The whole approach of Central Government in the UK is muddled, disorganised and totally unjust. They are not concerned with effective coast management they just wish to withdraw funding for the coast.

Make no mistake if we carry on in the UK the way we are it will result in coastal chaos.

If you want definitive information on the UK go to http://www.happisburgh.org.uk

“We have detected the human fingerprint in both the Arctic and Antarctic region[s],” says Peter Stott, a climate modeler at the U.K. Met (meteorological) Office’s Hadley Center, and co-author of the study published in the journal Nature Geoscience.

The researchers compared 100 years of weather records from the Arctic and 50-plus years of those kept on Antarctica with the results of four computer models. Their findings: natural influences such as changes in the amount of sunlight or volcanic eruptions did not explain the warming trends, but the results matched when increasing levels of greenhouse gas emissions were added to the mix.

In the past few decades, average Arctic temperatures have warmed roughly 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit (2 degrees Celsius); average temperatures in Antarctica have warmed slightly less than 1.8 degrees Fahrenheit (1 degree Celsius).

Lead study author Nathan Gillett, a climatologist at Environment Canada, the government ministry charged with Canadian environmental protection and issues, notes that the collapse of the Larsen B and Wilkins ice shelves on the Antarctic Peninsula, which has warmed more than any other part of the entire world, has already been linked to global warming.

As if the new finding is not disturbing enough, researchers may have underestimated the temperature change because they gave equal weight to readings from the cold continental interior—where another man-made problem, the ozone hole, has contributed to cooling in the spring and summer—and coastal regions, where warming is more pronounced.

“These areas are most susceptible to climate warming in the coming century in Antarctica, because they are the closest to the melt threshold,” says climatologist Andrew Monaghan of the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colo., who was not involved in this study but reviewed the research.

After all, it is those areas that are closest to the melting point that can tip precipitously—as did Arctic Ocean sea ice in recent years. “One quarter to one half of the Antarctic coastline has some substantial warming going on as of now,” Monaghan adds.

All told, if the eastern and western Antarctic ice shelves were to melt completely, they would raise sea levels by as much as 230 feet (70 meters); the collapse of smaller shelves like Larsen B has sped up the flow of glaciers behind them into the sea, contributing to the creeping up of high tide levels around the world. And that’s likely to get worse before it gets better.

“There will be continued residual warming no matter what greenhouse gas reductions we make,” Monaghan warns. “We really need to pay closer attention to what is going on with this ice sheet.” Scientific American

Nuno

It does seem that the Artic is cooling (though melting here would have no effect on sea levels) and this years ice looks like going back to close to recent averages. There issome dispute about the Antartic though this seems to be cooling too. The temperatues over this century have seen no statisitcally significant warming. Is this just a pause?

When you say that +1c rise produces a 4m rise quite rapidly. How rapidly? The rise in temperature over the 20th century is about +0.6c. For the annual sea level rise for last century I have seen figures between 0.8mm and 3.3mm/yr. Using the largest figure would give a sea level rise of 300mm (a third of a metre) for the century. If the temp rise was 0.6c this would, according to what you have said, produced a 2.4m sea level rise. Is this rise still to come? You may have other figures.

west
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Stephen was talking about the economy but those words work very well for climate change and what needs to be done. Mass outrage on a grand scale is needed. Obama’s big plan is 60 billion over ten years for energy and research and that is a joke. It’s a joke on every man women and child on this planet. Think of this as kind of a war. John you said you talked with scientists and I am sure you heard more than just sea level rise like the end of civilization as we know it in just a few years. Why are there no plans being made? Because going out in style is the plan and the people in control are weak minded. To hard can’t do it just gain no pain and ignorance is strength. Think of this as kind of a war.

Will world leaders seize the challenge and act? Only if mass outrage demands it and even then change at best may be minimalist and short-lived. If history is a guide. What better time to prove history wrong. If not now, when? If not by us, who? If not soon, maybe never. If that’s not incentive enough, what is? Stephen Lendman