Rising Tides: Apparent and Actual Sea Level Rise in Miami Beach

First, the Apparent Sea Level Rise

More than 80 percent of known land subsidence in the U.S. is a consequence of groundwater use, and is an often overlooked environmental consequence of our land and water-use practices. Increasing land development threatens to exacerbate existing land-subsidence problems and initiate new ones. Subsidence detection and mapping done by the USGS is needed to understand and manage our current and future land and water resources in areas where subsidence is a problem or may be in the future.

USGS Water Resources, Land Subsidence, March 2, 2019

Over the past decade, several coastal communities in southeast Florida have experienced a significant increase in flooding frequency…The increased flooding frequency reflects the contribution of global, regional, and local processes that affect elevation difference between coastal communities and rising sea level…These results suggest that contribution of local land subsidence affect only small areas along the southeast Florida coast, but in those areas coastal flooding hazard is significantly higher compared to non-subsiding areas.

Semantic Scholar, Land subsidence contribution to coastal flooding hazard in southeast Florida, April 22, 2020

…on the coast of the U.S., we can point to a phenomenon called post-glacial rebound. During the last Ice Age, parts of the northern hemisphere including present-day Canada and the northeast U.S. were covered by huge sheets of ice.

That ice was really heavy, and made the land underneath it sink down, which in turn made the land on the edges of the ice sheet rise up. When the ice sheets started melting, the land that had sunk down started to rebound and rise back up, while the areas that had risen up now started to sink. This rising and falling is still going on today, and the areas that are now slowly sinking are the most affected by rising sea levels.

Indiana Public Media, Moment of Science, The Uneven Rise Of The Eastern Seaboard, April 19, 2019

Next, the Actual Rise of Mean Sea Level (MSL)

…the heat coming from beneath Antarctica is constrained to 150 milliwatts per square meter, with a higher heat rate causing too much melting as compared to what is measured. To compare that with other areas, the average heat flux from the Earth is 40-60 milliwatts per square meter and it reaches an average of 200 milliwatts beneath Yellowstone National Park.

CFACT.org, Volcanic heat found under Antarctica’s fastest-melting glacier, June 27th, 2018

Question: What is the source of the heat under western Antarctica?

In comparison, the Sun’s photosphere has an estimated temperature of 5,538 °C (10,000 °F). The heat beneath Antarctica is the natural heat of the earth itself. The sun is, on average, about 93,000,000 (million) miles distant. The core of the earth is merely 4,000 miles from the surface of the earth. We all know how the heat of the sun affects our lives. What do you know about the Earth beneath your feet?

Rest easy, when you fill up your car with Diesel or gasoline. Do not fret over the smoke from your BBQ grill. Youl are not causing glaciers to melt.

Environmental activists hypocritically bemoan your “carbon footprint” while jetsetting around the world to spread their false narrative of climate doom due to human activity.

In passing, it will be helpful to understand how the rabid environmentalists attribute the melting of the so-called ‘doomsday glacier’ atop western Antarctica to anthropogenic (man-caused) activity. Reference: YouTube video titled The Doomsday Glacier Is Collapsing…Who Is Most at Risk?

If God so chooses to melt the ice on Antarctica, who am I to argue with Him? To be sure, all the king’s horses and all the king’s men will never be able to keep that ice from melting.

You who may doubt God’s ability to melt glaciers, cause draughts, spawn hurricanes, unleash volcanoes and earthquakes, I recommend a book titled Eye to Eye: Facing the Consequences of Dividing Israel.

John White
Rockwall, Texas