly, so did I. The evidence in that paper supports a linear fit - not a long term linear fit with lots of short term excursions. I think Peter said it better: "If there were short term variations of the magnitude which you suggest between the sparse points then the probability of all of these randomly sampled points fitting any smooth long term curve is small." If a rise such as seen in the last 200 years occurred some time in the remaining 600 years covered by the Donnally paper, those carbon dated sediments would not fall on or near the linear fit line for 1400-1800, especially given an average sampling of 60 years. There is no evidence in the data that supports your assertion of short term variations, and hence none are postulated by Donnelly. If you think that there are, you need to find some evidence for them. There's certainly no such evidence in the Donnally data points. If you don't get that, there's really nothing I can say other than to suggest you find out more about data fitting and evidentiary rules in science.
  2. KR I think you should reconstruct the data from table 1 and include sample 1 like I asked Peter to and you will find that Donnely's data supports my conclusion. The linear fit is quite possibly an undersampling of a higher amplitude trend.
  3. daniel at 08:21 AM on 6 July, 2010 If "wordy" bothers you I can draw some pictures? As a professional scientist I have concerns about your recent comments and general analytical approach to this data set. As we have sparse data and Donnelly gives error estimates, might I suggest again a statistical approach? It also worries me that you have not followed through on physics or measurement based evidence which suggest your “short term large variation” hypothesis is highly improbable. High resolution temperature reconstructions are available and do not support your proposal - Grinsted covers this well. Please read it. Back to Donnelly, we have more plenty of points here near point 1. The uncertainty in point 1 is shown. It is consistent with the other data which has higher certainty and fits the given trend, statistically speaking. If your argument had any chance of surviving critical scrutiny you would expect deviation of the error envelope from the “curve” for at least some of the other points, which we do not see. The total error envelope would have smooth upper and lower bounds, and I agree we could see variation within these bounds, but this is relatively small and does not compare with the overall rise or the recent rise in rate. This is the point of Donnellys paper. Coupled with evidence of lack of variability in the drivers for your hypothesised variations, this greatly diminishes the probability of your hypothesis being correct. Add to this data from other sources which also give points with high uncertainty but which also fit on the shallow curve (given the error envelope) increase the probability of the low amplitude variation fit being statistically robust, and diminish further the probability of your hypothesis being correct. The recent acceleration in sea level is well documented as are the physics based drivers for this. The overall picture is consistent. For you to hide behind "ad hominem" when it is suggested that Donnelly has access to a great deal more data than he is presenting in one paper on one specific site, reflects poorly on your argument, and I expect better from anyone who claims a science background. Here are some further references (in no particular order) on proxy records, physical basis of sea level rise, recent acceleration, and extended tide gauge data, I hope you will read them, and follow through on a few of their references, and come back with a bit more knowledge and a bit less uninformed opinion: Woodworth 2008, Engelhart 2009, Woodworth 2009, Yasuda 2008, Romundset 2009, Engel 2009, Gonzalez 2009, Leorri 2008, Miller 2008, Goodwin 2008, Wopplemann 2008, Merrifield 2009
  4. Yikes pete, sure I'll read them. But did you reconstruct the data from table 1? We can see that using high uncertainty low res data we still have roughly the same linear trend into the modern age. This is evidence of undersampling of a higher amplitude trend. A high amplitude trend directly measured in recent times using a tide gauge. You seem to think that the data points lie perfectly on a linear trend when even the centres of the boxes don't do that. Coupled with the error margins there is indeed enough slack im the data for higher amplitude trends. Therefore the link to Anthropogenic CO2 as a driver is undermined.
  5. daniel, you keep asking people to plot the data from table 1. Could you please show your graph with the linear fit to the data and the line with a slope of 2.8 mm/yr? This would be more convincing.
