Guterres Calls for More Money to Stop Sea Level Rise

UN Sec. Gen. Antonio Guterres is reporting from Tonga, calling for more climate finance to stop sea level rise from threatening small island nations in the lead up to climate summits, says Friends of Science Society

However, evidence shows that the 2022 Hunga Tonga eruption is driving disparate weather extremes and will do so for years to come.

The issue of sea level rise is all over mainstream media prompted by this UN News release of Aug. 26, 2024, and the visit of UN Sec. Gen. Antonio Guterres to the island state of Tonga, says Friends of Science Society.

As the one-day event alongside the 79th session of the United Nations General Assembly on Sept. 25, 2024 “Climate Forward” meeting approaches, climate hysteria in the media is on the rise as well, says Friends of Science.

Friends of Science Society notes that on March 29, 2023, the Small Island Nation of Vanuatu submitted a request to the UN General Assembly to establish national obligations to address ‘climate change’.

As the UNGA reported at the time that:

“The General Assembly today adopted by consensus a resolution requesting an advisory opinion from the International Court of Justice (ICJ) on the obligations of States in respect of climate change.”

Guterres issued a climate “SOS” from the island of Tonga calling for the phase-out of ‘fossil fuels’ to stop the ‘climate crisis’ which he claims is “entirely caused by humanity” as reported by The Guardian, Aug. 27, 2024.

Guterres ignores natural variability of climate.

As reported in The Conversation of May 29, 2024, the Hunga Tonga volcanic eruption of Jan. 15, 2022, will be driving unusual weather patterns for perhaps a decade.

“Hunga Tonga produced little smoke, but a lot of water vapour: 100–150 million tonnes, or the equivalent of 60,000 Olympic swimming pools.” The heat of the eruption transformed sea water into water vapour.

The eruption shot it up into the stratosphere. Water vapor is the most important greenhouse gas, says Friends of Science Society, referring to their Climate Change Science Essay.

The current media narrative suggests there may be further news on the UNGA’s initiative with the ICJ in this regard in September at the various climate summits. However, you can’t blame humans for the impacts of Hunga Tonga, says Friends of Science.

Climate activists saw the UNGA initiative as a step forward toward ‘climate justice’ – a nebulous concept that seems to encompass ‘climate action’ like that of Just Stop Oil, wherein protestors trample on rule of law while claiming to “Tell the Whole Truth” on climate.

For conspiring to create societal havoc, several Just Stop Oil protestors have been jailed in the UK, as discussed in this Friends of Science video.

Preceding “Climate Forward” will be “Summit of the Future” (Sept. 20-23, 2024) and New York Climate Week (Sept. 22-29, 2024) approach, Guterres is calling for more climate funding to stop sea level rise, which he claims threatens Small Island Nations.

In a 2016 interview for Friends of Science, Dr. John Harper, FGSA,FGAC, PGeol., former director of the Geological Survey of Canada, explained that the more likely reason small island residents feel threatened is due to erosion by the sea, which looks like sea level rise to individuals, but empirically is not proven.

In fact, most small islands in the Pacific have shown empirical and statistically significant growth in their land areas.

The authors of this paper by Sengupta et al (2021) used photos and satellite images of 104 atoll islands of Micronesia in the equatorial Pacific Ocean to show that the islands increased in area by three percent since the mid-20th century.

Using satellite images of 221 atoll island in the Indian and Pacific Oceans, this paper by Holdaway et al (2021) shows that their total area increased by 6.1 percent between 2000 to 2017; however, part of the increase was due to land reclamation.

The psychological threat of sea level rise has been exploited in the past by Guterres and TIME magazine in the June 13, 2019, edition, with a cover picture of Guterres in the ocean in a suit, with ocean water rising over the height of his knees.

Meanwhile, sea level gauges worldwide show a best fit rate of rate of sea level rise of 2.1 mm per year at 2020.

CLINTEL, the climate intelligence network of some 1944 scientists and scholars, has shown there is no climate emergency.

Friends of Science Society has just issued a report titled: “At Last! The Costs and Benefits of Canada’s Climate Plan.”