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CDN by the sea: Singapore

04 May 2022 | Science Notes

The city-state of Singapore is perched on the southern tip of Malaysia, where they gaze in horror at the rising sea ready to engulf it in a meter of water in, er, 370 years. Or maybe more: the rate of rise hasn’t been much at all for the past decade, with the 2020 level no different from 2010.

The annual rate at the Raffles Lighthouse since 1980 works out to 2.7 mm per year, or a meter every third of a millennium. But as you can see in the chart there are some gaps in the record. Indeed throughout the Southern Hemisphere there is a problem of missing data or no data at all even in very recent years. And as too often around the world there are also some adjustments going on: the Station Documentation cautions “Several apparent datum shifts in the record.” But taking at face value The Raffles Light House record, Singapore faces a tiny rate of sea level rise which, some time in the next few centuries, might require them to build a new sea wall.

Our guess: By the time 2222 rolls around, they’ll find the cash.

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