While Florida Gov. Charlie Crist (R) faces growing opposition to his plans to force greenhouse gas restrictions on Florida citizens, science is calling into question the primary reasons Crist uses to justify his expensive restrictions.
“If we look at the worst effects of climate change and sea level rise and we look at our coastal regions … and we do nothing, then we’re being irresponsible,” Crist’s Department of Environmental Protection Secretary Michael Sole told the Associated Press for a July 10 article in the Bradenton Herald.
However, new research utilizing the most sophisticated satellite measuring instruments shows sea level is rising at a pace of only five inches per century. The new data, reported in the June 2007 issue of Global and Planetary Change, place the current pace of sea level rise well within the range of normal rise since the past ice age.
In addition, the latest United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report projects that Antarctica–which contains 90 percent of the world’s snow and ice pack–will gain ice during the next century, not lose it, and will therefore not contribute to any sea level rise.
— James M. Taylor
