I’ve read in many instances where land actually sinks due to water being pumped out of the ground. So it can be a double whammy.
No doubt the increase in temp also matters. The ground water pumping can lead to subsidence (sinking), and is the cause of the giant sink holes in FL.
There is A LOT of water in the oceans. We have Cape Verde storms in June. Completely unheard of.
This misses the point. The whole 'we used to predict an Ice Age' thing is often presented as if 'Those goofy scientists can't get anything right!' or even 'What will they predict next year?!?' or just 'for grins'.
These 60's?
Good post, but to add to what you said ("triple whammy"?), a primary mechanism driving apparent sea level rise on our own mid-Atlantic coast is the stalling of the gulf stream. Essentially, the mid-Atlantic east coast of the US has been sinking for eons, but always replenished by silt brough up the coast from the Carolinas and Outer Banks. The stalling of the gulf stream has diminished how much of this silt is dredged up and deposited in New Jersey and New York, causing an apparent drop in the coastal plane.
I tend to educate myself using reliable sources like NASA. NASA seems to have taken those other factors into consideration.
Do note that the time-resolution of the data used to generate this graph may not be able to show spikes of similar magnitude, if they were brief enough. Put otherwise, if each data point in this historic scale represents 1000 years (100 points per division). spikes such as the one which represents that last 70 years would completely disappear in the averaging. Again, a pretty picture which can cause concern among those who don't really understand what the data represents.I tend to educate myself using reliable sources like NASA. NASA seems to have taken those other factors into consideration.
"Earth's climate has changed throughout history. Just in the last 800,000 years, there have been eight cycles of ice ages and warmer periods, with the end of the last ice age about 11,700 years ago marking the beginning of the modern climate era — and of human civilization. Most of these climate changes are attributed to very small variations in Earth’s orbit that change the amount of solar energy our planet receives."
"While Earth’s climate has changed throughout its history, the current warming is happening at a rate not seen in the past 10,000 years."
-- NASA
This is just my theory, but I think the last glacial maximum ended BECAUSE of humans drastically altering the climate through land use change and agriculture. There is evidence that the Sahara and the Arabian peninsula were at one point lush forested regions prior to humans changing the environment. Maybe places like the Gobi and Atacama deserts were also significantly different prior to agriculture. I base my theory on the scholarly articles and data I've seen while I'm working on my animal science undergrad. There are many religious stories about an ancient flood. I suspect they are about the flooding of the Mediterranean basin when sea levels rose above the straight of Gibraltar. Sea level rise caused by melting glaciers.
Is the theory that the predicted ice age, in which we may be presently residing, is actually tempering what otherwise might be even more severe warming trends?
Yes, we are effectively postponing an ice age that would otherwise be coming. At least that's the theory.
Wow! I just visited the link.
And I imagine the natural processes (that move contents, movements of molten magma ect) would have larger effects. But I could be wrong and have no sources.
I don't think it's the sole culprit, but it's not helping. The pole would be shifting regardless, but we are giving it a hard nudge.
Agreed. Human activities are unbalancing massive systems on a global scale. Like a giant flywheel, it will take a long time to wind down from this, probably centuries.
Shifts in the earth's relative position do have climate effects and can be a positive or negative forcing.
Shifts of a few meters on a 40,000 km circumference? Let's say it's the 20 ft that woodgeek had referenced earlier. That's a 0.05 degree tilt in the magnetic polar axis.
Yes, that one thing is small, but we are talking about a death by a thousand cuts, not a quick decapitation. You also have to consider that the geographic poles have shifted a relatively large amount in the last few decades. Like how the climate is always in flux, but we are pushing it even harder.
