In discussing the practicality of Geo-Engineering as an emergency procedure to counter "dangerous global warming" and how "pitiful the world's efforts to control greenhouse gases are," Begley once again subjects the reader to facts that sound alarming, especially when they are taken out of context. Let's look at a few of her "Cassandra-ish" statements in her piece:

According to satellite measurements, sea levels rose 3.3 millimeters per year from 1993 to 2006; the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change had projected less than 2 millimeters.  

Let's take a snapshot of the last 100 years. Sea level change can be estimated from tide gauge data. These data reflect both water level changes and vertical land movement and the two have to be separated in order to estimate changes in sea level. Based on available analyses the rise over the last 100 years has been in the range 10-20 cm (or an average of 15).* That would be .15 cm per year or 1.5 mm per year. So Begley makes it sound like climate change projections are far too conservative.

Also, the IPCC projected loss of arctic sea ice at 2.5 percent per decade from 1953 to 2006. It's actually been 7.8 percent, or 30 years ahead of projections.

Sea level changes mainly through thermal expansion of the ocean and by changing the net mass balance of glaciers and ice sheets. Changes in sea ice extent and the extent of the floating ice shelves do not affect sea level directly. This is because they already displace the appropriate volume for water at the ambient temperature and it makes no difference whether the water is in a liquid or solid state.*

The contribution of the last 100 years to the rise in sea level (1.5 cm per year; see above) due to changes in glacier and ice sheet's net mass is .35 mm per year. As you can see, any time you take a tiny time stamp of data and quantify it, you'll get the answers that you think are the most shocking. Clipping your time-frame to a 13-year time span as opposed to 100 years will give you the results you need to alarm your readers.

*Sarah Raper, Client Research Unit   Source

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