nicknamenick,

The Steffan report assumes a sea level rise of 1.1metre by 2100. Well the IPCC comes up with a somewhat lower number than that but let's pretend the number is right - as an old girl friend used to say, what's a few centimetres matter anyway.

I'm guessing the lower IPCC number didn't give the required scariness so a larger number was 'derived'.

Let's assume the scenario is right.

So we are to assume that the people of 2100CE (and remember these are people whose grandparents haven't been born yet) are just going to sit around slack-jawed as the seas rise. It won't occur to them that they might salvage the infrastructure by elevating it a metre or two. They apparently will still be using trains but they won't think to raise the level of the tracks a bit. They will sit in their houses askant as the waters lap their front door.

There won't be any technological advances that might mitigate the rise. Even though they'll be 4 - 6 times richer than us in real terms they won't have the funds, knowledge or wherewithal to build sea walls as required. We are to assume that our great-great-great grandkids are all gunna be morons.

This is standard modus operandi for the alarmist with a pedigree going back to at least Malthus - assume nothing changes except for that thing that you disapprove off and then predict disaster. Malthus was wrong, Erhlich was wrong, Club of Rome was wrong and Steffan is wrong.

The seas might rise and the rise might accelerate but our vastly wealthier, and more technologically advanced descendents will cope just fine.

You're right again.
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Sydney Airport is 6.5 metres above the alarming hot water now which will rise a terrifying metre as passengers work in gumboots with the loads of concrete 5.5 metres above the sharks.

"The storm peaked during the night of the 10th-11th May,reaching 8.43 m at both Sydney and Port Kembla and 8.86 m at Botany Bay. Strong winds from the intense low pressure cell created the monster 17.7m wave, which was recorded near Eden about 4.30am on June 6, a statement by the NSW Public Works advised from the tsunami wreckage of the Airport amid crocodile attacks.
The wave easily eclipsed the previous record of 14.9m recorded in April 2015,
"Average wave heights in excess of 5 metres have been recorded along the NSW coast on Sunday, with highest waves exceeding 12 metres," an advisory statement said from the Flood Commandant of BOM at Bathurst Gumboot Bunker .

I'm with mhaze on this one. I think we should just do nothing, after all, the ones most affected aren't born yet, so why should we care?

If we are wrong, and the temperature starts rising exponentially, instead of at the present rate, half the population of the world will starve to death, which is surely a good thing, isn't it?

Better to carry on polluting and ignoring the evidence, even though it will cost later generations dearly, which, as I said, doesn't bother me because I won't be here.

Graham and others,
Reference has been made to the latest IPCC report regarding Antarctic ice melt.

Note that the IPCC report was based on peer reviewed papers in 2014. Hence its findings were based on relatively old science, possibly 2012 and earlier.

Go to the following URL to find one of the latest papers on Antarctic ice melt, and related topics. It is authored by James Hansen and some 15 other highly credentialed scientists.

http://www.atmos-chem-phys.net/16/3761/2016/acp-16-3761-2016.pdf

Its title is:
Ice Melt, sea level rise and superstorms: evidence from paleoclimate data, climate modeling, and modern observations that 2C global warming could be dangerous".

Extracts from the paper:
"These climate feedbacks aid interpretation of events in the prior interglacial, when sea level rose to plus 6 to 9 meters with evidence of extreme storms while the earth was less than 1 C warmer than today".

"growing sea level rise, reaching several meters over a timescale of 50 to 150 years."

My comments:
If other research groups come to the same conclusions, there could be a one in three chance of such sea level rise before 2100 - our world is heading into a disastrous climatic environment because we continue polluting our atmosphere with CO2e.

Only those who are active researchers in this domain are equipped to debate the contents of this paper. Even though I spent a year at Mawson as an atmospheric physicist long ago, I am not so qualified. But, I do trust the scientists involved.

Their conclusions are very frightening.

I can understand readers wanting a comforting cloak of not understanding. But, to push such non-understandings is helping to delay necessary actions.

Tony

Well it seems, according to Billyd, that this 1m rise in sea levels is gunna kill half the human race. Who'd of thunk it. Perhaps he's just being hyperbolic, but who can tell with the we're-all-gunna-die crowd.

Still there was a time when rapid sea level rise wiped out almost the entirety of humanity save for one family. So there is a precedent and as we know past experience is vital in understanding future climate events.

On the other hand, over the past 2 centuries of rising temperatures has seen a 10 fold plus increase in food supply. So no precedent and as we know past experience has nothing to do with understanding future climate events.

So writing "temperature starts rising exponentially" translates into "rapid sea level rise"?

I'll have to remember to consult my English to Bogan translator next time I address you.