Tag Archive for: sea level rise

How I ‘Made Sea Level Rise Go Away’!

A short story behind the story


Some readers may be surprised that I’m more than a pretty face. Through persistence, invaluable help from allies, and dumb luck, I’ve had some influence on a wide variety of issues, on local, state, and national levels. A reward for this is that I’ve been repeatedly targeted by anti-science, anti-citizen, anti-American parties.

What’s interesting, is that none of the targeting involves an accurate recounting of the relevant facts. This is a short summary about such a recent case. This example is about a major state’s legislative process, where I was a player. The scene is 2012, and North Carolina legislation about Sea Level Rise (SLR) had just became law.

Once that happened, the S hit the fan, as alarmists were outraged that Real Science took precedence over their political science. The “audacity” of our NC law became national news — even warranting a major hit piece by Colbert on late-night TV!

There are two major sagas here: 1) how this law came about, and 2) what happened after it was passed. Part one is a fascinating tale, but it is too long to cover today. If I get inspired (and have the time), I may write about that in a future episode.

Re #2, a LOT happened after the law was passed, and this commentary is about just one interesting part — where I again became a target (because I was instrumental in the NC SLR law being written and passed).

I’m writing about this now as Left-wing alarmists continue to bring this up. For example, this lengthy hit piece appeared March 12, 2024. It attempts to tag me on a few different matters, but my Teflon shield ensures me that none of them will stick, any more than their slings and arrows have in the past. (BTW, the author here, Ms. Burns, did not contact me, so there is not even a pretension of any fact verifications.)

As part of her ammunition to discredit me, she references this well-known article in Scientific American (September 2013) “The Man Who Makes Sea Level Rise Go Away.”

The first thought that comes to mind is “one lies and the other swears to it.” In any case, today’s brief commentary is about how that article came about…

In early 2013, I received a phone call from a contract journalist, who I did not know. He said that he had been hired to do an in-depth report about my role in bringing about this unique North Carolina SLR law. I asked him several questions and he seemed to be on the up-and-up. He requested an in-person interview.

Since he was three hours away in Raleigh, I invited him to come and visit us on the coast, promising that we would provide a very good lunch. A week or so later he did come and we had a cordial and productive four-hour session (including a superb home-made lunch). I requested that he send me a draft of what he was proposing, so that we could discuss any factual errors. He agreed to do that. Things were going well!

A week or so later he sent me the draft of his report. I thought that he had written an interesting, accurate, and informative story about my involvement with this NC law. I suggested a few minor edits, which he agreed to make. Still going OK!

A few weeks later he contacted me with the news that his editor had rejected his submission! I asked why and he said that the editor didn’t think that it was controversial enough… Hmmm, so for an article about what happened, the facts are not what will be reported… I asked him what he was going to do, and he said that he wouldn’t get paid unless he scrapped what he had written and started over…

So what eventually got published was version #2, where he injected things he knew were not accurate, just to make the editor happy. (For example, he wrote that I “spends much of his time quietly and effectively plying the halls of power in Raleigh…”) The reality is that I go to Raleigh about once every 3 years, and stay for just a few hours. He also did not send me any drafts of version #2 to comment on.

Fortunately, the article still has some remnants of truth in it — which is a credit to the journalist. In many cases (e.g., with Ms. Burns) we are not dealing with writers whose goal is to be objective and factual, but rather activists promoting undeclared agendas, posing as journalists.

It’s fascinating that the media continues to bring up matters where I was successful over ten years ago. Don’t they realize that it’s embarrassing to them to refresh people’s memory about their past failures? (E.g., despite all their alarmist rhetoric about the NC SLR bill, here we are 12+ years later, and what harm has it caused? None!)

Since the Left is generally adept at PR, it would seem that they would realize that they should move on. Yet they don’t!

What they are EXTREMELY concerned about (and they can’t help themselves) is that there will be more educated, critical-thinking citizens. That is the single greatest threat to their plans to promote unscientific, anti-American ideology.

Towards that end, take much of what you read in mainstream media about Science-related matters, with a very heavy dose of salt.

©2024. John Droz, Jr. All rights reserved.


Here are other materials by this scientist that you might find interesting:

My Substack Commentaries for 2023 (arranged by topic)

Check out the chronological Archives of my entire Critical Thinking substack.

WiseEnergy.orgdiscusses the Science (or lack thereof) behind our energy options.

C19Science.infocovers the lack of genuine Science behind our COVID-19 policies.

Election-Integrity.infomultiple major reports on the election integrity issue.

