This article is an excerpt from a posting on the website ClimateAudit.org which cites a Dutch study showing that sea levels in Holland have not recently been rising, as well as casting doubts no the validity of measurements by the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

Text of this article has been hilighted by News of Interest.TV.


A Reexamination of Climate Change Issues

”The Dutch Experience of Sea Level Rise”

by John A
ClimateAudit.org

February 13, 2005


Following on from the prompting of Hans Errin, I took a look at his links on climate change in his country.  The Dutch National Institute for Coastal and Marine Management (KNMI) produced the following picture (taken from this document).


As you can see, sea levels were higher during the Medieval Warm Period (1000 years ago) than the depths of the Little Ice Age (550 years ago) and are currently between those two extremes today.  It's also apparent that the sea-levels have been broadly rising since at least the end of the last Ice Age.

In the conclusions, the author notes:



which translates as "The water level measurements show no acceleration in sea level rise" and



which I transliterate as "It's not always well documented where the measurements for the data on which the [IPCC] scenarios are based". (I think Steve has mentioned similar reservations about data archiving and model assumptions)

So the Dutch, who have most to lose from accelerating sea-level rise, see no evidence of such an acceleration and find the climate models which suggest such an acceleration for the future unconvincing and poorly documented.  Bear in mind that the part of the Netherlands which is below sea-level (more than half of the country and where most people live), is sinking as a result of post-glacial rebound (as is the Southern part of the UK).