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The greenies' tales about Hawaii's vanishing beaches miss one important fact
American Thinker ^ | 01/04/2021 | Andrea Widburg

Posted on 01/04/2021 6:19:54 AM PST by SeekAndFind

The greenies have a new battle in the "war on climate change."  They want to rid the world of sea walls.  Sea walls are barriers that property owners put on the waterside of the beach to protect their property from encroaching waves.  According to the environmentalists, though, sea walls exacerbate the way anthropogenic climate change and the resulting rise of the sea destroy beachfront property.  I'm sure this a fine theory, except for the part about anthropogenic climate change causing the sea to rise.

In fact, as this article from Watts Up With That explains with tremendous clarity, any sea level rise is minimal (according to NOAA, around 1.7 mm per year).  Instead, what's often happening is that the land is sinking.  Sinking land happens not because of climate change.  It happens because the Earth's crust is a dynamic system that is constantly on the move.

Nowhere is that more obvious than in Hawaii.  In correspondence with me, Thomas Whysmuller, a meteorologist with an impressive résumé, explained just how dynamic Hawaii is.  Most of us know that Hawaii was created because of volcanic activity.  What many fewer of us know is that, as the Earth's crust shifts, Hawaii is moving away from those volcanoes and essentially beginning to sink back into the earth:

The part of the Pacific Plate upon which the Hawaiian Islands are situated, is slowly moving toward the Northwest.

Each of the islands has passed over a volcanic plume, responsible for forming each Island, in turn, as that island passed over the plume.  Oahu, with its dormant Diamond Head volcano, is the next to last one to do so.  The big Island, Hawaii, is now over the plume and has land building eruptions about once every three years.


(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...


TOPICS: Science; Society; Weather
KEYWORDS: beaches; climatechange; globalwarming; globalwarminghoax; greennewdeal; hawaii
Once an island leaves the plume and slides back onto the moving plate, it begins to subside, and continues to do so until it slides back into the ocean.  Look at the diminishing island size progression as you move to the northwest!!!

Of course, as an island begins to sink, it takes its beach with it, so there should be no surprise that a sea wall will be needed to prevent property erosion by oceanic wave action.

1 posted on 01/04/2021 6:19:54 AM PST by SeekAndFind
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To: SeekAndFind

If only California would follow Hawaii’s lead, Republicans would have vastly better odds of winning Presidential elections.


2 posted on 01/04/2021 6:33:07 AM PST by JewishRighter
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To: SeekAndFind

Yep, in fact that is one way they use to date the islands in the chain from newest to oldest.


3 posted on 01/04/2021 6:36:13 AM PST by Openurmind (The ultimate test of a moral society is the kind of world it leaves to its children. ~ D. Bonhoeffer)
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To: SeekAndFind

The islands are sinking. Duh!?. 🏄🏊🚣🚤🚢


4 posted on 01/04/2021 7:01:31 AM PST by rktman ( #My2ndAmend! ----- Enlisted in the Navy in '67 to protect folks rights to strip my rights. WTH?)
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To: JewishRighter

Millions of years ago what’s now California was about where Alaska is today and it’s moving south ever so slowly. The ocean used to extend inland fifty miles to about where Riverside is today. That’s why they find few dinosaur fossils near the coast but lots of fossils of sea life.

To an eco freak none of this ever happened. The earth is static and the only change is the introduction of fossil fuels by evil capitalists.


5 posted on 01/04/2021 7:05:32 AM PST by SoCal Pubbie
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To: SeekAndFind

Anthony Watts states that sea level rise is minimal (according to NOAA, around 1.7 mm per year)

That’s about 7 inches per century.

True, BUT............
On the east coast of the US it is rising MUCH faster, due to the slowing of the Gulf Stream.

The Gulf Stream has known measured to be slowing down significantly, perhaps due to Global Warming. When the Gulf Stream flows north rapidly, the Coriolis force causes the sea level to slope downward from east to west. So the water level on the coastline is lower than if the the Gulf Stream didn’t flow. As the Gulf Stream slows down, that slope will get less, and the water levels on the coast will rise.


