Kirbati is going to drown! Or maybe not.
Kiribati, just like many other small islands, is frequently used to illustrate the “devastation” that sea level rise is causing (or will cause) from climate change. The only problem is that the data doesn’t support the rhetoric.
I’ve been tracking Kiribati sea level for a while now, but this time when updating my data, I thought I would check all stations available from Bom and from PSMSL for Kiribati. I down loaded the mean sea level data from 5 separate stations with good overlap stretching back to 1949. Using the most consistent data, I have adjusted each data set for differing locations using 1804 station as my base, and using the average difference on the overlaps to recalculate a long record.
Here are the five original data sets from Kiribati

The trends of each tide gauge is interesting too. Some going up, some going down, and the longest two of the five, are as flat as the Hay Plain.

Once the other stations are normalised to the 1804 station, we get a better picture of what has happened over the entire record. Although there are many variables in comparing different locations, this at least gives a decent indication of what is going on over a longer time frame.

So here it is. A composite reconstruction from the various tide gauges around the Kiribati Island group with the indicated trend.

So we get a positive trend over this period, and yes, the ocean level has risen, but not by very much. Less than 1mm per year (0.8mm). This is a much reduced rate compared to what I calculated a year ago (1.52mm). So the long term rate has reduced dramatically, and will continue to fall if the current 12 year negative trend continues. It will be interesting to watch as a possible El Nino develops this year. They tend to produce very low sea levels around the west Pacific Islands.

Of course no one really knows where it will head next, however one thing is for sure, there is absolutely no correlation to atmospheric carbon dioxide, and particularly the human contribution.
JTF62