Media Balance Newsletter: a free, twice-a-month newsletter that covers what the mainstream media does not do, on issues from COVID to climate, elections to education, renewables to religion, etc. Here are the Newsletter’s 2023 Archives. Please send me an email to get your free copy. When emailing me, please make sure to include your full name and the state where you live. (Of course, you can cancel the Media Balance Newsletter at any time – but why would you?

Alaskan Island Residents Looking to Become First American ‘Climate Refugees’

The people who chose to build their town on an island are now whining that the bad old USA needs to save them as the island is supposedly sinking.

News flash! Islands submerge and often reappear again over centuries the world over as part of the dynamism that is our planet.

Back in the ’70’s I wrote a report about islands off the coast of Virginia that had whole towns on them (hotels, schools, cemeteries) that began to be uninhabitable by the early 1900’s as they were buffeted by major east coast storms (before cars were widely used! before global warming!).  The people simply recognized that it would be foolish to stay, and moved inland.   They didn’t cry out to the federal government to save them from their original choice.

Now we have these whiny Alaskan islanders who wonder if the federal government will leave them there to die!

kivalina

Alaska’s Kivalina Island.

Here is the news at HNGN:

Kivalina is located on a very thin barrier reef island between the Chukchi Sea and the Kivalina Lagoon, in the northwest of Alaska, above the Arctic Circle. And it may not be there in a decade, thanks to climate change.

In approximately 10 years, the village of Kivalina in northwestern Alaska could be submerged, giving its approximately 400 residents the ubiquitous honor of becoming the first climate change refugees of America, so much so that the U.S. government says it may be too dangerous to live there.

Waahhhh! Is the U.S. government going to leave us here to die?

“If we’re still here in 10 years time we either wait for the flood and die, or just walk away and go someplace else. The U.S. government imposed this Western lifestyle on us, gave us their burdens and now they expect us to pick everything up and move it ourselves. What kind of government does that?” Swan (a local elected official) asked while speaking to the BBC.

You pick it up and move it yourself!  And, maybe whaling is going the way of the buggy whip anyway!

One more case in the PR campaign that is building for governments (the US taxpayer mostly!) to take care of ‘helpless’ people worldwide while they bash America!

See our category—Climate refugees for more on this newest excuse for the redistribution of wealth and people.

RELATED ARTICLE: Idaho legislator calls for more transparency by resettlement agency in Twin Falls

EDITORS NOTE: The featured image is of two teenagers in Kivalina, Alaska, playing near a skinned polar bear.

NASA’s James Hansen Gets Dissed by Global Warming Establishment!

Former Top NASA Scientist James Hansen Predicts Catastrophic Rise In Sea Levels – ‘Projects sea levels rising as much as 10 feet in the next 50 years.’ The paper has already ruffled some, including Associated Press science writer Seth Borenstein, who said on Twitter that he would not cover it — primarily because it had not yet been peer-reviewed, a process that allows other scientists to critique the work. The Washington Post’s Chris Mooney asked other climate experts to weigh in on the paper. While many said it raised key discussion points, Kevin Trenberth of the National Center for Atmospheric Research called it “provocative and intriguing but rife with speculation and ‘what if’ scenarios.”

“James Hansen’s new paper ratcheting up future sea level rise numbers is consistent with the new strategy of the global warming activists. Given that current sea level rise rates are not alarming, the only way climate activists can claim anything is ‘worse than we thought’ is to make more dire predictions of the future.

Simply making scarier predictions of the future in order to alarm policymakers is not ‘good science.’ Claiming that climate change impacts are ‘worse than we thought’ because predictions are now more frightening is a well worn playbook of the climate movement.

Simply put, when current reality fails to alarm, make scarier and scarier predictions of the distant future.

It is not surprising that James Hansen — a man who has been arrested nearly half a dozen times protesting ‘global warming’ and who has endorsed a book calling for ridding the world of industrial civilization — would continue to make scary predictions. The world needs to take a collective yawn at Hansen’s latest claims and ask how in the world was this man ever allowed to be in charge of the NASA temperature datasets!” – End Morano statement.

Global Warming Establishment severs ties with Hansen on sea level rise scare study: 

Warmist publication Mashable on James Hansen’s new sea level scare paper: “..red flag..study’s conclusions so contradict [UN IPCC] consensus views expressed last year.”

Mashable’s Andrew Freedman: ‘The godfather of global warming’s scary sea level rise prediction is getting the cold shoulder.”

NYT’s Andrew Revkin on Hansen’s sea level scare paper: “Associated Press, The New York Times, the BBC and The Guardian..among those who steered clear of [Hansen] study”

NYT: UN IPCC Lead Author Kevin Trenberth on Hansen sea level rise paper: “Rife with speculation..many conjectures & huge extrapolation based on quite flimsy evidence.”

