Skip to content
Join our Newsletter

Humans are pushing sea-level rise

Re: “Global warming doesn’t have to ruin economies,” July 8. A host of major news outlets around the world have this week been reporting an important request by the BBC Trust, an independent body set up in the U.K.

Re: “Global warming doesn’t have to ruin economies,” July 8.

A host of major news outlets around the world have this week been reporting an important request by the BBC Trust, an independent body set up in the U.K. to review and uphold high broadcasting standards, that the BBC cease creating “false balance” in its science reporting by giving global-warming deniers equal weight.

“News bulletins [that include the opinions of skeptics] give too much weight to those on the fringes of science, to the detriment of the public’s better understanding,” Al Jazeera America noted.

The BBC Trust offered wise advice, in particular that editorial decisions should be guided by where scientific fact and consensus lie. Had the Times Colonist heeded that advice, the claim that recent sea level rise is due to the planet being in “an interglacial cycle” would not have been published, for it is factually wrong. Interglacial cycles have nothing to do with rising modern sea levels.

The truth is that human-induced global warming is responsible –– it has accelerated the rate of sea-level rise in recent decades from 1.8 ±0.8 mm/year in 1980 to 3.3 ±0.4 mm/year now. Coastal communities around the world are very worried about this trend, as they should be. So should the Canadian media.

Thomas F. Pedersen, executive director

Pacific Institute for Climate Solutions

University of Victoria