More than that. California is planning on a possible 55-inch rise
http://sfappeal.com/news/2009/08/it-could-have-been-a.php.
If the Antarctic and Greenland ice sheets were to melt completely, seal level would reach the deck of the Golden Gate Bridge. A 250 foot rise would eliminate Florida, Manhattan, Boston, Los Angeles, Portland, Seattle, Vancouver, London, Paris, Rome, Venice, etc. The Gulf of Mexico would extends northwards to Missouri.
For interactive flood maps, see:
flood.firetree.net/
globalwarmingart.com/wiki/Special:SeaLevel
Scientists Counter AP Article Promoting Computer Model Climate Fears
Nearly two dozen prominent scientists from around the world have denounced a recent Associated Press article promoting sea level fears in the year 2100 and beyond based on unproven computer models predictions. The AP article also has been accused of mischaracterizing the views of a leading skeptic of man-made global warming fears. The scientists are dismissing the AP article, entitled “Rising Seas Likely to Flood U.S. History” (
LINK) as a “scare tactic,” “sheer speculation,” and “hype of the worst order.”
(H/T: Noel Sheppard of Newsbusters.org - LINK)
Dr. Richard S. Courtney, a climate and atmospheric science consultant and a UN IPCC expert reviewer ridiculed the AP article.
“Rarely have I read such a collection of unsubstantiated and scare-mongering twaddle. Not only do real studies show no increase to rate of sea level change, the [AP] article gives reasons for concern that are nonsense,” Courtney told Inhofe EPW Press Blog on September 23.
**UN IPCC reviewer and climate researcher Dr Vincent Gray, of New Zealand slammed the article as well: **
“This [AP article] is a typical scare story based on no evidence or facts, but only on the ‘opinions’ and ‘beliefs’ of ‘experts’, all of whom have a financial interest in the promotion of their computer models,” Gray wrote to the Inhofe EPW Press Blog.
**Swedish Professor Wibjorn Karlen of the Department of Social and Economic Geography at Stockholm University: ** “Another of these hysterical views of our climate,” Karlen wrote to Inhofe EPW Press Blog regarding the AP article. "Newspapers should think about the damage they are doing to many persons, particularly young kids, by spreading the exaggerated views of a human impact on climate,” Karlen explained.
The September 22, 2007 Associated Press article promoting future computer generated climate fears, appears just days before a high profile UN climate summit in New York City this week. The AP’s Seth Borenstein has a history of promoting unverifiable climate fears of the future (See: “AP Incorrectly claims scientists praise Gore’s movie” from June 2006 –
LINK )
This AP report comes at a time when the peer-reviewed science is continuing to debunk the foundation of man-made climate change fears. (See “New Peer-Reviewed Scientific Studies Chill Global Warming Fears” (
LINK)
Alabama State Climatologist Dr. John Christy of the University of Alabama in Huntsville, stated that the AP mischaracterized his views on sea level in the article promoting climate fears a hundred years from now.
“[My] discussion [with the AP reporter Seth Borenstein] was primarily about the storm surges which come from hurricanes - that’s the real vulnerability. The sea level is rising around 1 inch per decade, but sea level is like any other climate parameter - its either rising or falling all the time. To me, 16 inches per century is not a significant problem to deal with. But since storm surges of 15 to 30 feet occur in 6 hours, any preventive strategy, like an extra 3 feet of elevation, would be helpful,” Christy wrote to the Inhofe EPW Press blog.
“Thinking that legislation can change sea level is hubris. I did a calculation on what 1000 new nuclear power plants operating by 2020 would do for the IPCC best guess in the year 2100. The answer is 1.4 cm – about half an inch (if you accept the IPCC projection A1B for the base case.) Also, there doesn’t seem to be any acceleration of the slow trend,” Christy explained.
more…
