Acts of man?
In a short time perspective man’s influence on geological processes is overestimated and nature’s normal variation underestimated. The rising sea level is a good example. Referring to climate models mass media state that man’s carbon dioxide pollution will raise the oceans 1 m over the next 100 years. Many geologists are sceptic to such statements due to the undisputed information in the following diagram.
20,000 years ago the sea level was 120 m below the present. When the ice age drew to a close, snow and ice began melting. About 10,000 years ago—when sea level had risen to about 40 m below the present—the warming made it possible for man to begin with agriculture in a large scale. During the latest 5000 years the increase of sea level has been slower—the curve is flattening at the right end—and there is no trace in the curve of the carbon dioxide pollution beginning with the industrial revolution. Many geologists and oceanographers would like to know why the natural rise in ocean sea level that has been going on for 20,000 years is suddenly caused by man’s CO2 pollution. Maybe we ought to be more interested in what will happen when the next cold epoch starts and agriculture becomes difficult. Others can provide fiction, Natural Hazards Group can provide facts about nature’s own variation in space and time. Hard facts and plenty of facts for tough decisions by you!