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HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) -- The ongoing fight against the effects of climate change took centerstage at the Honolulu City Council on Thursday. In the past, the council’s Zoning and Planning Committee has drafted bills surrounding coastal erosion and climate change. But lawmakers are now looking at creating comprehensive legislation focused on shoreline development. In an informational briefing, climate experts offered a presentation showcasing the long-term impact of global warming on coastlines throughout Oahu. In Ewa Beach, for example, models show wave inundation of 4 feet in the next 70 years. Dr. Chip Fletcher, interim dean of the University of Hawaii-Manoa School...

RALEIGH, N.C. (WNCN) — Imagine a forest the size of Raleigh and Durham. Now imagine a forest that size dying every single year. It’s an unfortunate reality that’s happening right now across the North American Coastal Plain, including part of our backyard here in North Carolina. Our North Carolina beaches are a popular vacation spot or weekend getaway where we soak up the sun and relax to the sound of waves. But just a few miles inland, our coastal wetlands are facing a crisis. Vulnerable ecosystems are changing, and trees are dying, leaving nothing but ghosts. “A ghost forest I...

It's massive, it's collapsing due to global warming, and when it goes, sea levels are going to rise by a significant amount, perhaps by 10 feet. "All signs point to (the eventuality that) we're not going to keep this glacier from collapsing," said Villanova University Vice President, Chief Research Officer, and Chemistry Professor Amanda Grannas about the glacier that she said is about the size of Florida. "Part of the weights actually extends out over the ocean. So part of the ice is floating on top of the ocean water, and part of it's located over land." Dr. Grannas said...

Rising sea levels may be seen as a very modern phenomenon, but according to a new study, it really became a significant issue more than 150 years ago. Researchers have studied a global database of sea-level records spanning the last 2,000 years, based on archeological and biological evidence at global sites. These sites include Pelham Bay in New York, Cheesequake in New Jersey, Vioarholmi in Iceland, Aasiaat in Greenland and Loch Laxford in Scotland. Modern rates of sea level rise began emerging in 1863 following the Industrial Revolution, coinciding with evidence for early ocean warming and glaciers melting, the experts...

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Fairbourne is a tiny Welsh village of only 700 people, tucked between mountains and the Irish sea. Founded around 1865, the pace is so slow that "Dragon's Teeth" tank traps from World War II still dot the beach to fend off a German invasion that never came. There's nothing particularly outstanding about Fairbourne to attract visitors. It's just a lovely little place to live. Or it was. In 2014, the authorities decided that Fairbourne was at high risk of flooding from climate change. Let's just ponder that for a moment. Seven years have gone by since the arbitrary decision that...

Lower sea levels over the last 360,000 years are linked with more eruptions When sea level drops far below the present-day level, the island volcano Santorini in Greece gets ready to rumble. A comparison of the activity of the volcano, which is now partially collapsed, with sea levels over the last 360,000 years reveals that when the sea level dips more than 40 meters below the present-day level, it triggers a fit of eruptions. During times of higher sea level, the volcano is quiet, researchers report online August 2 in Nature Geoscience. Other volcanoes around the globe are probably similarly...

Columbia University’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory... say researchers examining signs of past sea levels along various coasts may have failed to accurately correct for long-term ups and downs of the land itself. Based on newly sophisticated measurements made across the Bahamas along with new methods of analyzing data, the researchers produced lower—though still daunting—estimates for the last interglacial. They say seas peaked at least 1.2 meters (4 feet) higher than today—roughly in line with most current models for the next 100 years of so. However, they say, levels could have been higher. An unlikely upper limit, they say, is 5.3 meters...

The melting rate of the Antarctic ice sheet is mainly controlled by the increase of ocean temperatures surrounding Antarctica. Using a new, higher-resolution climate model simulation, scientists from Utrecht University found a much slower ocean temperature increase compared to current simulations with a coarser resolution. Consequently, the projected sea-level rise in 100 years is about 25% lower than expected from the current simulations. The new high-resolution model takes into account ocean eddy processes. An eddy is a large (10-200 km) swirling and turbulent feature in the ocean circulation, which contributes to the transport of heat and salt. Adding ocean eddies...

..... Scaling up You can think about the oceans as a gigantic bathtub. More than 70% of the Earth’s surface is ocean, giving this bathtub an area of about 140 million square miles. To figure out how much the water will rise, we need to know the volume of people sitting in it and divide it by this ocean area. Currently, there are almost 8 billion people on Earth. Human beings come in all sizes, from tiny babies to large adults. Let’s assume the average size is 5 feet tall – a bit bigger than a child – with an...

