The OpEd is not peer reviewed literature and focuses on the question of which year is the hottest rather than on what is the trend in climate change. The NASA website clearly states that 15 of the 16 warmest years on record occurred since 2001 (climate.nasa.gov/evidence/) which demonstrates the importance of the long-term trend of increasing temperatures.

While these statements are mostly accurate, they do not answer the question posed by Mr. Brooks or support his interpretation.

This summary is not correct. The data clearly show that even with the amount of global warming that we have already experienced, that the global mean sea level has risen. The amount of snowfall over Antarctica is not enough to balance this effect of the seas rising, which itself is a function of seawater expanding as it heats up as well as the addition of meltwater from mountain glaciers and polar ice sheets (IPCC, AR5).

This is a correct statement and these effects are discussed in more detail and with more references in the last IPCC (AR5) report.

This statement is correct and refers to the recurrent mass bleaching of corals documented in the Great Barrier Reef: Hughes, T. P. et al. (2017) Global warming and recurrent mass bleaching of corals. Nature, 543(7645), 373-377.

This statement is correct. The history of our understanding of the Greenhouse effect as it developed during the 19th century is summarized in Mitchell, J. F. B. (1989), The “Greenhouse” effect and climate change, Rev. Geophys., 27(1), 115–139, doi:10.1029/RG027i001p00115.

While the most dramatic effects may not be felt until 50 to 100 years from now, that does not mean that dramatic impacts will not occur before then.

This is true, based on the research cited here. The dynamics of rapid ice sheet retreat remain uncertain which introduces uncertainty into the projections.

Many projections have been done, but they may very well underestimate the true expected range of scenarios.

It is not yet clear what is causing the recent uptick in the rate of sea level rise in this region over the past several years, which is not similarly recorded at tide gauges north of Cape Hatteras according to the NOAA tide gauge data. If, however, this quote refers to the long-term trend of sea-level rise in this region, then it is correct and consistent with the analysis of the IPCC AR5 (Church and Clark, (2013) Chapter 13, IPCC AR5).

The hypothesis that (a) the Gulf stream has weakened over this time interval and (b) that it is the primary driver of sea level rise acceleration seen farther north along the U.S. Atlantic coast is still debated (see for example, Kopp (2013) Does the mid-Atlantic United States sea level acceleration hot spot reflect ocean dynamic variability? Geophysical Research Letters, 40, 3981-3985.)

This statement is true based on several different analyses. For example, in a study that quantified the reduction of flood control capabilities of coastal water control gravity structures owing to increased sea level rise, they found that “sea level change could negatively impact nearly half the coastal flow control structures in the coming decades, unless adaptive measures are implemented to mitigate such impacts.” Obeysekera, J., Irizarry, M., Park, J., Barnes, J., Dessalegne, T. (2011) Climate change and its implications for water resources management in south Florida, Stochastic Environmental Research and Risk Assessment, 25 (4), 495-516.

It is true that these are commonly used projections in this region. This statement refers to the Unified Sea Level Rise Projection that was produced by the Southeast Florida Regional Compact on Climate Change (October, 2015; found here: https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=3&ved=0ahUKEwi78Pf8xZDTAhWFbiYKHaprDVMQFgglMAI&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.southeastfloridaclimatecompact.org%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2015%2F10%2F2015-Compact-Unified-Sea-Level-Rise-Projection.pdf&usg=AFQjCNG8EJ6kOv6QSgBKsbC0-RbIip3ZuQ&sig2=2lSW0DU3KzgkjuLa4lIMew).

This jump in nuisance flooding was documented, as cited, by Sweet and Park (2014) Acceleration and tipping points of coastal inundation from sea level rise, Earth's Future, 2(12), 579-600.

This is depth of flooding is accurate as stated and is shown in FIg. 2 of Sweet and Park (2014) From the extreme to the mean: Acceleration and tipping points of coastal inundation from sea level rise, Earth's Future, 2(12), 579-600.

