The rise in sea levels in the past 80 years has been grossly underestimated and therefore greater action needs to be taken to combat global warming, the dean of National Central University's College of Earth Science Benjamin Chao (
Last year, the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change published a Nobel-prize winning report warning that rising sea levels, caused mostly by global warming, could flood parts of the world if not slowed, Chao said.
"Scientific findings previously supported the estimate that sea levels rose 10cm over the past 80 years, but the actual number may be 13cm," said Chao, a former NASA scientist, citing his study which was published in Science magazine on March 13.
Chao's idea for the study came from his observation that the slope of sea level increase was curiously slower from the 1960s to the 1990s relative to pre-1960s and post-1990s periods, "which coincided with a time when the world was rapidly building artificial reservoirs," Chao said.
The observation led him to believe that while rising sea levels were partially brought about by natural causes like the thermal expansion of sea water and the melting of icebergs and ice sheets in Greenland and Antarctica, human factors should also be considered.
Following four months of data compilation with doctoral student Henry Wu (
From his study, Chao postulated that reservoirs may be the largest human factor affecting sea levels.
"The implication is two-fold -- first, the speed at which the sea level is increasing is faster than we had previously calculated," he said.
Before the study it was thought the global sea level increased at 0.18mm per year. However, the new finding showed that the actual annual rise is 0.25cm, Chao said.
"The second implication is that `the more we know, the more we know we don't know,'" he said.
"So far we can account for 0.12cm of the annual rise in sea levels -- while previously that comprised 70 percent of the annual amount. Now it means we don't know more than half the causes of the increase," he said.
Fifty-five percent of the causes are unknown, he said.
Chao said instead of building more dams, humans need to reduce carbon emissions and halt global warming.
‘DENIAL DEFENSE’: The US would increase its military presence with uncrewed ships, and submarines, while boosting defense in the Indo-Pacific, a Pete Hegseth memo said The US is reorienting its military strategy to focus primarily on deterring a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, a memo signed by US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth showed. The memo also called on Taiwan to increase its defense spending. The document, known as the “Interim National Defense Strategic Guidance,” was distributed this month and detailed the national defense plans of US President Donald Trump’s administration, an article in the Washington Post said on Saturday. It outlines how the US can prepare for a potential war with China and defend itself from threats in the “near abroad,” including Greenland and the Panama
The High Prosecutors’ Office yesterday withdrew an appeal against the acquittal of a former bank manager 22 years after his death, marking Taiwan’s first instance of prosecutors rendering posthumous justice to a wrongfully convicted defendant. Chu Ching-en (諸慶恩) — formerly a manager at the Taipei branch of BNP Paribas — was in 1999 accused by Weng Mao-chung (翁茂鍾), then-president of Chia Her Industrial Co, of forging a request for a fixed deposit of US$10 million by I-Hwa Industrial Co, a subsidiary of Chia Her, which was used as collateral. Chu was ruled not guilty in the first trial, but was found guilty
A wild live dugong was found in Taiwan for the first time in 88 years, after it was accidentally caught by a fisher’s net on Tuesday in Yilan County’s Fenniaolin (粉鳥林). This is the first sighting of the species in Taiwan since 1937, having already been considered “extinct” in the country and considered as “vulnerable” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. A fisher surnamed Chen (陳) went to Fenniaolin to collect the fish in his netting, but instead caught a 3m long, 500kg dugong. The fisher released the animal back into the wild, not realizing it was an endangered species at
DEADLOCK: As the commission is unable to forum a quorum to review license renewal applications, the channel operators are not at fault and can air past their license date The National Communications Commission (NCC) yesterday said that the Public Television Service (PTS) and 36 other television and radio broadcasters could continue airing, despite the commission’s inability to meet a quorum to review their license renewal applications. The licenses of PTS and the other channels are set to expire between this month and June. The National Communications Commission Organization Act (國家通訊傳播委員會組織法) stipulates that the commission must meet the mandated quorum of four to hold a valid meeting. The seven-member commission currently has only three commissioners. “We have informed the channel operators of the progress we have made in reviewing their license renewal applications, and