Although Tim links to RealClimate he has shown a great reticence to accepting that the problem may be very serious. In his July post, he highlights a study that suggests the IPCC estimates on sea level rise, in their TAR 4 report, are about right. Those estimates suggested quite modest increases in sea level, even in worst case scenarios. However, I pointed Tim at another study that wasn't quite so conservative (though it still wasn't predicting the catastrophic levels that some climate analysts had suggested). Unfortunately, Tim chose to ignore my comment and so his post is the only recent one on the subject (on his site), with no counter balance.
Well, there have been two more recent studies, one from the UN itself, that update the situation on climate and the attendant sea level risks. They are far more hard hitting than Tim would feel comfortable with, so don't expect to see any reference to them soon.
Here is an article that references the UN's Climate Change Science Compendium 2009, which updates the science in the IPCC report.
The other study is by the UK's Hadley Centre, covered in this New Scientist article. It suggests that the 2 degree centigrade limit that the world's governments seemed to be paying lip service to is already a lost cause and 4 degrees is very possible well before the end of the century, even if current policies are implemented. Attendant sea level rises will be much larger than the ones posited in the article that Tim posted.
It's interesting that Tim also includes a link to a climate skeptic, economist and political scientist, Bjorn Lomborg. Perhaps this is an attempt to be even handed but I think that would be a generous explanation, given Tim's propensity to censoring comments (or ridiculing comments) that don't fit with his desires for the future. Real Climate is certainly not a Lomborg supporter so readers of Tim's blog should consider whether they should go with the opinions of climate scientists or with the opinions of an economist, when deciding their positions on climate change. Check out the first few pages of a new book, Climate Cover-Up, for some comments on Lomborg's position.