  6. Ok but it will take me sometime as, like the rest of you, I am a busy man. I would also like to point out to Peter that this comment: "Add to this data from other sources which also give points with high uncertainty but which also fit on the shallow curve (given the error envelope) increase the probability of the low amplitude variation fit being statistically robust, and diminish further the probability of your hypothesis being correct." has already been discussed in part by both of us. He asked me to examine Donnely 2006 and made the claim that the papers support each other but Donnelly 2006 is an even sparser data set than 2004 with all of the 2004 data fitting within the two latest samples of 2006. The 2006 data has just as much or even more uncertainty than the 2004 data. So how is it that either refine the other? I guess the answer will be read the other papers and they will do better? I will, but I doubt they will do the job. Also I have been told that high res studies are in agreement with the overall conclusion of Donnelly's paper. But I have read the Gehrels 2006 high res study and the uncertainties still undermine the validity of a recent unnatural uptrend (not to mention a highly suspicious uptrend when the method of age determination changes). Will the other papers cited like Grinsted do any better? We'll see but from what I've seen and keep seeing when asked to read these studies is that they will probably all have much the same faults because the nature of the measurement doesn't have the certainty required to detect a moderm uptrend.
  7. Riccardo at 00:05 AM on 7 July, 2010 Ok Riccardo, I have provided a graph here using data obtained from Donnelly 2004 cited by the original article. By averaging the limits of the C14 error bars you can obtain the centres of the date ranges. The mean heights are plotted in table 1 so you can then find the centres of the uncertainty boxes. The height error limits are described in the text and also in table 1. In this graph I have tried to reconstruct the Donnelly linear fit by taking the mean height and oldest error limits for the dates of samples 4 and 11. I had to use these visual markers to reconstruct Donnelly's linear trend because I can't find any indication of what the true linear parameters are from the paper. You can see that it seems to be correct visually and rounds adequately to the 2 sig. figs. quoted by Donnelly. You can see that I've labelled all the paleo-samples with their respective numbers and have put a linear regression line through all samples (including sample 1) spanning the entire 700 years. I have included the recent linear uptrends mentioned in the text as you asked. They both initiate from the 1mm trend as the text suggests they do. Some of the trends are extrapolated with dashed lines up to 2000AD. I think it is fairly obvious from this graph that there is no statistically significant uptrend in the last 150 years detected by this paper. I dare any of you to argue with me any further on that point.
  8. johnd - Thank you for the chart. A question of note, however: You have the 11 paleo proxies with a slope of 1.023mm/year, the recent tide data with a slope of 2.4 or 2.8mm/year. And you then fit all the data with a slope of 1.2mm/year? Modern levels of SLR are KNOWN to be ~2.4 mm/year. Donnelly's fit of ~1 +/- 0.2 mm/year average over the 1300/1900 period still holds. Perhaps, just perhaps, there were major swings in SLR between the Donnelly sample points (although as Peter Hogarth points out, lots of other data indicate that this is not the case, filling in the spaces between these linear fit samples). There are certainly no physical phenomena that we know of that could cause reversible SLR changes on that order. The data provided in this paper still demonstrates an average (read that word again) average SLR of 1+/-0.2 mm/year for 1300-1900. I think you are really missing the point. The current SLR is known to be ~2.4 mm/year. Donnelly's paper establishes that over the period of 1300-1900 it averaged ~1+/-0.2 mm/year. Therein lies the conclusions of interest, that SLR rates are changing. Are you arguing that the current SLR is NOT 2.4mm/year??? Then you need to disprove all of the satellite and tide data. Are you arguing that it did not average ~1+/-0.2 mm/year for the 600-700 years prior to the 1900's? Then you are disagreeing with yourself - your reconstruction and graph support Donnelly, well within his error bars. And - if we had a 150 year change in SLR of this magnitude in the previous 1000 years, the paleo data points wouldn't all be on the fit line! I suspect Peter will have something to say about this as well...