U.S.—Stunned meteorologists reported Wednesday that the sea level has risen an astonishing 300 feet overnight, as the sweat from celebrities trying to cover up their sexual harassment scandals rained down “in buckets.” Vast swathes of the United States are now entirely underwater, including major coastal cities and regions, as the investigations into various celebrities and TV personalities continue. “This is a worldwide disaster,” one NBC News anchor (not Matt Lauer) said. “We saw an uptick when Harvey Weinstein’s deviant behavior came to light, but when it became clear the revelations wouldn’t be slowing down anytime soon, celebrities and otherwise powerful...

Abstract: Over the past decades, detailed surveys of the Pacific Ocean atoll islands show no sign of drowning because of accelerated sea-level rise. Data reveal that no atoll lost land area, 88.6% of islands were either stable or increased in area, and only 11.4% of islands contracted. The Pacific Atolls are not being inundated because the sea level is rising much less than was thought. The average relative rate of rise and acceleration of the 29 long-term-trend (LTT) tide gauges of Japan, Oceania and West Coast of North America, are both negative, −0.02139 mm yr−1 and −0.00007 mm yr−2 respectively....

Those who argue human greenhouse gas emissions are causing dangerous climate change regularly point to rising seas as one of the most certain and devastating impacts on human communities.According to environmental activists, mainstream media outlets and some scientists—who routinely cite Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) reports—unless governments take drastic action to transform the world’s economic system, including ending the use of fossil fuels for energy in a very short period, entire island nations will disappear beneath the seas and low-lying coastal cities will be swamped, forcing a great migration of populations inland.The threat of rising seas to various communities...

Sea level has risen about 400 feet since the last glacial maximum of ~18,000 years ago (see fig. below). Currently, sea level is rising at the rate of 1-2mm per year — and has been rising at that rate for the past several centuries. At that rate, S.L. will be about six inches higher by 2100 — a long way from Al Gore's 2006 estimate of a 20-foot rise. By choosing a short interval, 1910–1942, of certified warming, I can show the lack of any acceleration (see below).  SLR does not depend on ocean temperature — or CO2. Every one of the...

Environmental officials warned 30 years ago the Maldives could be completely covered by water due to global warming-induced sea level rise. That didn’t happen. The Indian Ocean did not swallow the Maldives island chain as predicted by government officials in the 1980s. In September 1988, the Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported a “gradual rise in average sea level is threatening to completely cover this Indian Ocean nation of 1196 small islands within the next 30 years,” based on predictions made by government officials. Then-Environmental Affairs Director Hussein Shihab told AFP “an estimated rise of 20 to 30 centimetres in the next...

Guest essay by David ArchibaldFrom a post a couple of days ago: “an F10.7 flux above 100 causes warming and below that level causes cooling.” Greg asked “Can you prove that?” I already had in this WUWT post from 2012. But it is worth revisiting the subject because it answers the big question – If all the energy that stops the Earth from looking like Pluto comes from the Sun, what is the solar activity level that corresponds to our average climate? Because solar activity is falling and climate will follow.As Nir Shaviv observed, the oceans are a big...

"But what is really exciting is that we have actually found the Roman foreshore while digging in a deep trench alongside the remains of a Roman wall." "Mr Wilmott said the Roman coastline was the original shore at the time of the Roman invasion of Britain in 43AD."

A new batch of studies confirming the close relationship between global temperature and ocean level finds that seas are rising at the fastest rate since nearly 1000 BC.

Republican Senators are determined to derail the climate talks next month in Paris and to that end, they have vowed not to approve taxpayer money for a Green Climate Fund that President Obama pledged $3 billion dollars of support to last year. The money will be withheld until the president submits any treaty coming out of Paris to the Senate for ratification.

Miami (AFP) - Sea levels are rising around the world, and the latest satellite data suggests that three feet (one meter) or more is unavoidable in the next 100-200 years, NASA scientists said Wednesday. Ice sheets in Greenland and Antarctica are melting faster than ever, and oceans are warming and expanding much more rapidly than they have in years past. Rising seas will have "profound impacts" around the world, said Michael Freilich, director of NASA's Earth Science Division. "More than 150 million people, most of them in Asia, live within one meter of present sea level," he said. Low-lying US...