A new report, featured in an article with a less than cheerful title: Due to Global Warming, End Is Virtually Certain for NYC, Boston, Miami, Holland
A new article in the prestigious Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), is headlined “The Multimillennial Sea-Level Commitment of Global Warming,” and it reports that because of carbon emissions that are virtually certain, on the basis of the lack of policy-response to global warming thus far, sea levels are now set to rise anywhere from around 8 inches to 7 feet within 100 years, and around 5 yards to 10 yards within 2,000 years.
The projections are clearer (within a narrower range) for the longer time-frame than for the shorter one. That’s because even if the short-term consequences of heat-rise turn out to be relatively slight, the longer-term consequences are clearer, and will be considerably larger, as delayed impacts kick in.
The highest reported rate of sea-level rise OBSERVED right now amounts to a rise of 8 inches by 2100. Projections based on unvalidated models that haven’t predicted current changes in global temperatures, and that assume that the future world will use energy the same way we do, are worthless. Policy strictures to address their dire predictions are actually harmful because they detract attention from solving the real problems we have now.
Now I could get concerned about losing Boston; New York and Miami, not so much. And the Hollanders aren’t really paying attention to all this noise (showing Dutch good sense)!