# Are Sea Levels Rising? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [February 28, 2017, 1:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-sea-levels-rising/781003 "2017-02-28T01:59:33Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![wolfpup](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpup/32/10618_2.png) [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2017, 4:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-sea-levels-rising/781003/41 "2017-03-02T16:01:24Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > About 3 miles from me on the barrier island is a ritzy area full of 75 foot yachts and $20M ocean-front houses. Their docks and the main road go 6"+ underwater at every extra-high tide. So a dozen times a year clustered in a couple of week-long bouts. > > The locals are quite upset, and demand that somebody else pay to solve this. Without any ugly seawalls. And I’ll bet that the vast majority of those boats are powerboats with big-ass diesel engines, in one of the few domains where wind power can be deployed to such beautiful effect. I wonder of these folks routinely throw their garbage out on their front lawns, too, and then demand that somebody else clean up the mess. ---
**Author:** ![rbroome](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/838e76/32.png) [@rbroome](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rbroome)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2017, 4:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-sea-levels-rising/781003/42 "2017-03-02T16:08:56Z")
> [@dropzone](#): > > \ > Sea levels are rising all over. That requires more water, not more land evenly placed. You are missing the main point. Sea level rise is mostly due to the increasing temperature of the water. Warm water expands. This has so far accounted for the majority of the measured sea level rise and will do so for quite some time to come. Of course eventually as Greenland and the Antarctic melt, more water will enter the system, but for now, the warming is causing the rise. No new water needed. ---
**Author:** ![rbroome](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/838e76/32.png) [@rbroome](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rbroome)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2017, 4:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-sea-levels-rising/781003/43 "2017-03-02T16:12:41Z")
> [@watchwolf49](#): > > From NOAA’s [“Is sea level rising?”](http://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/sealevel.html) > > “Sea level continues to rise at a rate of about one-eighth of an inch per year.” > > … and here’s a cool lil’ interactive map where we can make Silicone Valley go underwater: [“Sea level Rise viewer”](https://coast.noaa.gov/digitalcoast/tools/slr) {and hit the link given there} > > The rise should be fairly uniform throughout all the world’s oceans … although land subsidence/rebound is localized … there’s no property of water that allows it to build up one place and not another without a rather large and continuous energy input, like in a bore … Uh, or an ocean current… The Gulf Stream is about 1 meter higher in the center than on either side. Moving water (and just about all the water is moving) inevitably deforms. That is the whole principle behind satellite ocean altimetry. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2017, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-sea-levels-rising/781003/44 "2017-03-02T17:20:59Z")
> [@wolfpup](#): > > And I’ll bet that the vast majority of those boats are powerboats with big-ass diesel engines, in one of the few domains where wind power can be deployed to such beautiful effect. I wonder of these folks routinely throw their garbage out on their front lawns, too, and then demand that somebody else clean up the mess. My housecleaner also cleans 5000+sf $2-5 million waterfront houses. She says she often arrives there to find half-drunk soda cans on nearly every table. The expensive designer-furnished rooms look like cluttered crap with all the trash they leave lying around inside their own home. All because picking it up is beneath them. So they sit wallowing in their own filth until some “lesser” person comes along to rescue them from it. One is not impressed. ---
**Author:** ![Alley\_Dweller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alley_dweller/32/430_2.png) [@Alley\_Dweller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alley_Dweller)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2017, 8:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-sea-levels-rising/781003/45 "2017-03-02T20:59:07Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > My housecleaner also cleans 5000+sf $2-5 million waterfront houses. > > She says she often arrives there to find half-drunk soda cans on nearly every table. The expensive designer-furnished rooms look like cluttered crap with all the trash they leave lying around inside their own home. > > All because picking it up is beneath them. So they sit wallowing in their own filth until some “lesser” person comes along to rescue them from it. > > One is not impressed. If they cleaned up after themselves, she’d be out of a job, wouldn’t she? Just like if everybody flew their own planes, airline pilots would have nothing to do. If they expected someone else to pay for their housekeepers or to clean up after them for free, I would see the problem. I don’t see a problem if they want to pay someone to do it. ---
**Author:** ![Blue\_Blistering\_Barnacle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blue_blistering_barnacle/32/3386_2.png) [@Blue\_Blistering\_Barnacle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blue_Blistering_Barnacle)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2017, 9:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-sea-levels-rising/781003/46 "2017-03-02T21:25:08Z")
> [@dtilque](#): > > Actually much of the east coast is going down. And yes, that’s making the sea level rise worse in those areas. > > This is the result of the rebound effect due to the glaciers of the last ice age melting. When the glaciers formed, they depressed the land under them but that pushed the area around the glaciers up. When the glaciers melted, all this rebounded, so quite a bit a land that wasn’t under ice is going back down. That includes a fair chunk of the east coast such as in New Jersey and perhaps as far south as Virginia. However it’s a subtle effect and one that’s slower than the current rise in sea level. So only a small part of the increased flooding that’s happening can be attributed to it. And the effect tapers off as you move away from the glaciated region, so it’s not happening in places far away, such as Florida. Who’d a thunk it? Here in the northern Midwest states we are still “bouncing” upwards in a rebound from the loss of the last glacier. That was pretty incredible to me when I heard that 15 years ago. I never thought about the effect on adjacent territories. I suppose it is a bit like a skateboard- push down in the middle and the sides go up? ---
**Author:** ![wolfpup](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpup/32/10618_2.png) [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2017, 9:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-sea-levels-rising/781003/47 "2017-03-02T21:30:17Z")
> [@Alley\_Dweller](#): > > If they cleaned up after themselves, she’d be out of a job, wouldn’t she? Just like if everybody flew their own planes, airline pilots would have nothing to do. > > If they expected someone else to pay for their housekeepers or to clean up after them for free, I would see the problem. I don’t see a problem if they want to pay someone to do it. Several problems here, though we are getting rather off topic: - Lots of people fly their own planes and still book airline travel, because it turns out that not very many people own their own long-range jet airliners or care to acquire and maintain the certification to fly them. - I know lots of people who hire housekeepers, and they don’t live like slovenly bums. In fact the main reason they have housekeepers at all is because they maintain high standards of personal and household order and are just too busy to personally attend to all the household chores to a degree they feel is necessary. Nudging this slightly back towards the topic, keep in mind what started this subthread of conversation: the people living in the lap of luxury bitching about rising sea levels own the aforementioned 75-foot power yachts that are among the most extravagant contributors to totally unnecessary emissions. I somewhat facetiously asked if they also throw their garbage out on their front lawns and then bitch about the mess. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2017, 9:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-sea-levels-rising/781003/48 "2017-03-02T21:47:26Z")
> [@wolfpup](#): > > And I’ll bet that the vast majority of those boats are powerboats with big-ass diesel engines, in one of the few domains where wind power can be deployed to such beautiful effect. I wonder of these folks routinely throw their garbage out on their front lawns, too, and then demand that somebody else clean up the mess. > [@LSLGuy](#): > > My housecleaner also cleans 5000+sf $2-5 million waterfront houses. > > She says she often arrives there to find half-drunk soda cans on nearly every table. The expensive designer-furnished rooms look like cluttered crap with all the trash they leave lying around inside their own home. > > All because picking it up is beneath them. So they sit wallowing in their own filth until some “lesser” person comes along to rescue them from it. > > One is not impressed. > [@Alley\_Dweller](#): > > If they cleaned up after themselves, she’d be out of a job, wouldn’t she? Just like if everybody flew their own planes, airline pilots would have nothing to do. > > If they expected someone else to pay for their housekeepers or to clean up after them for free, I would see the problem. I don’t see a problem if they want to pay someone to do it. > [@wolfpup](#): > > Several problems here, though we are getting rather off topic: > > - Lots of people fly their own planes and still book airline travel, because it turns out that not very many people own their own long-range jet airliners or care to acquire and maintain the certification to fly them. > > - I know lots of people who hire housekeepers, and they don’t live like slovenly bums. In fact the main reason they have housekeepers at all is because they maintain high standards of personal and household order and are just too busy to personally attend to all the household chores to a degree they feel is necessary. > > Nudging this slightly back towards the topic, keep in mind what started this subthread of conversation: the people living in the lap of luxury bitching about rising sea levels own the aforementioned 75-foot power yachts that are among the most extravagant contributors to totally unnecessary emissions. I somewhat facetiously asked if they also throw their garbage out on their front lawns and then bitch about the mess. **Moderating** Yes, this is getting pretty far off track from the OP. If you want to discuss the foibles of rich people, another forum would be more appropriate. Let’s stick to the subject of the OP. Colibri General Questions Moderator [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-sea-levels-rising/781003.md?page=2)