Google 'rising sea levels' and read the science for yourself

To The Daily Sun,

On July 3, Thomas C. Bogan asked, in The Daily Sun, how I came up with the fact that sea levels are rising by 1/8 of an inch each year. I answer this, and his other questions, below.

I Googled "rising sea levels," and suggest he do the same. Beside the melting of land ice, there is the thermal expansion of the oceans caused by global warming, which Donald Trump calls a hoax from China. I Googled "rising sea level hoax," and found nothing scientific.

Thomas said that the Antarctic ice cap is "setting records;" I assume that means records for increased ice. I believe that this may be true for the East Antarctic; the opposite is true for West Antarctic, which seems to be melting at a faster rate than the East Arctic ice is increasing.

The Florida Keys haven't washed away yet because 1/8 of an inch rise in sea level is not enough to do that. I imagine that people there are concerned. Islands in the Pacific are noticing a frightening change. One eighth of an inch is an average, and could be a tipping point, after which the increase in sea level could accelerate, as more white ice turns to dark water.

I think that Al Gore's house is high above the ocean: "...the altitude of Montecito (CA) is said to be 180 feet.", according to Mimi Gerstell, former head of Ocean Tech program, Jensen Beach.

I don't need to live hundreds of years to "see any change;" a huge increase in the number of pine cones a few years ago, pine trees shedding more needles than usual, many more fallen trees and branches this past winter of 2018-2019, sightings of mountain lions. When I moved here in 1977, there were no ticks. Bugs like the Wooly Adelgid are moving north, threatening hemlocks; the Emerald Ash Borer, threatening ash trees.

A hundred years of the burning of fossil fuels have produced a lot of heat. At least 7,000 planes in the sky every day these days, land and ocean vehicles producing hot exhaust, the heating and cooling of buildings doing the same; these things make it plausible that we humans are causing global warming. According to "the green book," 2007, "An idling vehicle emits 20 times more pollution than one traveling 32 miles per hour" (page 10). How many vehicles are producing warm or hot pollution every day, just idling?

Climate change, global warming and rising sea level all seem plausible to me, and worthy of attention. I shudder when I think of what the world might become when our grandchildren are our age if we lack what it takes to face this situation.

Dick Devens

Center Sandwich