Michael Mann admits Hansen’s SLR estimates “prone to a very large “extrapolation error”

Embedded image permalink

Science by press release: Journalists received “summary” of Hansen’s paper via PR firm

Scientists: Hansen’s wild sea level rise claims are hardly new. We’ve debunked them before here: Current Wisdom: Hansen’s Extreme Sea Level Rise Projections Drowning…

New scientific findings undermine James Hansen’s extreme sea level rise projections from human-caused climate change.

Hansen’s “scientific” paper prescribes global political policy of “near-global” “carbon fee or tax”:

Embedded image permalink

Ironic: New James Hansen study contradicts climate ‘consensus’ so warmists shun itEmbedded image permalink

Warming leads to Cooling: Sea level rise could lead to a cooler, stormier world — Says unpublished work from NASA’s Jim Hansen – ‘A catastrophic rise in sea level before the end of the century could have a hitherto-unforeseen side effect. Melting icebergs might cool the seas around Greenland and Antarctica so much that the average surface temperature of the entire planet falls by a few degrees’.

RELATED LINKS:

NASA scientist James Hansen endorses book which calls for ‘ridding the world of Industrial Civilization’ – Hansen declares author ‘has it right…the system is the problem’ – Book proposes ‘razing cities to the ground, blowing up dams and switching off the greenhouse gas emissions machine’

Hansen Arrested (Again) — ‘For over a month now, much of the GISS website has been down due to technical problems. But apparently James Hansen has time to get himself arrested

NASA’s resident ex-con: Top NASA global warming scientist James Hansen arrested (again) in White House protest over pipeline — $180,000 taxpayer-paid salary – ‘Arrested alongside actress Daryl Hannah; Adam Werbach, founder of Sierra Club; Bill McKibben’ — ‘Hansen has been arrested at least 3 times before in protests over climate issues, in 2009, 2010, & 2011′

Flashback 2010: David Roberts of Grist: ‘I know I’m not supposed to say this, but Hansen managed his transition from scientist to activist *terribly*. All influence lost’

Hansen Back in Jail! NASA’s James Hansen Arrested (Again) Outside White House at Pipeline Protest — Implores Obama to act for ‘sake of your children and grandchildren’

Off the Deep End? NASA’s Rev. James Hansen arrested (again) in coal protest at the White House 

NASA’s Hansen’s Arrested Development: Hansen claims ‘instrumentation calibration factors were introduced to reduce the imbalance to the imbalance suggested by climate models’

NASA scientist Hansen wants Obama arrested: ‘No news on whether Secret Service will be raiding NASA…Why bother going to moon when the moonbats already work for you?’

NASA scientist Hansen wants Obama arrested: ‘No news on whether Secret Service will be raiding NASA…Why bother going to moon when the moonbats already work for you?’

NASA Warming Activist/Scientist James Hansen and Actress Daryl Hannah Arrested in Green Protest

Warmist New claim: ‘Recent sea level rise is highest in 6,000 years’ — DEBUNKED

Latest warmist claim on sea level here.

Debunking here  – Also see: Claim: ‘No change in sea level until modern times – but that change is dwarfed by sea levels of the past

Rebuttal: Examination of the data from the paper, however, shows the range of proxy sea levels is approximately 10 meters, far too large to discern the tiny ~1.5 mm/yr sea level rise over the past 150 years. The authors instead assume from other published studies of tide gauge measurements that the ~1.5 mm/yr sea level rise over the past 150+ years began at that point in time. Other papers find sea levels rising only 1.1-1.3 mm/yr over the past 203 years, and without acceleration. 

Regardless, even the IPCC concedes that there was no significant anthropogenic influence on climate prior to 1950, thus man is not be responsible for sea level rise beginning 150-200 years ago, at the end of the Little Ice Age.

The sea level rise over the past ~200 years shows no evidence of acceleration, which is necessary to assume a man-made influence. Sea level rise instead decelerated over the 20th centurydecelerated 31% since 2002 and decelerated 44% since 2004 to less than 7 inches per century. There is no evidence of an acceleration of sea level rise, and therefore no evidence of any man-made effect on sea levels. Sea level rise is primarily a local phenomenon related to land subsidence, not CO2 levels. Therefore, areas with groundwater depletion and land subsidence have much higher rates of relative sea level rise, but this has absolutely nothing to do with man-made CO2.

