Read here. With alarming frequency, it seems non-profit organizations take significant liberties with the truth in order to raise contributions and donations to enrich/fund themselves. The temptation to spread scientific falsehoods in order to inflate contribution flows is great, and it becomes significantly easier if a global warming (climate change) falsehood/myth can be the money-raising means. It would appear such is the case of a claim made by the Global Heritage Network (GHN).
The GHN claim (above caption from GHN briefing paper) that an ancient fort on the Indian Ocean coast of Africa is being destroyed by rising sea levels due to climate change is fundamentally bogus, as so many global warming claims from non-profit, international organizations are.
"As you can see [chart to left], we have very good agreement between the satellite and tide gauge records, which increases the confidence in both. As you can also see, over the last quarter century the massive recent sea level rise has brought the local sea level about back to where it was 25 years before…So we can throw out all of the nonsense about sea level rise. Since 1985, sea level dropped about two-four inches (50-100 cm) and rose back up again. Anyone who thinks that was the threat to the ancient fort isn’t following the story...So if sea level rise is not the cause of the fort crumbling into the sea, what is? From an examination of the site, it seems obvious that the answer is plain old garden variety erosion."..."This type of sedimentary, marshy land is never stable. Year after year the islands and the channels shift and change. Rather than being surprised that the 500-year-old fort is falling in the ocean, we should be surprised that it has lasted this long."
Moral of story? Any organization's claim that assigns blame to global warming (climate change) for a given event or situation should be immediately viewed as a false claim until empirical evidence (the observed, scientific data) is presented as proof. Organizations that continually mislead the public in regards to unproven, non-scientific claims should no longer be the trusted recipients of the publics' and/or taxpayers' generosity.
Recommendation to GHN? Remove/correct any references to climate change and/or global warming if the scientific evidence does not support the claim. (BTW, pictures, anecdotal stories, hearsay, and simulated climate model output are not empirical evidence.)
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