‘Urgent need’ for sea-level study

Press, 4 June 1988, Page 3

‘Urgent need’ for sea-level study

By

JANE DUNBAR

Research on rises in sea levels .round New Zealand’s coasts is urgently needed, the North Canterbury Catchment Board was told yesterday. In spite of all the publicity about the greenhouse effect, there was still no proposal for research to be done in New Zealand, said Dr Bob Kirk, a senior lecturer in the University of Canterbury’s geography department, at a board meeting yesterday. “There have been no proposals, no agreements, no meetings called to discuss what sea-level research needs to be done,” he said. The university was compiling data with the help of harbour boards but a co-ordinated effort was urgently needed. A letter he had written to the Conservation Department suggesting such co-operation had not been replied to, said Dr Kirk.

Analysing data which were available from the harbour boards was far more important than making dire predictions about what could happen in 50 years, he said.

There had been a lot of generalisations and sensationalism concerning the greenhouse effect. The subject should instead be approached from a cautious point of view.

The only thing that was certain was that carbon dioxide and other gases which could have a warming effect were increasing.

The effect this warming could have was “highly speculative,” however.

Recent research in the northern hemisphere had come up with conflicting results.

"Contrary to the greenhouse view that world sea levels are rising, we find they are rising in some places, falling in others, and not changing at all in others,” Dr Kirk said.