  9. daniel, I did not follow your previous discussion so i'm basing my comments on the last couple of your comments. In particular, the claim "I think it is fairly obvious from this graph that there is no statistically significant uptrend in the last 150 years detected by this paper." (emph. mine). The behaviour of the data should be clear and we should also come to the same conclusions reported in Donnelly paper, which is: "A linear rate of rise of 1.0 ± 0.2 mm/year intersects all the 2s uncertainty boxes of the record from the 14th to the mid-19th century (Figure 2). Linear regression of the NYC tide-gauge data reveals an average rate of SLR of 2.8 mm/year from 1856 – 2001 A.D. Coupling the Barn Island record and regional tide-gauge data indicates that the rate of SLR increased to modern levels in the 19th century (Figure 2). [...] The NYC tide-gauge data further support the late 19th century timing of the SLR increase. Linear regression of segments of the NYC tide-gauge data indicate an increase in the rate of SLR from about 1.0 mm/year between 1856 and 1878 to 2.4 mm/year between 1893 and 1921 A.D. [Donnelly and Bertness, 2001]." Indeed, you (and Donnelly) get a statistically significant trend of 1.0 mm/yr before about 1850. The last data point lies above this line, although barely statistically significant; including it rises the rate at 1.2 mm/yr but both R and chi2 decrease. Statistics indicates that there has been a change in slope but a weak conclusion, i'd say. Adding the NYC tide gauge data between 1893 and 1921, the 2.4 mm/yr line nicely match sample #1. Then, sure i'd not say that there has been an acceleration after the 19th century from sedimentary data alone, afterall there's just one data point supporting this conclusion. Note that not Donnelly nor John in this post claimed otherwise. But overall, i.e. including all the data presented in the paper, the conclusion of an increase in the sea level rise rate from the late 19th century is solid. Back to you claim quoted above, i think that the mistake is in the last few words "by this paper", you should have referred only to sedimentary data.
  10. KR at 02:02 AM on 10 July, 2010 johnd - Thank you for the chart. - ?????????????????????????
  11. johnd - sorry about that; I really need to get off this cold medicine! That should be a reference to daniel.
  12. daniel at 19:25 PM on 9 July, 2010 Daniel, thanks for the chart. It would take me a little longer to enter the data and do one with error envelopes and the tide gauge data, but I think we now get a better explanation of why this misunderstanding has rolled on...
  13. KR at 02:02 AM on 10 July, 2010 "You have the 11 paleo proxies with a slope of 1.023mm/year, the recent tide data with a slope of 2.4 or 2.8mm/year. And you then fit all the data with a slope of 1.2mm/year?" Please read the graph and post carefully. Samples 4-11 (that's 8 count em... 8, have you read the paper KR?) have the Donnelly linear fit (psst... it's not a least squares fit) of 1.023mm/yr. I used visual indicators/markers from the Donnelly graph (fig 2.) to construct it, it rounds to 1.0mm/yr. The dashed portion is extrapolated for comparisons to the other fitted lines etc. The least squares I have fitted to all paleo data produces a 1.2mm/yr average long term trend over the entire 700 years (thats a slope just inside Donnelly's error bars.... pennies dropping yet?) "Modern levels of SLR are KNOWN to be ~2.4 mm/year." That's nice..... "Donnelly's fit of ~1 +/- 0.2 mm/year average over the 1300/1900 period still holds." It holds to 2000AD....... look at the graph KR "Perhaps, just perhaps, there were major swings in SLR between the Donnelly sample points" I am suggesting short term swings that lie within the error bars. They are easily there, as I keep asking you.... read paper.... look at graph. The fact that a shallow linear trend extends up until 2000AD with tide gauge data that deviates from it but remains within the large error estimates of the most recent paleo sample is more than enough evidence to support my critique of this paper. Such deviations could have easily existed "(although as Peter Hogarth points out, lots of other data indicate that this is not the case, filling in the spaces between these linear fit samples)" He tried using Donnelly 2006 and failed miserably, sure there are other papers and I need to find time to read them but my first impression was not a good one. "There are certainly no physical phenomena that we know of that could cause reversible SLR changes on that order." I don't know what you mean by "reversible" (probably some exaggerated claim about the short term trends I'm suggesting involving unicorn plasmas). There seems to be alot that the climate science community doesn't fully understand about the hugely complex system known as planet earth. I don't really care if you have or haven't found drivers for ancient SLR swings. You can't claim they didn't exist from an amateur non least squares line fit! I'm not saying that recent SLR can't be 2.4mm/yr or that the long term trend isnt ~1mm/yr +/- 0.2mm/yr. Actually KR.... if you read carefully.... I'm saying its 1.2mm/yr..... :0 ..... wha!!!??? "And - if we had a 150 year change in SLR of this magnitude in the previous 1000 years, the paleo data points wouldn't all be on the fit line!" I am moved to laugh... You mean like the centres of sample boxes 8, 11 and 10? "I suspect Peter will have something to say about this as well..." Yes that's right KR, if it wasn't for him we'd barely have a discussion. Why don't you let him do the talkin while you do some readin, not skimming.