– [Climate Depot Note: According to tide gauges, Sea Level is rising LESS than the thickness of one nickel (1.95 mm thick) per year or about the thickness of one penny (1.52 mm thick) a year. According to satellite info it is rising slightly more than two pennies a year (3.04 mm)]

More Background on James Hansen:

NASA’s James Hansen to Retire – Marc Morano Statement: ‘Celebrate! It’s A Happy Day for Science! Hansen’s sad legacy will serve as a cautionary tale for future scientists. Hansen chose ideology, activism, stagecraft and handcuffs over science. He will be sorely missed by global warming skeptics, as he made our life so much easier by just being himself. NASA & Science deserved much better than James Hansen.’

Background on Hansen: 1) NASA’s James Hansen, a muse to Eco-Terrorists?! Watch Now:Morano on Fox News: ‘NASA’s resident ex-con James Hansen is inspiring these people to potential acts of eco terrorism’ — Morano: ‘He was arrested for the 3rd or 4th time this past week protesting the pipeline. Hansen has endorsed a book calling for ridding the world of industrial civilization, for blowing up dams and razing cities to the ground and turning off our greenhouse gas machine’  —

2) Flashback: NASA scientist James Hansen endorses book which calls for ‘ridding the world of Industrial Civilization’ – Hansen declares author ‘has it right…the system is the problem’ — Book proposes ‘razing cities to the ground, blowing up dams and switching off the greenhouse gas emissions machine   —    

3) Flashback: Greenie David Roberts of Grist turns on NASA’s Hansen: ‘I know I’m not supposed to say this, but Hansen managed his transition from scientist to activist *terribly*. All influence lost’ —

4) Flashback 2009: One of James Hansen’s Former NASA Supervisor Declares Himself a Skeptic — Says Hansen ‘Embarrassed NASA’ & ‘Was Never Muzzled’   —

5) Alert: NASA’s James Hansen Declared Obama Has One Week Left To Save The Planet! — ‘On Jan. 17, 2009 Hansen declared Obama only ‘has four years to save Earth’ — Only 7 Days left!  —   

6)  Watch Now: Morano rips NASA’s James Hansen: ‘Hansen said we only have 4 years left to save the planet in Jan.2009, We passed another Mayan calendar deadline’  —

7) Flashback 2008: Don’t Panic Over Predictions of Climate Doom -Get the Facts on James Hansen— ‘High Crimes Against Humanity’ Trial for Climate Skeptics?

Former NASA scientist James Hansen in 1986 Warned of Up to Five degrees F warming by 2010

New York Times – June 11, 1986: “Average global temperatures would rise by one-half a degree to one degree Fahrenheit from 1990 to 2000 if current trends are unchanged, according to Hansen’s findings. Dr. Hansen said the global temperature would rise another 2 to 4 degrees in the following decade.”

Embedded image permalink

 Reality Check on Hansen in 2013:  ‘No global warming for 17 years 3 months’

In 1986, The World’s Greatest Climatologist James Hansen Predicted Nine Degrees US Warming By The 2020′s

ScreenHunter_406 Dec. 07 05.21Former NASA global warming scientist James Hansen finally admits part of green movement operates like a ‘a religion of sorts’

Hansen to CNN: Selling nuclear energy to environmentalists is a tough pitch. Hansen acknowledged that many of them won’t easily buy into it. Parts of the community operate like ‘a religion of sorts, which makes it very difficult,’ Hansen said. ‘They’re not all objectively looking at the pros and cons.’

‘Only NUCLEAR power can SAVE HUMANITY’, say Global Warming high priests – Schism within the environmental ‘religion’

Former NASA Scientist James Hansen urges young people to threaten fossil fuel CEOs with criminal prosecution for supporting skeptics – Hansen: ‘Young people can sue governments, industry or individuals for violating their rights’ — ‘Human-made climate change…has become a clear case of intergenerational injustice; these fundamental rights could be the basis for forcing government actions’

James Hansen ADMITS: Notion that 2°C global temp target is scientifically established is ‘UNADULTERATED HOGWASH’

James Hansen denounces ‘big green’: ‘Large environmental orgs have become one of the biggest obstacles to solving the climate problem’ – Hansen: ‘After I joined other scientists in requesting the leaders of Big Green to reconsider their adamant opposition to nuclear power, and was rebuffed, I learned from discussions with them the major reason: They feared losing donor support. Money, it seems, is the language they understand. Thus my suggestion: The next time you receive a donation request, doubtless accompanied with a photo of a cuddly bear or the like, toss it in the waste bin and return a note saying that you will consider a donation in the future, if they objectively evaluate the best interests of young people and nature.’

EDITORS NOTE: Marc Morano is no only the publisher of Climate Depot but also the producer of the upcoming film ‘Climate Hustle’ (www.ClimateHustle.com).