To the Editor:The Newtown Bee, May 18). The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) figures are between 1.7 and 3.6mm per year, so using NOAA's worst case, the rise would be 4.3 inches in 30 years, with three inches being more likely. NOAA's site for sea level says New London sea level rise is 0.85 feet per century.

Governor Malloy's projection of a two-foot sea level rise in 30 years seems bizarre (

So I looked up Connecticut Institute for Resilience and Climate Adaptation's (CIRCA) figures on the net; they have an interesting graph that shows projections of exponentially increasing rates of sea level rise as predicted by models. For comparison, they project actual measurements from tide gauges, which rise linearly. The graph starts in 2000, but apparently the actual starting point for the comparison is not shown on the chart; it looks like the comparison began about 1975. I noted the projections have a large negative error vs actual measurements at the beginning of the chart, so it is conceivable their projections have large errors elsewhere.

NASA has a site about sea level rise due to climate change. The graph showing sea level rise from 1870 to 1993 is essentially linear with some noise superimposed; the rate is about 2.7mm per year or 11 inches per century. There is no obvious change in the slope of sea level rise from 1870 to 1993. Serious man-made carbon dioxide emissions began about 1940, so one would expect the slope to change if sea level rise is caused by man made carbon dioxide emissions, as Gov Malloy suggests.

John Moran

8 Newfield Lane, Newtown May 21, 2018