BloggeRhythms 6/17/2011

When there's not a lot going on in the world, you can always rely on issues like global warming to get some press.

In May, The University of Colorado’s Sea Level Research Group decided to add 0.3 millimeters, about the thickness of a fingernail, every year to its actual measurements of sea levels. That got criticism from experts who called it an attempt to exaggerate the effects of global warming.

James M. Taylor, a lawyer who focuses on environmental issues for the Heartland Institute, said "Gatekeepers of our sea level data are manufacturing a fictitious sea level rise that is not occurring."

Steve Nerem, director of the widely relied-upon research center, replied that his group added the 0.3 millimeters per year to actual sea level measurements because land masses, still rebounding from the ice age, are rising and increasing the amount of water that oceans can hold. He said, "We have to account for the fact that the ocean basins are actually getting slightly bigger...water volume is expanding," a phenomenon they call glacial isostatic adjustment.

Taylor calls it "tomfoolery," adding, "There really is no reason to do this other than to advance a political agenda."

According to the research group, "For the layperson, this correction is a non-issue and certainly not newsworthy. The effect is tiny, only 1 inch over 100 years, whereas we expect sea level to rise 2-4 feet."

To that, Taylor replied that the correction seemed bigger when compared with actual sea level increases because "We’ve seen only 7 inches of sea level rise in the past century and it hasn’t sped up this century. Compared to that, this would add nearly 20 percent to the sea level rise. That's not insignificant."

The research center then said they'd consider compromising on the adjustment, which to me means they were caught exaggerating their data and in reality know that "global warming's" nothing but hype, smoke and mirrors.

But the best line of all came at the end when Taylor said, "When Al Gore talks about Manhattan flooding this century, and 20 feet of sea level rise, that’s simply not going to happen. If it were going to happen, he wouldn’t have bought his multi-million dollar mansion along the coast in California."

That's it for today folks.

Adios