Exclusive: Global Sea Level Data Agency Hits Back After Unfounded Attacks from Breitbart and Climate Science Deniers

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A British government-backed research project that coordinates data from tide gauges around the world has hit back at climate science deniers who wrongly accused their scientists of fakingย findings.

The Permanent Service for Mean Sea Level, based in Liverpool, UK,ย at the National Oceanography Center, dismissed the claims made by two Australia-based scientists who both reject the well-established links between greenhouse gas emissions from human activity and globalย warming.

The claims gained wider attention after Breitbartโ€™s James Delingpole, a climate science denier, screamed it was certain evidence PSMSL had been โ€œcaught red-handed tampering with raw data in order to exaggerate sea levelย rise.โ€

PSMSL said despite the claims, tide gauges and satellites showed that sea levels around the globe were rising and the rate of rise had increased in recent decades. Recent adjustments to the tide gauge data under scrutiny, in Yemen, had actually resulted in a decrease in the rate of sea level change, a spokespersonย said.

The paper by Albert Parker and Cliff Ollier appeared in the new โ€œopen accessโ€ journal Earth Systems and Environment and claimed that data from a tide gauge in Aden, Yemen, did not show that sea levels there hadย risen.

As well as gaining attention from far right outlet Breitbart, the โ€œresearchโ€ was also covered uncritically by the UKโ€™s MailOnline, which repeated the claim that PSMSL had made โ€œarbitraryโ€ adjustments to theirย data.

But senior scientists who are experts in sea level, and who spoke to Snopes and DeSmog, rubbished the claims, saying the study was flawed because the conclusions were unsupported by anyย methodology.

Unintelligibleย Research

Leading sea level scientist Dr. John Hunter told DeSmog the research was โ€œclose to beingย unintelligible.โ€

A spokersperson for PSMSL, at the National Oceanography Center, told DeSmog that MailOnline had approached them for comment, but published the story before scientists had a chance to respond. No other outlets contacted them toย check.

The spokesperson wrote: โ€œAny adjustment applied is never โ€˜arbitraryโ€™ but is based on documentation of benchmark heights held by the PSMSL stretching back many years. An ongoing job of the PSMSL is to determine whether the adjustments made are correct, especially when new documentation becomes available or if there is a reanalysis of the existingย documentation.โ€

PSMSL said the Aden, Yemen, gauge was assessed in 2008 and again in 2013 and this information was published on the PSMSL website.

โ€œThe 2013 reassessment resulted in a decrease (and not an increase) in the estimated 19th-20th century rate of sea level change at Aden,โ€ the spokesperson wrote, adding that PSMSL was submitting a response to theย journal.

โ€œGlobal sea level is both rising and accelerating, and the data set compiled by PSMSL provides important input to this. This is detailed in the IPCC AR5 report chapters 3 and 13 โ€ฆ Specifically, PSMSL data inform us that sea level has risen by about 1-2 mm/year during the 20th century, and together with data from satellites, the rate over the last couple of decades has been over 3ย mm/yr.โ€

Dr. John Hunter, a renowned expert on global sea level rise from the University of Tasmania, has analysed the Parker paper.ย He told DeSmog it was โ€œhard to be sure what [Parker] has doneโ€ with the data because the paper, like others by the same author, were โ€œclose to beingย unintelligible.โ€

But he said the PSMSL broadly made two kinds of adjustments to data, which were โ€œnot arbitraryโ€ butย necessary.

One type of adjustment was to take the raw data and convert this to an average sea level height over a particular time period.ย A second was essentially a calibration exercise that matched the height of the zero mark on the tide gauge to a fixed point on theย land.

Hunter said: โ€œBroadly, PSMSL base the adjustments on whatever trustworthy information they have โ€” if they don’t have satisfactory information, then they don’t convert that section of record from Metric to [Revised Local Reference data*]. They document what they do and why they doย it.

โ€œOn the other hand, Parker’s papers are often close to being unintelligible, so it is hard to be sure what he hasย done.

โ€œParker and Ollier (2017) appear to completely ignore the background information and instead fiddle around with the sea-level records only, matching break-points as best they can, using techniques which tend to yield adjusted records with virtually noย trend.โ€

Hunter added that tide gauges and satellites all showed that sea levels were rising, and there was good understanding that this was being caused by thermal expansion of the oceans and the melting of glaciers and iceย sheets.

Who is Albertย Parker?

Dr. Albert Parker is a mechanical engineer and former Fiat motor company researcher who, as reported by DeSmog, has also published papers under the name Alberto Boretti.ย He appears to have begun using the name Parker in about 2013 โ€” around the time he took a role at RMIT University, which he has sinceย left.

Boretti has refused to say why he uses two different names. Boretti and his sometime research partner Cliff Ollier, of University of Western Australia, are both listed as members of Principia Scientific International.

PSI is a fringe climate science denial group that publishes materials that deny that carbon dioxide is a greenhouseย gas.

Parker is prolific with his research and tends to target little-known and poorly regardedย journals.

In early 2017, Parker and Ollier claimed that Australia had not warmed since the end of the 1800s, even though all temperature data shows a clear warming.ย The pair again argued that data, this time temperature readings, was being nefariouslyย altered.

Journals Underย Investigation

Parker and Ollier have co-authored several papers in a separate journal, Environmental Science: An Indian Journal,ย where the pair have also argued against human-caused climateย change.

The publication Environmental Science: An Indian Journalย is run by an organization called Trade Science Inc, which is owned by Indian โ€œopen accessโ€ publisher, OMICS.

OMICS is currently under investigation by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission for alleged deceptive practices. The FTC is questioning OMICS claims that its journals are properly peer-reviewed, and the agency alleges deceptive marketing practices.ย OMICS denies theย allegations.

A brochure advertising the network of OMICS trading names includes Trade Science Inc, and a contact address for Trade Science Inc is the same as OMICS Internationalโ€™s headquarters in Hyderabad.

Parker has had several university affiliations in recent years, including RMIT, the now defunct University of Ballarat, and James Cook University.ย  In his latest research he listed no academicย affiliation.

In 2013, Parker wrote a paper with a fellow Australian, Thomas Watson, again arguing that sea levels were notย rising.ย 

Watson also thinks global warming is not caused by rising greenhouse gas emissions, but instead says the Earthโ€™s climate is controlled byย โ€œmagnetism.โ€

*Revised Local Reference data are used in time series analysesย โ€[i]n order to construct time series of sea level measurements at each station,โ€ according to PSMSL.

Main image:ย One prediction of where rising sea levels could end up at Cottesloe Beach, Perth, Western Australia. Credit: GoGreenerOzย (CC BYND 2.0)

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