  14. Riccardo at 02:19 AM on 10 July, 2010 "The behaviour of the data should be clear and we should also come to the same conclusions reported in Donnelly paper," Yes it's clear, a simple linear regression of the box centres shows that the ~1mm/yr trend extends up to 2000AD. Donnelly implies that the tide gauge data is unusually high compared to 1300-1850 AD. But it clearly isn't since we use the same methods to obtain a "modern" paleo sample and find no significant uptrend in the data. Donnelly's rate error limits are 0.8-1.2mm/yr over 1300-1850. The simple linear fit of all the paleo data up to 2000AD has a rate within these limits (no detail as to how the limits are acieved in the first place). Are you going to go on again and say that a significant uptrend has been detected by the tide gauge when there is no high certainty paleo data to compare it to? Please save your breathe (fingers). "Indeed, you (and Donnelly) get a statistically significant trend of 1.0 mm/yr before about 1850." Well actually I don't know what statistical analysis Donnelly has performed on his trendline since it's not mentioned. I have simply tried to reconstruct it using visual markers. Linear regression of the centres of sample boxes 4-11 gives a rate of ~1.1mm/yr. Donnelly was trying to marry up the earliest tide gauge trends with a proposed linear trend through 1300-1850. ".... including it rises the rate at 1.2 mm/yr but both R and chi2 decrease." Can you do some calculations to show this please and by how much they decrease? I won't have time over the next couple of days. You then go on to say that you agree the paleo data doesn't support a recent acceleration and that nobody was claiming otherwise or at least not the paleo data alone. But they were claiming samples 4-11 did and I am showing that inclusion of sample 1 undermines that conclusion. The short term tide gauge data compared to the much less certain, long term paleo data is invalid and I believe I have shown by inclusion of sample 1 in a simple linear regression that short term variance is easily achievable amongst samples 4-11. After agreeing with me on the insufficiency of the paleodata you then say that the conclusion is solid. (Throws hands up in air as a sign of frustration). I didn't make an error by claiming "by this paper" Donnelly only provides sedimentary data. Do you think he collected the tide gauge data? Do you still think the conclusion drawn from the comparison between the two data sets is valid?
  15. Peter Hogarth at 06:10 AM on 10 July, 2010 Pete I can't quite tell if this comment was supposed to be taken as a backdown on Donnelly 2004 or if you intend to argue further with a graph of your own. If a backdown I acknowledge that it would be of this paper and this paper alone. I cannot then use this to say that all of Donnelly's work is invalid. But I do have some personal doubts and I feel that this discussion should prompt those reading on to look again with a more critical eye as to what is published in both in climate literature and other disciplines.
  16. daniel, the paper shows two data sets and draw conclusions explicitly based on both. It really does not matter who actually collected the data. The large error in the sedimentary data does not imply an equivalent large error in the trend. Indeed, the latter is 0.2 mm/yr and assuming a comparable error for the tide gauges data the difference in the trends is still significant. Or do you think it's not possible to compare two different data sets?
  17. Riccardo, you have been absent from the discussion and it may pay for you to back track a little. I do not dispute any of the trends discussed or proposed by anyone I only dispute the argument made against me that significant deviations from the long term trend are impossible, highly unlikely or have been shown to not exist at Barn Island. Such short term deviant trends in the paleo data set would undermine any conclusiom of an unusual modern uptrend. I also have gone so far as to say that this is a good example of poor science swallowed by people who should know better but are blinded by fear of impending doom.
