Sea Level Rise Currently 0.51 cm/year

The UK Meteorological Office has reported that currently the North Sea level is rising at a speed of 0.51 cm/year. This is 3.5 times faster than it did 100 years ago.

At the current rate, it has to be assumed that large parts of the Netherlands will have been disappeared under the waves in 500 years time. But this is an “optimistic scenario”, as it can be expected that the sea level rise will accelerate as temperatures increase.

The Netherlands can handle 100 cm, not 300 cm.

If we assumed that the acceleration is constant, like that of the speed of gravity, and that in 2122 the speed of increase would have increased with another factor of 3.5, meaning 1.75 cm/year and again in 2222 (5.3 cm/year), Amsterdam will be gone in less than 200 years. The government would stop investing in Amsterdam, Rotterdam and The Hague long before that date.

The Netherlands was conquered from the sea. The sea will take it back.

[dailymail.co.uk] – UK sea level rise is SPEEDING UP: Met Office reveals ocean is now rising by up to 0.2 inches every year – and is 6.5 inches higher than it was in 1990

And then there is the potential short time “bonus sea level rise” of 50 cm, if the West-Antarctic ice shelf breaks off…

[deepresource] – Sudden 50 cm Sea Level Rise Possible Within 20 Years

This is how the Netherlands would look NOW without dikes

Het Zinkende Land

Dutch documentary about soil subsidence

Everybody is worried about sea level rise, but in parts of the Netherlands, the soil is subsiding at an even faster rate. The Netherlands is attacked from two sides.

YouTube text:

De documentaire ‘Het zinkende land’ belicht de gevolgen van de dalende veenbodem in grote delen van West- en Noord-Nederland. Daarnaast is te zien hoe bewoners, bedrijven en overheden aan oplossingen werken.

De bodem in het veenweidegebied van groten delen van West- en Noord-Nederland daalt in rap tempo. Stad en land op veengrond zakken langzaam weg, in een hoger tempo dan de zeespiegel stijgt. Dat heeft gevolgen voor de bewoners en gebruikers én voor de overheden die hiermee te maken hebben. Als er nu niks gedaan wordt tegen het vertragen van de bodemdaling, kunnen maatschappelijke kosten oplopen tot ruim 20 miljard in 2050 en gaat een typisch Nederlands cultuurlandschap langzaam ten onder.

Melting of West-Antarctica Ice Will Lead to 3m Sea Level Rise

Thwaites-gletscher, Antarctica, 2014. NASA.

As we speak, scientists at the annual meeting of the American Geophysical Union in New Orleans, warn that a critical Antarctic gletscher, with the size of Britain or Florida, could collapse within 5 years. This gletscher can be seen as the cork on a bottle, containing the entire West-Antarctic ice mass. Cork gone, bottle will empty itself into the ocean (in slow motion). If Thwaites and other gletschers are gone, this ice mass could be responsible for a sea level rise of up to 330 cm, in a timeframe of centuries.

It is difficult to see how this scenario can be prevented.

[nature.com] – Giant cracks push imperilled Antarctic glacier closer to collapse
[science.org] – Ice shelf holding back keystone Antarctic glacier within years of failure
[cires.colorado.edu] – Thwaites Threat: The Retreat of Antarctica’s Riskiest Glacier
[cnn.com] – Scientists warn a critical ice shelf in Antarctica could shatter in 5 years
[focus.de] – Der letzte Schutzschild des „Gletschers des Weltuntergangs“ steht kurz vor dem Zerfall
[deepresource] – Sudden 50 cm Sea Level Rise Possible Within 20 Years