A new study by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute contradicts a July, 2025 report from the US Department of Energy that found no evidence of climate-related impacts on sea level rises. The WHOI researchers have reached a dramatically different conclusion. The DOE report considered a small subset of the available coastal sea-level data from tide gauges—NOT all available longterm records. In fact, there is conclusive evidence that sea-level rise has doubled in the past 125 years. Current rates are well above the historical average.
According to WBUR climate writer Barbara Moran, “While rising sea levels are a global phenomenon, there are striking differences by location, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Extracting groundwater can make land sink, for instance, accelerating the local rate of sea level rise. In other areas, where land is still rebounding after ice age glaciers melted, local sea levels are falling.
The sea level around Boston has risen about a foot in the last 100 years, according to NOAA, while the sea level around Portland, Maine, has only risen about 0.65 feet.
The federal report released in July acknowledged global sea level rise ‘is arguably the most important climate impact driver that is unambiguously associated with increasing temperatures.’ However, it called predictions of future sea level rise into question, noting that U.S. tidal gauge measurements ‘in aggregate show no obvious acceleration in sea level rise beyond the historical average rate.’
The report drew criticism from climate scientists and environmental advocacy groups when it was released, with more than 85 scientists issuing a rebuttal that called many of the report’s assertions ‘misleading or fundamentally incorrect.’”