Reply to the comment of P.S. Kench et al. on 'New perspectives for the future of the Maldives' by N.A. Morner et al. [Global Planet. Change 40 (2004), 177-182]

摘要

As the title "New perspectives for the future of the Maldives" clearly indicated, our paper was focused on the present-to-future aspects of sea level changes in the Maldives. We did so because of the urgent need to correct the scenario repeatedly presented by the IPCC (e.g. 2001) of a general on-going sea level flooding. The IPCC scenario was, in our opinion, created and driven by non-specialists in sea level research (INQUA, 2000; Moerner, 2000a,b, 2002a,b). Our paper is an initial presentation of our main observations and conclusions regarding the present-to-future sea level situation, so urgently needed in order to clean up the disinformation spread by the IPCC, at least, when it concerns sea level. Therefore, our paper only briefly introduces and discusses our new findings on general reef development and Last Interglacial sea level positions. Likewise, we leave radiocarbon lists for a later general report by all the Maldives Project Team Members. In their Letter to the Editor, Kench et al. (2004) discuss three major issues. We will here comment on them one by one.