From the “Tuvalu needs another climate handout” department comes this paper that says what we’ve been saying on WUWT for years – the sea level rise will overwhelm coral atolls in the Pacific is just political hype. For example, here’s a selection of some of our previous posts on the issue:
- Alarmists are just now discovering ‘Dynamic Atolls’
- Why The Parrotfish Should Be The National Bird
- Kiribati on the move – but not sinking
- Floating Islands
- The Maldives Emily Littella sea level moment – never mind…
- The Irony, It Burns
- Message to Maldives president Mohammed Nasheed: your claims are BS
Now from the Geological Society of America:
Coral islands defy sea-level rise over the past century: Records from a central Pacific atoll
P.S. Kench, D. Thompson,M.R. Ford,H. Ogawa andR.F. McLean
Abstract
The geological stability and existence of low-lying atoll nations is threatened by sea-level rise and climate change. Funafuti Atoll, in the tropical Pacific Ocean, has experienced some of the highest rates of sea-level rise (∼5.1 ± 0.7 mm/yr), totaling ∼0.30 ± 0.04 m over the past 60 yr. We analyzed six time slices of shoreline position over the past 118 yr at 29 islands of Funafuti Atoll to determine their physical response to recent sea-level rise. Despite the magnitude of this rise, no islands have been lost, the majority have enlarged, and there has been a 7.3% increase in net island area over the past century (A.D. 1897–2013). There is no evidence of heightened erosion over the past half-century as sea-level rise accelerated. Reef islands in Funafuti continually adjust their size, shape, and position in response to variations in boundary conditions, including storms, sediment supply, as well as sea level. Results suggest a more optimistic prognosis for the habitability of atoll nations and demonstrate the importance of resolving recent rates and styles of island change to inform adaptation strategies.
I studied geology in the 1950s and learned that coral reefs and river deltas keep pace with sea level rise and are eroded back down with sea level drop. I’ve commented a number of times during the babble about the Ganges delta and the atoll islands. As the ice maximum built up, sea level fell 120m or so and then when it melted again the sea level went back up again. Coral and the deltas have been moving up and down for eons.
I can see we need some quiet monastery to get back to work during the present dark age and keep the records of knowledge archived until the next enlightenment makes it safe to release this knowledge again without risk of losing it. I remember when nutritionists discovered ‘fibre’ was good for our health about 30 years ago and harkened back to my granny who was born in 1878, admonishing me to eat my ‘ruffage’, you need it for your good health, young man! I’m waiting for someone to get a nobel prize for discovering the latent heat of fusion of water or some such as there seems to be so much confusion about global warming causing freezing of the Antarctic. I probably could have got a grant and publication in Science for my atoll and river delta discovery. No, that probably wouldn’t happen – politically wrong answer.
“….Alice in Wonderland makes quite a sane read,
Compared with climate scientists’ ravings.
Let’s lock them away in an asylum somewhere,
Just imagine the huge cost savings!”
Read more from Alice in Wonderland Revisited: http://wp.me/p3KQlH-7G
The main real problem is usage of natural fresh water lenses faster than their natural rainfall replenishment.
Solution, build solar stills and irrigate with the output. this will water the plants and then percolate into the lens stores and hopefully replenish them.
how come that we do not see any real science or studies relating to this cheap and simple solution.
Hah. If you’ve ever snorkeled around a ‘bommie’ on Australia’s Great Barrier Reef, you can see that they have grown that way (typically, a tall, vertical cylinder) precisely to keep up with rising sea levels over the last 6-8000 years. In fact that’s what the current patter on the reef explorer boats conveys: corals adapt to whatever Gaia throws at them.
As a geologist (and given enough data), I would rather say “Funafuti Atoll, in the tropical Pacific Ocean, has experienced some of the highest rates of SUBSIDENCE….”
Reblogged this on Climate Change Sanity and commented:
I am rebloging a 12 May posting on WattsUpWithThat(WUWT) titled “Told ya so: New paper proves that coral atolls keep up with sea level rise.” The alarmists thought they had a great cause–more island people losing their ancestral home to fossil fuels. One of the atolls actually sued the Czech Republic saying that their burning of coal would be the cause of the loss of their atoll. Anthony Watts has been telling us that for more than ten years the alarmists were not right. Of interest, Watts points out the reasoning that the atolls keep up with the rise in sea level originated with Charles Darwin. The posting includes the abstract of a recent study about the atolls and sea level. In addition, reading the several publications on WUWT by Watts and several others provide the science behind the atolls survival for thousands of years of sea level rise.
cbdakota
Of course they do. That’s what wildlife does, adapt.