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Climate Scientists Clash Over Apocalyptic Sea Level Rise Prediction
Climate science faces a new controversy after the Met Office denounced research from the Copenhagen summit which suggested that global warming could raise sea levels by 6ft by 2100.
The research, published by the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research in Germany, created headline news during the United Nations summit on climate change in Denmark last month.
However, the studies, led by Stefan Rahmstorf, professor of ocean physics at Potsdam, have caused growing concern among other experts. They say his methods are flawed and that the real increase in sea levels by 2100 is likely to be far lower than he predicts.
Jason Lowe, a leading Met Office climate researcher, said: “These predictions of a rise in sea level potentially exceeding 6ft have got a huge amount of attention, but we think such a big rise by 2100 is actually incredibly unlikely. The mathematical approach used to calculate the rise is simplistic and unsatisfactory.”
Another critic is Simon Holgate, a sea-level expert at the Proudman Oceanographic Laboratory, Merseyside. He has written to Science magazine, attacking Rahmstorf’s work as “simplistic”.
“Rahmstorf is very good at publishing extreme papers just before big conferences like Copenhagen when they are guaranteed attention,” said Holgate. “The problem is that his methods are biased to generate large numbers for sea-level rise which cannot be justified but which attract headlines.”
Timesonline.co.uk: Climate change experts clash over sea-rise ‘apocalypse’