[01] A. Parker, School of Engineering and Physical Science, James Cook University, Townsville, Australia.

The sea-level rise claims recently published in the Proceedings of The National Academy of Science of The United States of America (PNAS) have largely exceeded the most alarmist predictions of the latest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Assessment Report (AR) 5. These claims have been accompanied by the request of urgent measures to prevent and mitigate the threats that climate change is posing to the 20 million of Americans now living below sea-levels +9.9 meters. It is shown that the most likely sea-level rise scenario for 2,100 is the prosecution of the trend on average slow rising and acceleration free measured over the last decades, that is below the less alarmist prediction of the IPCC AR5, and it is totaling for the United States less than 20 centimeters by 2,100.

Climate Change, Mitigation, Prevention, Sea-Levels, Ethics

[01] https://www.ipcc.ch/pdf/assessment-report/ar5/wg1/WG1AR5_Chapter13_FINAL.pdf [02] B. H. Strauss, S. Kulp & A. Levermann (2015), Carbon choices determine United States cities committed to futures below sea-level, PNAS, 112 (44): 13508-13513. [03] E. Boyd, V. Pasquantonio, F. Rabalais & S. Eustis (2016), Although critical, carbon choices alone do not determine the fate of coastal cities, PNAS, 113 (10): E1329, 2016. [04] B. H. Strauss, S. Kulp & A. Levermann (2016), Reply to Boyd et al.: Large long-term sea-level projections do not mean giving up on coastal cities, PNAS, 113 (10) E1330. [05] Hannah, J. and Bell, R. G. (2012), Regional sea-level trends in New Zealand. Journal of Geophysical Research, 117: C01004-C01004. [06] Houston, J. R. and Dean, R. G. (2012), Comparisons at tide-gauge locations of glacial isostatic adjustment predictions with global positioning system measurements. Journal of Coastal Research, 28: 739-744. [07] Mörner, N-.A. (2013), Sea-level changes past records and future expectations. Energy & Environment, 24: 509-536. [08] A. Parker, M. Saad Saleem and M. Lawson (2013), Sea-Level Trend Analysis for Coastal Management, Ocean & Coastal Management, 73: 63-81. [09] Watson, P. J. (2011), Is there evidence yet of acceleration in mean sea-level rise around mainland Australia? Journal of Coastal Research 27: 368-377. [10] A. Parker and C. D. Ollier (2016), COASTAL PLANNING SHOULD BE BASED ON PROVEN SEA-LEVEL DATA, Ocean and Coastal Management. Doi:10.1016/j.ocecoaman.2016.02.005. [11] http://www.argo.ucsd.edu/ [12] https://nsidc.org/data/seaice_index/ [13] http://www.psmsl.org/products/trends/trends.txt [14] http://tidesandcurrents.noaa.gov/sltrends/mslUSTrendsTable.htm [15] http://www.psmsl.org/products/trends/ [16] http://www.sonel.org/-Vertical-land-movement-estimate-.html?lang=en [17] http://tidesandcurrents.noaa.gov/sltrends/sltrends_us.htm [18] C. E. Jones, K. An, R. G. Blom, J. D. Kent, E. R. Ivins & D. Bekaert (2016), Anthropogenic and geologic influences on subsidence in the vicinity of New Orleans, Louisiana, Journal of Geophysical Research: Solid Earth, DOI: 10.1002/2015JB012636. [19] https://www.cmar.csiro.au/sealevel/GMSL_SG_2011_up.html