Climate Change Unleashes Extraordinary Sea Level Rise!

Using data from the Gravity Record and Climate Experiment, also known as GRACE, the graph above shows you changes in seal levels taken between 1992 and 2014. The orange/red colors represent higher sea levels, while blue colors show where sea levels are lower.

Greetings! I have some sobering news to report to you concerning climate change. A study released on Monday, February 12, 2018 from the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences stated that, “Sea level rise is happening now, and the rate at which it is rising is increasing every year.”

Steve Nerem, Colorado-Boulder professor of aerospace engineering sciences actually used satellite data going back to 1993 to observe changing levels of our world’s oceans.

Nerem explains, Using satellite data rather than tide-gauge data that is normally used to measure sea levels allows for more precise estimates of global sea level, since it provides measurements of the open ocean.” Nerem’s research team “observed a total rise in the ocean of 7 centimeters (2.8 inches) in 25 years of data, which aligns with the generally accepted current rate of sea level rise of about 3 millimeters (0.1 inches) per year. But that rate is not constant.”

Nerem, who is also a fellow with the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Science said, “Continuous emissions of greenhouse gases are warming the Earth’s atmosphere and oceans and melting its ice, causing the rate of sea level rise to increase. This acceleration, driven mainly by accelerated melting in Greenland and Antarctica, has the potential to double the total sea level rise by 2100 as compared to projections that assume a constant rate, to more than 60 centimeters (23.622 inches) instead of about 30 (11.811 inches).”

Steve Nerem’s projection is in perfect agreement with climate models, which are used in the latest International Panel on Climate Change report. This report shows “…sea level rise to be between 52 centimeters (20.47 inches) and 98 centimeters (38.58 inches) by the year 2100 for a “business as usual scenario, in which greenhouse emissions continue without reduction.”

Nerem continued and said, “Scientists now have observed evidence validating climate model projections, as well as providing policy-makers with a ‘data-driven’ assessment of sea level change that does not depend on the climate models. Sea level rise of 65 centimeters, or roughly 2 feet, would cause significant problems for coastal cities around the world. Extreme water levels, such as high tides and surges from strong storms, would be made exponentially worse. Consider the record set in Boston Harbor during this past January’s ‘bomb cyclone’ or the inundation regularly experienced in Miami during the King tides; these are occurring with sea levels that have risen about a foot in the past 100 years.”

If you see any sick or injured manatees, please call the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission at: 1-888-404-FWCC. They are the folks who are responsible for rescuing us in Florida.

Here’s the Save the Manatee Club link to learn more about us manatees …

www.savethemanatee.org

Here’s a cool link for you to learn more about how we’re rescued and brought into rehabilitation …

www.wildtracks.org

~ Kobee Manatee

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