Chris, your 2022 data journalism on variations in sea-level rise foretells the present controversy wherein the EPA Administrator's proposal to rescind the agency's endangerment findings regarding greenhouse gas emissions states that aggregate sea-level rise has been minimal with respect to impacts on the U.S., rising in some locations while falling in others. It cites as its authority the draft report prepared by a working group hand-picked by the Secretary of Energy, since disbanded because it violated scientific advisory laws. More than 85 scientist quickly discredited the DOE report's findings https://sites.google.com/tamu.edu/doeresponse/home. RE sea-level rise they wrote the following.
"Sea-level rise is increasing risk to coastal communities. The rate of global-mean sea-level rise
has more than doubled over the last 30 years, from about 0.08 inches/year in 1992 to 0.18
inches/year in 2024, and statistical analysis also reveals sea-level acceleration at many U.S.
tide gauges and in contiguous U.S. tide gauges in aggregate. Along parts of the U.S. Atlantic
and Gulf coasts, the number of days of coastal flooding per year have increased more than
ten-fold since the 1970s as a result of sea-level rise, and relative sea-level rise is projected to
increase high-tide flooding by 5-10x on average across the country’s coast by 2050."
In other words, you and your collaborators were right — and the story was well told!
Chris, your 2022 data journalism on variations in sea-level rise foretells the present controversy wherein the EPA Administrator's proposal to rescind the agency's endangerment findings regarding greenhouse gas emissions states that aggregate sea-level rise has been minimal with respect to impacts on the U.S., rising in some locations while falling in others. It cites as its authority the draft report prepared by a working group hand-picked by the Secretary of Energy, since disbanded because it violated scientific advisory laws. More than 85 scientist quickly discredited the DOE report's findings https://sites.google.com/tamu.edu/doeresponse/home. RE sea-level rise they wrote the following.
"Sea-level rise is increasing risk to coastal communities. The rate of global-mean sea-level rise
has more than doubled over the last 30 years, from about 0.08 inches/year in 1992 to 0.18
inches/year in 2024, and statistical analysis also reveals sea-level acceleration at many U.S.
tide gauges and in contiguous U.S. tide gauges in aggregate. Along parts of the U.S. Atlantic
and Gulf coasts, the number of days of coastal flooding per year have increased more than
ten-fold since the 1970s as a result of sea-level rise, and relative sea-level rise is projected to
increase high-tide flooding by 5-10x on average across the country’s coast by 2050."
In other words, you and your collaborators were right — and the story was well told!
Don
Hi Don,
Thanks so much for your comment. Yes, I have noticed how some of those stories sort of presaged this current debate. Essentially, the 2022 piece discussed here led to a story about Louisiana’s wetlands (https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/interactive/2023/new-orleans-sea-level-hurricane-wetlands/) and then, from there, to the whole “Drowning South” series (one story here https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/interactive/2024/southern-us-sea-level-rise-risk-cities/). So, it was a long process of finding stories in data.
best
chris