Starlink just announced they are expanding their service to Tuvalu.. According to the BBC, Tuvalu will largely drown by the year 2050.
Tuvalu: The disappearing island nation recreating itself in the metaverse
The Pacific nation of Tuvalu—long seen as a prime candidate to disappear as climate change forces up sea levels—is actually growing in size, new research shows.
A University of Auckland study examined changes in the geography of Tuvalu’s nine atolls and 101 reef islands between 1971 and 2014, using aerial photographs and satellite imagery.
It found eight of the atolls and almost three-quarters of the islands grew during the study period, lifting Tuvalu’s total land area by 2.9 percent, even though sea levels in the country rose at twice the global average.”
I’m puzzled. How does sea level in Tuvalu rise at “twice the global average?”
It isn’t. PSMSL.org has the relevant data. Relative sea level is rising at a rate close to 3 mm/yr but the land is sinking at about 1.4 mm/yr placing Tuvalu well within the nominal global rate of absolute sea level rise of 1-2 mm/yr. Many “researchers” forget to look for change in the land surface elevation when looking at sea level rise data which, in fact is relative (not absolute) sea level rise. Look for Funafuti B on the PSMSL.org catalog viewer and for “other information” when you want to see land elevation change. Many sea level gauges also have a GPS land elevation gauge in the vicinity. Funafuti B in Tuvalu is one. Unfortunately the Funafuti B gauge has been around only since 1995. This is too short to be fully convincing.
The same way every place on earth is warming twice as fast as the global average.
Or as Biden would say “A billion three hundred million trillion three hundred million dollars “
Too funny Arn!! Here in South Central Minnesota, we’re currently 11 below zero and predicted to be below zero for several days and that’s without the wind. going to be 20 below Tuesday morning, but without man-made global warming it would have been 21 below. thank God for greenhouse gases
12 below zero in Celsius terms is quite the fun for EV owners.
Drains the battery twice as fast 🙂
In science, don’t we generally speak of “sea level” as if it were one thing? I have never seen any topological maps that lay out varying heights of “sea level”.
If you measure the sea level in Tuvalu during a switch from El Nine to La Nina, and back, you can pick two dates when indeed it appears to be whatever you want. The different in the two extremes is about 24 inches. The Pacific sloshes to the West, or not depending on the wind strength. This is covered by Tim Ball’s brilliant e-book on the matter.
So when they say, “Sea level rose 2 ft in a few years” that is what they are observing. They could come back later and note that it has dropped but that would be fair and balanced.
This exciting news back in 2018, that Tuvalu and other islands were GROWING not sinking, was promptly disappeared from New Zealand’s mono-media which then carried on crying THEY’RE DROWNING!
Although still a believer of CCC, the co-author Paul Kench showed, through recorded observation, the islands simply change shape with the ebb and flow of the Pacific Ocean (the biggest of them all) and predominantly grow in size.
Similar to today’s experts who are ‘scratching their heads’ as their prophecies of a warm dry sunny summer have failed utterly again with the complete OPPOSITE happening. Yet the faithful still believe.
All the best for today, January 20th!
HaHaHaHa:
it’s cold because it becoming hotter.
islands surfaces increase because they are decreasing.
I just would like to become younger because I am becoming older…
Cheers,
Luigi