Elon Musk and the Cargo Shorts Brigade Have Cut Funding for Ocean Research When We Need It Most

The United States has declared its non-combatant status in the war against the climate crisis. The ocean doesn't care. The science doesn't care. Hydrology since Archimedes doesn't care. The seas are rising, faster than ever, and faster than the research can keep up. From CNN:

For around 2,000 years, global sea levels varied little. That changed in the 20th century. They started rising and have not stopped since—and the pace is accelerating. Scientists are scrambling to understand what this means for the future just as President Trump strips back agencies tasked with monitoring the oceans. Since 1993, satellites have kept careful watch over the world’s oceans, allowing scientists a clear view of how they are behaving. What they have revealed is alarming. Sea level rise was unexpectedly high last year, according to a recent NASA analysis of satellite data. More concerning, however, is the longer-term trend. The rate of annual sea level rise has more than doubled over the past 30 years, resulting in the global sea level increasing 4 inches since 1993.

What scientists are crystal clear about is the reason for the rise: human-caused global warming. Oceans absorb roughly 90% of the excess heat primarily produced by burning fossil fuels, and as water heats up it expands. Heat in the atmosphere is also driving melting of the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets, which together hold enough fresh water to raise global sea levels by around 213 feet. Melting ice sheets have driven roughly two-thirds of longer-term sea level rise, although last year—the planet’s hottest on record—the two factors flipped, making ocean warming the main driver.

There is enough uncertainty in the future projections for the denialists to fudge the data and cast doubt on the findings. To the more sensible among us, the uncertainty is a motive for deeper and more thorough research into what is clearly a global crisis. But, thanks to Elon Musk and his cargo-shorts brigade, a lot of the people who would do that research are on the bricks right now. Meanwhile, because the oceans don't care who Won All The Swing States, American citizens are struggling, literally, to stay afloat.

The US coastlines are tracking above global average and toward the upper end of climate model projections, NASA’s Hamlington said. The Gulf Coast, where land is sinking in large part due to the extraction of oil, gas and groundwater, is a hotspot. Louisiana is particularly vulnerable as climate change-driven sea level rise meets fast-sinking land. The state has one of the highest rates of land loss in the world, with some areas experiencing relative sea level rise nearly four times the global rate.

The ocean doesn't care, and now, it appears, neither does anyone in government.