Note:
Visiting the Newport RI mansions
was one of the highlights of our
two-week vacation, driving
throughout New England,
probably back in the 1990s.
From The New York Times:
"We Cannot Save Everything’:
A Historic Neighborhood
Confronts Rising Seas"
by Cornelia Dean
“Climate change is forcing
experts to re-imagine the future
of historic preservation here.”
“Rising seas have left
preservationists wondering how,
or even whether, to save some
Colonial-era homes here”.
“The Point, [ in Newport ]
a waterfront neighborhood
here, is one of the largest,
best preserved,
and most important
Colonial-era communities
in the United States."
"Its grid of 18th-century streets
contains scores of houses built
before the American Revolution,
and dozens more that
are almost as old.”
“The Point sits only a few feet
above sea level, and because
of climate change,
the ocean is rising."
"So people have
been thinking again
about how to preserve
the neighborhood.”
Not mentioned:
Absolute sea level rise
has been happening
for at least two centuries.
In addition, there is
land subsidence (settling)
as centuries-old landfill
gradually washes out
from under
the neighborhood,
with each tide cycle.
That's been happening
since the fill was dumped
into the harbor to create
the land to built sea front
houses on !
The rising sea level problem
has been happening
since the colder climate
of the Little Ice Age
( coldest in the late 1600s ).
The U.S. Commerce Department's
NOAA says,
“the absolute global
sea level rise is believed to be
1.7 +/- 0.3 millimeters/year
during the 20th century.”
2 mm a year for 100 years
= 200 mm = 7.8 inches.
I call this 6 to 10 inches
per century.
Others say 8 to 12 inches
per century.
The Newport, RI linear trend
of absolute sea level rise
( the sea surface versus
the center of the Earth )
is literally a straight line:
Satellite measured
sea level rise
is “2.9 ± 0.4mm/year” :
Satellite estimates are
completely different
than tide gauges, with
no logical explanation
of that discrepancy,
or even how a satellite
could measure
a few millimeters
of sea level rise
each year.
The difference
between tide gauge
and satellite data
would be about
4 inches per century.
“8 to 12 inches” per century
covers both the tide gauge
and satellite calculations
for global sea level rise.
The warming after the
Little Ice Age has caused
the seas to rise at a steady rate
for at least 170 years,
at about +1.5 to +3mm per year.
In the past 100 years,
Newport's relative
sea level rose 9 inches,
based on the Newport
tide gauge.
That tide gauge
sits on landfill --
rocks and soil
dumped in the water,
reinforced with large
blocks of concrete.
There's no way
to know how much
that fill is settling
(subsiding), so the
sea level rise numbers
from that tide gauge
very likely include some
land settling.
Newport does have a
Continuously Operating GPS
Reference Station (CORS),
but not at the tide gauge:
But it's up on a hill,
attached to bedrock:
at the US Naval War College.
That GPS unit has recently
measured land subsidence
of about 2.6mm/year.
The Newport tide gauge
is attached to
a concrete pier
built on landfill,
used to create
the yacht harbor.
The tide gauge pier,
built on landfill,
can also be assumed
to be subsiding,
just like the nearby
GPS station,
built on bedrock,
is subsiding.
“The Point" neighborhood
was settled in the 17th century
by Quakers:
It used to be a little spit of land
protruding into Newport Harbor,
Landfill was used to create
a neighborhood
of colonial homes,
later called "The Point".
Everybody wanted a house
on the waterfront, so they filled
a marsh, extending the land
into the harbor to create
a neighborhood,
described by the NY Times as:
“The Point sits
only a few feet
above sea level”.
Tidal wash has affected
the fill under The Point
for the past 200 years.
Total sea level rise
and land settling
could have added
up to 20 inches,
over those 200 years.
Most of the historic houses
are just a few feet
above sea level,
with basements many feet
below sea level at high tide.
That was true in 1938 too.
The Highest Recorded
Tide Level at Newport
was on September 21, 1938,
about ten feet above
todays Mean High Water.
Newport is claimed to be
threatened by
climate change
driven sea level rise.
Newport's "The Point"
also has landfill settling.
That was true in 1938 too.
The New York Times would
never mention both problems
faced by homes in "The Point".
And they would never point out
that both problems started
long before the rapid rise
of greenhouse gas emissions
( after the 1930s Depression ended ) !
The New York Times
prefers to deceive
their gullible readers,
rather than telling them
the whole story,
which you've just read.