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SWEDEN (check webpage for photos )

SMHI was forced to correct climate alarmist inaccuracies
Published 2024-10-17

Sweden's Meteorological and Hydrological Institute (SMHI) has received its fair share of criticism for government activism. In this case, to join the ranks of the climate alarmist movement. Former SD Member of Parliament Thoralf Alfsson reacted to grossly misleading information on the authority's website and managed with difficulty to get something in that, with a little good will, can be labeled as a correction.

It was after Alfsson tried in vain to get an answer from Member of Parliament Janine Alm Ericson (MP) about the factual basis for her claims that "Sweden's coastal communities are threatened by increased water levels" that he was referred to SMHI's website on climate adaptation. There he was able to quickly establish that what was claimed about increased sea levels was downright fraudulent.

A paragraph on the page read: " The sea is now rising faster than it has in several thousand years. The speed has increased significantly in recent decades. The sea level along Sweden's coasts has on average risen by approximately 15 cm since the end of the 19th century, of which almost 10 cm has occurred in the last 40 years. "
Omitted compensatory land elevation
What Alfsson reacted to was that they did not mention in a single word the land raising that took place at the same time. The omission can be considered particularly serious in light of the fact that during the same period, in most of the country, the rise in land has been greater than the rise in sea level.

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This means that sea levels relative to land have not become higher at all, but on the contrary lower. No reason to sound the alarm, then, unless you have a climate policy agenda, something that a non-powerful authority should not have.

Caused SMHI to half correct
Alfsson therefore contacted SMHI and wrote the following about the agency's misleading information: " We have a rise in land that exceeds the rise in sea level. In any case, from Kalmar where I live and north all the way up to Haparanda where the land rise is 8-10 mm per year. Don't you think the text is very misleading? "

Significantly greater land rise than sea level rise. Photo: Thoralf Alfsson.
The answer that came from SMHI was as long-winded as a lecture, but still ended with a promise that " we will review how we can clarify this further on the website ".

It took about a week before anything happened. Then they dutifully added a sentence at the end. The piece now reads: " The sea is now rising faster than it has in several thousand years. The speed has increased significantly in recent decades. The sea level along Sweden's coasts has on average risen by approximately 15 cm since the end of the 19th century, of which almost 10 cm has occurred in the last 40 years. This indicates how big the rise would have been if we had had no long-term land rise. "

The alarmist tone remains and in the addendum nothing is said about the land rise being greater than the sea level rise and by a margin outnumbers this. Alfsson nevertheless declares himself satisfied that it was at all possible to get the "colossus" SMHI to act so that what is written is not quite as misleading. He also writes that he hopes that " the alarmists at SMHI have given themselves food for thought ".