  18. Sorry Riccardo, to answer your question more directly, I don't think this particular comparison is valid at all. You also say that the tide gauge data has more deviation than 0.2mm/yr. Could you explain what you mean by that? Donnelly believes his long term trend may deviate overall by 0.2mm/yr over a ~550 year period. You can't compare that to the deviations in the tide gauge data and say that the tide gauge data is more noisy. There are no error limits placed on the short term linear trends discussed by Donnelly for the tide gauge data. You cannot compare visual non-quantified scatter to statistically determined error limits of a linear trend. Even if there were error limits on the proposed short term trends you should be able to see that I have shown that the tide gauge data can lie on a shallow long term trend of paleo data (samples 1-11) with a rate (1.2mm/yr) within the error limits proposed by Donnelly (1.0 +/- 0.2mm/yr)..
  19. daniel, i see your point, but you're comparing the values of sea level with sea level rise, i.e. the trend. It doesn't matter if the recent "high" resolution sea level data fall within the uncertainty of the sedimentary trend, what matters for Donnelly conclusions is that the two trends are significantly different.
  20. daniel at 14:18 PM on 10 July, 2010 To summarise: The original paper provides evidence used to suggest a relatively recent acceleration in sea level rise. The recent trend is taken from tide gauge data. This is accurate and errors small. We can take this as the "real" local relative sea level rise since 1856. The question is, what was the local sea level doing before 1856? Several data points derived from peat sediments are given where the dating of the sediment has uncertainties. Two more points are derived from heavy metal polution and pollen. A linear trend is fitted to these points which is less than half of the tide gauge trend, hence, acceleration. You argue that the longer term trend fitted to the sparser points may be hiding short term variations and other possible periods of acceleration. I argue that any variation is constrained by the error envelope of the points and the physical processes which might cause fast variations. I have provided a considerable body of evidence which supports this, but you have still focused on this data from this paper and provided a simple chart (but without any statistical analysis). I'll see about a chart with the actual tide data etc.
  21. Daniel - Something you haven't really addressed (at all, and I don't count your ad hominem statements) is that the paleo data indicates sea level, not sea level rise rate. The rise rate is extrapolated by looking at multiple measurements of sea level. I've said it before, but it didn't seem to register - if a major upswing like the currently observed 2.4 mm/yr SLR occurred in the 1300-1850 period, the paleo data points of sea level couldn't fall anywhere close to the linear fit line for the 1.0+/-0.2 mm/year SLR trend. If there was a brief 100-150 year rise at 2.4 (as currently observed) there would be a step change in the observed paleo sea levels. That is not shown in the data. The only way a rise at those rates could occur and still fit the data (including the error bars) would be if the SLR went negative (or close to it) long enough for the long term sea levels to still average 1.0+/-0.2 mm/yr. If you have a physical process for something like that, I would love to see it. If this was measuring rate of rise, there are a lot more degrees of freedom. But these measurements are of sea level, and the long term historic rate is clearly about half the current rate. That's why I said "reversible", and why I don't feel your hypothesis of high variability and equally high rise rates in the past can hold, unless you also postulate extremely low SLR levels. The current rate of 2.4mm/yr is well established by tide gauge data, Donnelly submits evidence for ~1.0mm/yr for the 1300-1850 era - and your graph fit falls within his error bars for that rate. Sparse data or not, if a high SLR rate occurred in that period, it would have to be matched by a low SLR rate for the long term trend in sea level to still be ~1mm/yr. If you don't get that, well, end of discussion for me. I'm not going to waste my time yelling at the deaf.