6 posted on 01/04/2021 7:32:16 AM PST by OVERTIME (Tammie Lee Haynes)
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To: OVERTIME
Barry A. Klinger George Mason University Atmospheric, Oceanic, and Earth Sciences Dept.

This webpage is balderdash in so many ways!

"Our intuition, based on seeing water that is moving too quickly to be affected by the Coriolis force"

Too quickly? The Gulf Steam moves an average of about 4 mph. Artillery Fire Direction Controllers have to factor in the Coriolis Effect when aiming at a target. This is most pronounced when firing directly North or South. IIRC, this is adjusted by multiplying this effect by the cosine of the angle between the direction of fire and due North or South.

Artillery shell velocity - varies, but up to one mile per second or more

Gulf Stream "moving too quickly" - 4 miles per hour

7 posted on 01/04/2021 7:56:18 AM PST by BwanaNdege ( Experience is the best teacher, but if you can accept it 2nd hand, the tuition is less!)
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To: SeekAndFind

Sometimes they capsize too


8 posted on 01/04/2021 8:28:00 AM PST by al baby (Hi Mom Hi Dad)
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To: OVERTIME; Kaslin; SunkenCiv
That's about 7 inches per century.

True, BUT............
On the east coast of the US it is rising MUCH faster, due to the slowing of the Gulf Stream.

The Gulf Stream has known measured to be slowing down significantly, perhaps due to Global Warming. When the Gulf Stream flows north rapidly, the Coriolis force causes the sea level to slope downward from east to west. So the water level on the coastline is lower than if the the Gulf Stream didn't flow. As the Gulf Stream slows down, that slope will get less, and the water levels on the coast will rise.

No, no. Not correct in general, nor in specifics.

1. There is no slowing” of the Gulf Stream - that effects the speed, the “height” of the sea water off of the US east coast, nor the future circulation of the Gukd Stream. (Yes, “what if” projections claim those effects, but, like those projecting a melt of the Greenland ice cap, those exagerate today's rates, then project them 10,000 years into the future. (About the time of the next glaciers will be scraping Chicago flat under 3000 feet of ice.)

2. Several ISOLATED sections of the east coast are going down faster than the average east coast block of the North American continent. Others such as the entire region around Hudson Bay, are rising faster than the average due to the loss of ice mass over them. So, as the northern Canadian rise, their southern region tilts “down” -which includes the southern edge of New York, most famously the south tip of Manhattan.

Other local regions such as Virginia's Tidewater, are going down due to ground water being pumped out. (Pump out ground water anywhere around the world, then the surface goes down - in Baytown TX in the late 60’s, as much as 6-8 feet. Pump water back in (as they did in TX), and the streets and houses go back up above ground. Happens worldwide too: Taiwan, Philippines, Japan, and Europe. Dozens of examples of bad ground water management exist.
(Seems like coastal cities would learn. In FL, pumping ground water doesn't change relative ocean level at the shore, but does change the underground salt water/freshwater salinity levels. Again, you'd think they would learn.)

3. The south tip of Manhattan is going down faster than the average for the entire North American continent at About 3.1 mm per year.
The actual measured global average sea level rise remains constant since reliable, repeatable accurate measurements started in the 1920’s. Global average sea level rise of 2.3-2.4 mm/year = 1 inch in a decade, 10 inches in a century. At Manhattan's tip, it is a bit faster than that: 31 mm per decade (1-1/4 inch decade, 12 inches per century.)

4. There is NO "rise" in the Atlantic Ocean anywhere due to the circular motion of the Gulf Stream (100 - 300 km across) flowing at the slow rate it is actually moving.

9 posted on 01/04/2021 8:54:50 AM PST by Robert A Cook PE ( I can only donate monthly, but the radical ABCNNBCBS does it every hour on their news.)
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To: Robert A Cook PE

Thanks RACPE.


10 posted on 01/04/2021 11:12:37 AM PST by SunkenCiv (Imagine an imaginary menagerie manager imagining managing an imaginary menagerie.)
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