Tuesday, December 16, 2008

Monday Funnies: Al Gore's '12 Days of Global Warming' | NewsBusters.org
From our friends at Minnesotans for Global Warming, the wonderful group that gave us "If We Had Some Global Warming," just in time for the holidays -- and sub-zero temperatures across much of the fruited plain -- comes "The 12 Days of Global Warming":


DailyTech - Defying Predictions, Sea Level Rise Begins to Slow
World's oceans rise slower since 2005, fail to display predicted accelerating trend.
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Satellite altimetry data indicates that the rate at which the world's oceans are rising has slowed significantly since 2005. Before the decrease, sea level had been rising by more than 3mm/year, which corresponds to an increase of about one foot per century. Since 2005, however, the rate has been closer to 2mm/year.

The decrease is significant as global climate models predict sea level rise to accelerate as atmospheric CO2 continues to increase. In the 1990s, when such acceleration appeared to be occurring, some scientists pointed to it as confirmation the models were operating correctly.

Sea level rise was calculated from altimetry data from the TOPEX/Poseidon and Jason-1 satellite missions, published by the University of Colorado, Boulder.

Dr. James Choe, a research associate with the University of Colorado, says the decrease is temporary. "Interannual variations often cause the rate to rise or fall", he says. Choe believes an accelerating trend will reappear within the next few years.

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