3 ms·
Hm, to me it looks as if there was a slight upwards trend in the data. Some fitting would have to go on to see if that's true; however, most of the time, fittin
by kaybe 11y ago
Hm, to me it looks as if there was a slight upwards trend in the data. Some fitting would have to go on to see if that's true; however, most of the time, fitting by approximating by hand is not so bad. Look at the smoothed data too, it's more obvious there.
Also, mind that the scale is in cm and numbers given for sea level rise up to now is in the mm range. We can argue about the clear drop in 2014. And I wonder what happened in 1998. Good source, thank you!
edit: Stopped wondering about 1998, it's clearly a strong El Niño signal, and the theory fits as well. Thus, it will probably go back up after next year.
- ctdonath 11y agoI applied a polynomial trend line to the data: seems there is a 7.5cm rise over 23 years, but most of that was in the first half and has tapered off and may actually be about to head down. I'd like to see longer-term data. Recurring issue: climate changes. Sea levels change. Land altitudes change. Overlapping cycles interact to great effect covering hours & millennia. And when you're talking about all of these happening in regards to someplace that is no more than 2 meters above "sea level", with nearly a meter of tidal variation daily, it's not unreasonable to conclude "living on the edge of survivability isn't a good choice".
- kaybe 11y agoSadly, it isn't a choice in many cases.
- ctdonath 11y agoI'd like to see a polite HN discussion about this notion. To wit: in light of a looming existential crisis where circumstantial (mostly financial) difficulties are pitted against prospects of death/destruction, should one be resigned to one's "fate" vs "do anything necessary to move".