A few months ago, hoping to elicit sympathy for more United Nations control of our lives, UN Secretary-General António Guterres stated, “rising seas are a serious threat requiring a coordinated global response at the highest levels; with 900 million people at risk, sea level rise could drive “a mass exodus of entire populations on a biblical scale.”
Recently Guterres also stated our oceans were boiling, and he is now primed to push more politically manipulative fear mongering at the 2023 SDG Summit that will take place on 18-19 September 2023 in New York. So let’s honestly fact check!
How dangerous is sea level rise? Well, it depends whether you live in an area where the land is sinking or not. Studies that now use GPS to measure the rate of land sinking show land sinking exaggerates the rate of sea level rise often blamed on global warming!
The 2020 research by Boretti, and reported in the peer-reviewed paper Relative sea-level rise and land subsidence in Oceania from tide gauge and satellite GPS, determined the maximum threat from global warming caused by sea level rise was always less than 1 mm/year after examining 5 long-term (100 years+) sea level rise tide-gauge data and subtracting the rate of the local land sinking acquired from GPS data.
For perspective that means, 100 years from now sea levels will have risen by less than 4 inches. At that rate, even a snail could reach the safety of higher ground in a matter of days.
Boretti’s data, graphically displayed here, measured the rate of land sinking, shown in orange, (subsidence (W)). Then subtracted that sinking rate from the rate of sea level rise reported from tide gauges (blue (V). The absolute sea level rise from climate change (gray (U), results in a highest rate of rise of only 0.96 mm/year at Honolulu Hawaii, and two falling rates of sea level at Freemantle, Australia and Dunedin, New Zealand.
Still, Boretti’s rate of land sinking is quite small compared to many regions around the world that suffer far worse land subsidence. China’s Huanghe Delta is sinking 10 inches/year (254 mm/year), Jakarta, Indonesia is sinking by 75-100 mm/year, Vietnam’s Ho Chi Min city is sinking up to 80 mm/year, New Orleans is sinking 60 mm/year, and Bangkok, Thailand is sinking 20 to 30 mm/year.
By mindlessly blaming the burning of fossil fuels for the observed relative sea level rise, António Guterres diverts attention from real solutions that sinking cities could embark upon to avoid catastrophe, such as restoring aquifers to prevent further sinking. The fake climate crisis narrative is obscuring how real science can protect human welfare. As one poster has warned, “Your Panic is their Power”!
As pointed out in the video
The Science of Solar Ponds Challenges the Climate Crisis,
it is solar heating, not CO2 infrared, that slowly warms the oceans. False narratives that CO2 warming is causing dangerous sea level rise is simply designed to make you panic, and is just a narrative not supported by scientific evidence!
