Seaports With Sea Level Change - 13

Security is just around the planet

I. Data

The Permanent Service for Mean Sea Level (PSMSL) updated its data on March 8, 2021.

The PSMSL updates its dataset frequently.

So, I am refreshing this series using that data.

You can review previous posts in this series (Seaports With Sea Level Change, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12).

As I have mentioned before, the PSMSL classifies coastlines with unique numbers.

Some countries have only one such code, while other countries have multiple codes.

The gist of it is that the codes represent a different type of coast/ocean relationship (e.g. one coastline on the Pacific Ocean, another on the Atlantic Ocean, and yet another on the Gulf of Mexico).

So, in the following menu I have separated the HTML and PNG graph files accordingly (note that some multi-coastline countries don't supply sea level data from all of their coastlines).

II. Presentation of Data

Single Coastline Countries	Multi Coastline Countries	Coastline Graphs
Appendix: A-C	Appendix: A-C	Appendix: A-C
Appendix: D-G	Appendix: D-G	Appendix: D-G
Appendix: H-L	Appendix: H-L	Appendix: H-L
Appendix: M-O	Appendix: M-O	Appendix: M-O
Appendix: P-T	Appendix: P-T	Appendix: P-T
Appendix: U-Z	Appendix: U-Z	Appendix: U-Z

III. History of Seaport Posts On Dredd Blog

For some 12 years now, Dredd Blog posts have considered the military viewpoint that climate change is a national security issue (Global Climate & Homeland Insecurity, July 2009).

A decade ago, in May of 2011, a post on Dredd Blog asked Will This Float Your Boat?

Since then there have been a plethora of posts on the subject (Series Posts N-Z).

Dredd Blog may have been the first to point out that all seaports will not have the same experience, because as this series plainly shows some seaports are and will be experiencing sea level fall, while others are and will be experiencing sea level rise.

The military is of the same opinion still (Climate change is now a national security priority for the Pentagon).

As Dredd Blog posts have pointed out since 2009, that is not new news, it is old news. 

The Navy, being seaport oriented, will understand this Dredd Blog series, as will the world's shipping companies.

Will others get it?

IV. The Word Is Getting Around

I very recently read a helpful paper on this subject which focuses on an important issue that is probably less well known than sea level change itself.

That paper points out a critical issue, which is the enormous increase in seaport usage that is expected to take place over the next three decades:

"Recent trade scenarios suggest that global freight demand could increase between three‐ and seven‐fold by 2050 ..." 

(Demand for Ports to 2050: Climate Policy, Growing Trade and the Impacts of Sea‐Level Rise). The article goes on to explain that additional ports are going to have to be built, in addition to refurbishing current ports (some will experience an increase in shallowness as others experience deepening).

The ocean is not like a bathtub (Proof of Concept, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10).

 V. Closing Comments

The general "warming commentariat" has heretofore poo pooed that there is anything to see here folks so move along, even as they incessantly use the phrase "worse than expected".

The next post in this series is here, the previous post in this series is here.