Given that the typical tidal range in Sydney harbor is about one meter and extremes are nearly two meters, and on top of that are wind driven waves, those two photos are not indicative at all of sea level rise. But this specific location has the best reliable data for sea level in the world. Since 1886 average sea level at this location has increased approximately 150 mm … about six inches.
Keep in mind though (for perspective) that sea level 12,000 years ago was about 400 feet lower and 125,000 years ago at the peak of the last interglacial warm era, it was 18 feet higher so “normal” is hard to define.
Anyone remember 12,000 years ago when the Earth rapidly cooled then rapidly warmed, causing the biggest extinction event in the last 3-5 million years?
Our population has exploded since then, with 100% of the thanks going towards the warmth that keeps us bald mammals alive.
I burn anything burnable in a barrel - plastic, paper, treated wood, faux materials, etc… If it catches fire, it gets returned to Nature instead of uselessly added to a landfill.
Thank God! In the 60’s and 70’s they were scaring the ■■■■ out of me with talk about another ice age. If you want to talk about a global disaster, that would be about number two right behind a Chicxulub class asteroid strike.
That caught my eye as a bit odd too. The standard used by the NWB and NOAA is thirty years … or more precisely, the average of the previous three decades. Currently, “normal” is the average of 1990 through 2019.
By the way, the mid 40s through mid 50s that they omitted, were warm on average, at least in the northern hemisphere. Data was much more sketchy before weather satellites became common.