Changing Tides: Research Center Under Fire for 'Adjusted' Sea-Level Data (The hoax continues)

Fox News ^ | 6/17/2011 | Maxim Lott

[tobyhill]

Is climate change raising sea levels, as Al Gore has argued -- or are climate scientists doctoring the data?

The University of Colorado’s Sea Level Research Group decided in May to add 0.3 millimeters -- or about the thickness of a fingernail -- every year to its actual measurements of sea levels, sparking criticism from experts who called it an attempt to exaggerate the effects of global warming.

"Gatekeepers of our sea level data are manufacturing a fictitious sea level rise that is not occurring," said James M. Taylor, a lawyer who focuses on environmental issues for the Heartland Institute.

[palmer]

if even ONE CO2 reading from last century is higher than now, the entire Hoax is revealed

Like I said on the other thread, CO2 readings will vary greatly by time of day and location. This paper http://www.agu.org/journals/jd/jd0319/2002JD003085/2002JD003085.pdf has a graph with CO2 measurement outliers as much as +/- 30 ppm and they were taking pains to measure consistently (same time of day, etc). Here are readings taken at different stations

showing a lot of similarity in the rise and some similarity in the seasonal wiggle (depends somewhat on local conditions, Mauna Loa gets a pretty well mixed reading high up in the atmosphere most days)

[palmer]

What is most important was they felt the need to add one extra inch per century because the current one inch per decade of sea level rise has slowed since 2003. So they added the fudge factor to keep it at the old rate (about 3 mm / year). But if they did that honestly back through the last ice age, they would have many feet of extra rise that didn't happen, so it is a completely fabricated addition.

Whether sea level is rising 1 inch per decade or 1.1 inches per decade is not relevant, it is a trivial amount.

[dila813]

Just needs to be clear, are they adding .3 to the total or the growth each year.

Big difference.

If the .3 is added to the increase each year so it stacks, this is out and out fraud.

If the .3 was added to every year, well then their explanation is given more credence.

[cogitator]

I don't read it that way. They didn't "feel the need" to add anything except a correction factor justified by published research. I think this article is making a major mountain out of a minor molehill. Even the scientist interviewed said it was essentially trivial.

And are they calling a lawyer and an atmospheric scientist "experts" on sea level rise? Are they "under fire" from anyone other than a lawyer-activist from the Heartland Institute? This is all rather sensationalist.

[palmer]

Long time no see. If an inch per century is a molehill being made into a mountain, then the current inch per decade of sea level rise from warming is like turning a small snowbank into a glacier. Or like turning a fairly solid glacier into loose slush.

[cogitator]

http://www.boston.com/news/science/articles/2011/06/20/study_details_significant_sea_level_rise/

Kenneth Miller, chairman of the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences at Rutgers University, called the new report significant.

"This is a very important contribution because it firmly establishes that the rise in sea level in the 20th century is unprecedented for the recent geologic past," said Miller, who was not part of the research team. Miller said he recently advised New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie that the state needs to plan for a sea level rise of about 3 feet by the end of the century. Glad I don't own a beach house.

[palmer]

If you did, would you sell it to me cheap? My estimate is a foot by the end of the century based on the current 1 inch per decade (since 2003, it was a bit more before). Once temps stopped accelerating (1998) we would expect sea level rise to slow and it did. Now we will need to get back into accelerating temperature again, but that may take decades depending on the sun. So that leaves the current rise or maybe slower for a few decades. Possible acceleration after that, but who knows and who cares (mitigation is cheap)