Global Warming? Bring it on!!
Posted on 12/31/2005 6:28:17 PM PST by Coleus
Global warming doubles rate of ocean rise Rutgers-led team shows rising ocean levels tied to human-induced climate change Global ocean levels are rising twice as fast today as they were 150 years ago, and human-induced warming appears to be the culprit, say scientists at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, and collaborating institutions. While the speed at which the ocean is rising – almost two millimeters per year today compared to one millimeter annually for the past several thousand years – may not be fodder for the next disaster movie, it affirms scientific concerns of accelerated global warming.
In an article published in the Nov. 25 issue of the journal Science, Rutgers professor of geological sciences Kenneth G. Miller reports on a new record of sea level change during the past 100 million years based on drilling studies along the New Jersey coast. The findings establish a steady millimeter-per-year rise from 5,000 years ago until about 200 years ago.
In contrast, sea-level measurements since 1850 from tidal gauges and more recently from satellite images, when corrected for land settling along the shoreline, reveal the current two-millimeter annual rise. "Without reliable information on how sea levels had changed before we had our new measures, we couldn't be sure the current rate wasn't happening all along," said Miller. "Now, with solid historical data, we know it is definitely a recent phenomenon.
"The main thing that's changed since the 19th century and the beginning of modern observation has been the widespread increase in fossil fuel use and more greenhouse gases," he added. "Our record therefore provides a new and reliable baseline to use in addressing global warming."
The new sea level record spanning 100 million years of geologic time is the first comprehensive one scientists have produced since a commercial research endeavor in 1987, which, according to Miller, was not fully documented and verifiable.
The findings by Miller's team argue against some widely held tenets of geological science. Miller claims, for example, that ocean heights 100 million years ago and earlier were 150 to 200 meters lower than scientists had previously thought. Changes at these levels can only be caused by the Earth's crust shifting on the ocean floor. Miller's findings, therefore, imply less ocean-crust production than scientists had widely assumed.
During the Late Cretaceous period (the most recent age of dinosaurs), frequent sea-level fluctuations of tens of meters suggest that the Earth was not always ice-free as previously assumed. Ice-volume changes are the only way that sea levels could change at these rates and levels, Miller claims. This suggests small- to medium-sized but short-lived ice sheets in the Antarctic region, and casts doubt whether any of the Earth's warmer eras were fully ice-free.
Miller's team took five 500-meter-deep core samples of sediments onshore along New Jersey's coastline from Cape May to Sandy Hook. The scientists examined the sediment type, fossils, and variations in isotopes, or different forms of the same elements, at different levels in the cores they extracted. Miller also correlated these measurements with others from throughout the world to substantiate the global nature of their record.
### The Rutgers study included participants from the New Jersey Geological Survey, the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University, Western Michigan University, the University of Oregon and Queens College in Flushing, N.Y. The National Science Foundation provided major funding for the study.
How do we know that the land isn't just sinking?????
There can be only one possible solution to this terrible delima we face: international socialism as dreamed of by Karl Marx! </sarcasm>
As you apparently know, the planet is not a rigid shape. The land pushes up in areas and sinks in others.
I just finished reading Michael Crichton's "State of Fear"...there is no global warming...period.
Just more water for me to bass fish!
Global Warming? Bring it on!!
It's a good read and once more he backs up his work with documented proof. He also pokes fun at Hollywood.
Right - so when an island or something seems to be flooding it could just mean it's sinking .... I've learned that there's the same amount of water since creation (evolutionary or whatever) on earth but in different forms. Sometimes there's more of one kind (liquid) than other (gas or solid) ....
How much time do we have left in Fairbanks? 450 feet above sea level.
I think it is all the newly fatter people swimming in the ocean making it all rise.
So this idiot is claiming steam power started global warming in 1860.
One underwater volcano can out out more steam in an hour than all the trains in the world put out until Diesels took over.
Cool. I live in Baltimore. At this rate, in 2000 years, I'll have ocean front property.
If only Al Gore was here, he would know what to do..
16 posts and I am the first to say it????
IT'S BUSH'S FAULT!!!!!
NOW, WE'RE DOOOOMED!!!!!! DOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMMMEEEEED!
The biggest change since the 19th century, which they manage to totally ignore is, the increaed population of earth with it's increase in CO² emissions form mammals breathing! Also the bullsh-t is getting a lot deeper too also. Book em, Barney.
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