  22. Peter Hogarth at 07:48 AM on 11 July, 2010 "Several data points derived from peat sediments are given where the dating of the sediment has uncertainties." A candidate for understatement of the year. Sample 7 has a height uncertainty of +/- 10.4cm and a date range of 172 years, Sample 8 does not do much better. Sample 9 generally dates older than sample 10 despite attempts using the principle of superposition to eliminate such assignment errors and sample 11 cannot be definitively defined between two date ranges which span 123 years in total. "I argue that any variation is constrained by the error envelope of the points..." And here we have overstatement of the year. Gentlemen I will provide a graph with linear fits between small groupings of the data points if you lik and you will see that on the short term deviations fall easily within the error envelopes. But then you will claim that such 2-4 point linear trends are statistically insignificant. But that's the point! Donnelly's study can't make short term comparisons so any comparison to the recent data is invalid. Donnelly doesn't give us enough data to produce statistically significant trends on the short term. " ...and the physical processes which might cause fast variations." and "I have provided a considerable body of evidence which supports this, but you have still focused on this data from this paper and provided a simple chart (but without any statistical analysis)." Well we could discuss how well these physical processes are known and you could cite specifically which papers deal with causation but I would at least like you to acknowledge that this paper, using the data it provides only, has no case to make. Donnelly has gone to all this effort to determine a linear trend in the hope it would alone provide the evidence. He only cites other climate studies not SLR studies to support his conclusions and he admits they only roughly do so. I fear that this is the kind of study that is used to determine causation of SLR (a rough correlation to paleoclimate data) where other, as yet unknown, ocean heating or seismic factors may also be playing a role. It is often claimed that climate science is in it's infancy so you should not be surprised when others claim SLR drivers may not be properly understood. If this statistically insignificant kind of study is used to determine causation then I am very worried indeed about what we do and don't know about SLR drivers and what the known drivers were actually doing in the recent and distant past. You do realise that conceding this point and accepting the poor quality of this paper does not mean you lose the war. I would love to discuss other papers but if you can't bring yourselves to accurately critique this paper what point is there in moving on to others? You can't say that all the other papers validate this study without discussing them in detail (Donnelly doesn't). You can't use dodgy materials to build a strong house. There needs to be other studies that are of higher quality than this one in order to support this one. Citations please (I haven't read your review articles Pete, I've been busy defending an obvious and very pertinent point... amongst living my life). As to the comments about my lack of statistical analysis can you please state exactly what you want? I can do a chi squared test if you like? Can you see the R squared value in my least squares fit? Do you think these kinds of analyses are going to support your cause? They will only support mine further. If I do a chi squared test on whether the 1mm/yr trend is significant on short term collections of the paleo data do you think we will get a statistically significant trend? That pendulum swings both ways and mostly in my favour (if not completely)
  23. Riccardo at 04:34 AM on 11 July, 2010 " ...but you're comparing the values of sea level with sea level rise, i.e. the trend." I'm only really comparing the trends. "It doesn't matter if the recent "high" resolution sea level data fall within the uncertainty of the sedimentary trend," It clearly shows that modern swings in SLR fit inside the error envelope of a shallow, linear long term trend in paleo data that is within the rate error limits of Donnelly's 1.0mm/yr +/-0.2mm/yr. Therefore there is no evidence to suggest tjhy could not have occurred in the past or that recent swings are unusual at Barn Island. " what matters for Donnelly conclusions is that the two trends are significantly different." They have not shown to be different. Directly measured, high certainty, high res, short term data cannot be compared to it's exact opposite ie. indirectly measured, low certainty, low res, long term trends.
  24. "I've said it before, but it didn't seem to register - if a major upswing like the currently observed 2.4 mm/yr SLR occurred in the 1300-1850 period, the paleo data points of sea level couldn't fall anywhere close to the linear fit line for the 1.0+/-0.2 mm/year SLR trend. " ...and I've said it before KR, that's total bunkem. Provide a graph to show your claim is true. You will find yourself dissapointed by the rashness of your claims. "If there was a brief 100-150 year rise at 2.4 (as currently observed) there would be a step change in the observed paleo sea levels. That is not shown in the data. " I can see two possible points where that rate or a rate closer to 2.4mm/yr than 1.0 mm/yr. could occur. Best candidate is samples 9-11 followed by sample ranges including 7-8. " If you have a physical process for something like that, I would love to see it. " Please discuss the evidence for a lack of active drivers in detail citing the relevant papers.
  25. So, daniel - you look at the larger gaps in the paleo data from this (and only this) paper, and assert that large SLR rates could occur in the spaces between the data points? I point out between, because the slope between 9/11 and 7/8 that you use as an example shows an average slope of ~0.9-1.0mm/year, as far as I can determine with a quick examination (certainly not >2mm/year!!). You do realize that these data points for sea level show the integral of the SLR over time, and that for such a large value of SLR (derivative) to occur in that period, there would have to be a corresponding low/negative SLR in that same period in order for the integral over that period to still yield ~1mm/yr? If you recognize that, great, we're half-way there, and perhaps past arguing and back into discussion over what could cause such high variation around the 1.0mm/year mean for 1300-1850.

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