This is supported by the analysis of Dutton et al. (2015) Sea-level rise due to polar ice-sheet mass loss during past warm periods, Science, 349(6244), aaa4019, that indicates that the present ice sheets are out of equilibrium with the present climate. It is also supported by the last IPCC assessment, as noted by one of the other commentators.

This statement is supported by the research that is cited here by Gillis.

This is an accurate representation of the research by Kopp et al. (2009) Probabilistic assessment of sea level during the last interglacial stage, Nature, 462, 863-867 as well as Dutton and Lambeck (2012) Ice volume and sea level during the last interglacial, Science, 337(6091), 216-219.

Although the maximum sea level for the Pliocene is still debated (see Dutton et al. (2015) Sea-level rise due to polar ice-sheet mass loss during past warm periods, Science, 349 (6244), aaa4019), this statement is supported by the following reference: Miller et al. (2012) High tide of the warm Pliocene: Implications of global sea level for Antarctic deglaciation, Geology, 40(5), 407-410.

The last 6,000 years have been unusually stable for the period of time that we are able to constrain rates of sea-level change particularly well (at sub-millennial timescales): see, for example, Lambeck et al., 2014, Sea level and global ice volumes from the Last Glacial Maximum to the Holocene, 111(43), 15296–15303.

This statement about the land sinking in the region of Norfolk, leading to higher rates of sea level rise is correct, and is supported by plenty of research, including: Kopp et al. (2014) Probabilistic 21st and 22nd century sea-level projections at a global network of tide-gauge sites, Earth's Future, 2(8), 383-406.

This is an accurate summary. To learn more about the eventual degree of melting in the future, see Clark et al (2016) Nature Climate Change (Consequences of twenty-first-century policy for multi-millennial climate and sea-level change, currently available online).

Though the sea level lowstand during the last ice age is typically referred to as -120 m, most studies now cite a larger number, in the range of -130-135 m (>400 feet). See Austermann et al. (2013) Nature Geoscience, Barbados-based estimate of ice volume at Last Glacial Maximum affected by subducted plate; Lambeck et al. (2014) PNAS, Sea level and global ice volumes from the Last Glacial Maximum to the Holocene; and the supplement of Dutton et al. (2015) Science.

This statement is accurate. See Clark et al. (2016) Nature Climate Change (Consequences of twenty-first-century policy for multi-millennial climate and sea-level change, currently available online) or Dutton et al. (2015) Science, Sea-level rise due to polar ice-sheet mass loss during past warm periods.

This is an accurate and eloquent way of explaining Kopp's contribution to this field of study.

This is an accurate representation of the previous and current research. It might have been nice to also note here that because the models he used probably don't fully account for the rate of mass loss of ice from the polar ice sheets that the 3-4 feet estimate in the current research and in the IPCC may well underestimate the eventual magnitude of global mean sea-level rise by 2100.

This is an important way to think about the implications of the research on how this sea-level rise that is driven by human emissions is affecting coastal communities.

This is an important and appropriately used qualifier. It may be the fastest rate in comparison to a much longer time span, we just don't have enough highly-resolved sea level reconstructions farther back in time to make the comparison.

The opening sentence is an accurate summary of the research that was published by Kopp et al. in PNAS. In fact, if anything, it is somewhat of an understatement given that the worsening of tidal flooding may be ENTIRELY due to the influence of greenhouse gases from human activity. This is based on the statement in the published research by Kopp et al (PNAS) that sea level in the 20th century may have "very likely risen by between -3 cm and +7 cm ", which is a way of saying that it may have fallen by 3 cm or risen by up to 7 cm over that time frame in the absence of anthropogenically-induced global warming.

To be clear, the "study" referred to in this sentence is not peer-reviewed literature, but a report that analyzes the significance of the results presented in the "other" study that was published by Kopp et al. in PNAS. This distinction appears below in the article, but is not clear in this paragraph, which directly follows a reference to "new research" in the preceding paragraph.