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North Carolina sea levels rising 3X faster than in last 500 years

By | October 28, 2009, 2:56 PM PDT

More evidence has surfaced that rising sea levels are connected to human-induced global warming.

Researchers have found that the rise of sea levels in the 20th-century is three times higher than the rise during the last 500 years.

The jump occurs during what is known as the Industrial Revolution — between 1879 and 1915 — and may provide a direct link to human-induced climate change.

An international team of environmental scientists led by the University of Pennsylvania found that the rate of relative sea-level rise, or RSLR, in North Carolina during the 20th century was between 3.0 and 3.3 millimeters per year, higher than the typical observed rise of 1mm per year.

The result may be indicative of a latitudinal trend related to the melting of the Greenland ice sheet.

To measure sea levels over time, researchers didn’t use records — which were found to be “largely inadequate” in accuracy — but instead took measurements from two North Carolina salt marshes that form continuous accumulations of thick organic sediment: Sand Point and Tump Point, in the microtidal Albemarle-Pamlico estuarine system. By using radiometric isotopes and stratigraphic age markers, scientists were able to accurately reconstruct sea levels back to the year 1500, they said.

Their findings coincide with other results from along the Atlantic coast, and actually surpass results found farther north.

The results appear in the current issue of the journal Geology.

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Andrew Nusca

About Andrew Nusca

Andrew Nusca is editor of SmartPlanet.

Andrew Nusca

Andrew Nusca

Editor

Andrew Nusca is editor of SmartPlanet and an associate editor for ZDNet. Previously, he worked at Money, Men's Vogue and Popular Mechanics magazines. He holds degrees from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism and New York University. He based in New York but resides in Philadelphia.

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Andrew Nusca

Andrew Nusca
Andrew Nusca does not hold any investments in the companies he covers.
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You couldn't have fabricated a more perfect example of JUNK science in support of a debunked agenda! So the ocean ONLY off the North Carolina shore has risen 3 times faster? I happen to live 500 miles south of N.C. on the inland waterway 600 yards from the inlet. I also have a water level sensor that is an analog/digital float located at the waterline, and has been there since 1974 and feeds its data to I/O ports on a dedicated data recorder. I have 35 years of precise data on water levels, tide levels and heights!

What does this data show? NOT .1 inch change since 1974! I suggest you try feeding this disinformation to a more willing audience say north of 45 degree latitude and East of 15 degree longitude.
Posted by RS9
29th Oct 2009
0 Votes
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Margin of error error
A rise of 3 mm in sea level would not be caught by RS9's instruments if their margin of error is 1/10 inch.

If you seek to debunk the massive amount of evidence showing global warming, and humankind's role in producing it, you're going to have to use sharper instruments than this dull, if shrill, axe.
Posted by progan01@...
29th Oct 2009
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I'll admit I just read this article and didn't read the actual research
I'll admit I just read this article and didn't read the actual research, so maybe the reporter got everything garbled.

If this is actually what an "international team of environmental scientists" came up with, they should all be sent back to repeat 2nd grade science.

If your data says that sea level changed more in one place than in another, you better go back and try again. (As an experiment, try taking water from one end of a swimming pool and pourijng it into the other end until you can measure a difference in the water level between the two ends.)

These bozos seem to be unaware that land is raised and lowered by normal geological processes. And if they don't account for that then their data is worthless and won't tell them if sea level is raising or falling.

Posted by StanMM
29th Oct 2009
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RE: North Carolina sea levels rising 3X faster than in last 500 years
So, these "researchers" find actual records to be 'inaccurate', as opposed to sliming around in a swamp searching for a source that will agree with their conclusions?

Who you gonna believe, this merry band of 'international environmental scientists' or your lying eyes?

"...radiometric isotopes and stratigraphic age markers...", my dying ass. As the old saying goes, if you can't dazzle them with brilliance, baffle them with ********.
Posted by iouzero
29th Oct 2009
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RE: North Carolina sea levels rising 3X faster than in last 500 years
Response to progano01:
The article says that the water level rose 3mm per year. Over a 35 year period the water level should rise over 4 inches, 12 inches over a century. This should be within the marginal error of the instrument used by RS9 to see that there was no change.
Question: Is there enough glacial ice on land to raise the level of all the ocean surface of the world 12" after it has melted??
Posted by piripo
29th Oct 2009
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