In response to Another View on Sept. 26 (

“M.D. Harmon’s column did not reflect reality of rising sea level”

): In all due respect to Bruce Cole, the expected 8-foot rise in ocean levels has already occurred, and cannot occur again 7,000 years after the peak of a warm interglacial cycle, or during a global cooling cycle.

Earth’s climate and sea level changes follow a 120,000-year cycle. The cycles are regulated by physical forces of the scientifically proven Milankovitch Cycles of gravitational forces, solar radiation and Earth’s elliptical path around the sun.

The 120,000-year cycle alternates between cold glacial periods with lower ocean levels, and warm interglacial periods with higher ocean levels. The warm cycle just peaked 7,000 years ago, with rapid melting of Arctic ice and rises in sea levels. It was much warmer then, and there was 50 percent less ice in the Arctic than today. It was also warmer than today when the Vikings settled Greenland 1,000 years ago, and then were forced to leave 300 years later due to an increasingly colder climate.

Earth has been cooling for nearly 7,000 years, and this will continue until the next interglacial global warming peak in 120,000 years.

Earth is now sliding into a 150-year global cooling cycle and the Antarctic is cooling rapidly, with historically large ice extent just recorded. The Arctic will begin cooling rapidly within a few years, and this will preclude any chance of further rises in the ocean level. 

Readers should stay away from websites that tend to skew facts to fit their far-left or far-right agendas.

Chris Dilley of Hiram is a retired teacher.