### ODT Online Mon, 14 Dec 2009
Rising sea ‘will pose threat to Dunedin’
By Chris Morris
Water lapping over the Forsyth Barr Stadium site, parts of Portsmouth Dr under water and roads crumbling into the sea on the Otago Peninsula – it is a grim picture painted by a University of Otago climate change model.
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###ODT Online Mon, 14 Dec 2009
‘Very little’ city can do about climate change
By Chris Morris
Dunedin will have to “roll with the punch” when hit by climate change – riding out higher seas, more severe flooding and a host of other challenges, a leading New Zealand climatologist says. The assessment from University of Otago climatologist Emeritus Prof Blair Fitzharris came last week as world leaders in Copenhagen convened to thrash out a global agreement to protect the environment.
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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr
What if? Dunedin... 
Despite the scare-mongering headline, the details of this ODT story indicate that Dunedin does not have too much to worry about from sea-level rise. The best news is that tidal-gauge data, from the Harbour Basin, is rising at just 1.3 mm a year, which is a continuation of the long-term trend. This shows that increasing carbon-dioxide in the atmosphere has not accelerated sea-level rise. (News reports of inundation of islands such as Tuvalu, neglect to mention that their land is sinking).
But even most extreme predictions of a 1.5 metre rise by 2100, would affect only a relatively small area of land, mostly around the Upper Harbour. The latest predictions of the IPCC only predict a rise of 0.6 metres which would affect an even smaller area.
Anyway, the theory of catastrophic global-warming is looking increasingly doubtful as the predicted increasing temperature has come to a halt, and there has been no rise since 1998. The Climategate leak shows that scientists have had to resort to dubious selection and manipulation of data to try and make it fit the theory. Time will tell who is right in this controversy.
In the shoddy history of some ODT articles this would have to rank amongst one of the worst ever let alone 2009.
Given the fact that FB Stadium ISN’T under threat, even with the extreme scenario of 1.5m in 90 years, they still introduced the article by mentioning the stadium and of course allowed the focus of the article to be on the stadium – despite the fact that it’s not under threat.
Short news week?
I would have thought that the huge area of Portsmouth Drive industrial estate that will possibly become submerged would have been a greater story, let alone the economic impact aspect of the story!
I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry when I read this very real and important story so poorly botched just to include the sensationalist angle.
And, of course, the vital main trunk railway line would have been threatened first!