AAP FACTCHECK – A photo of “Roman style” baths in Malta proves the sea level hasn’t risen in hundreds or perhaps thousands of years, a viral social media post claims.
This is false. A single image cannot provide evidence that sea levels have risen or fallen, and there’s substantial scientific evidence that sea levels around Malta, and the world, have risen over several decades.
The claim appears in a Facebook post which shows an image of seaside baths and states: “Roman style tidal baths in Malta — still at sea level after thousands, or is it hundreds of years. No disastrous meters of ocean rise we were told to expect? Best ask what your children are being taught.”
The post previously described the baths as “Roman”, but this was altered to say “Roman style” after fact-checkers, including Politifact, Lead Stories and USA Today, wrote that the baths are likely from the Victorian era, which roughly spanned from the early-mid 1800s to the early 1900s.
Malta’s Department of Information stated online that they were constructed in the Victorian era, and several University of Malta history experts told AAP FactCheck that the baths were not constructed in Roman times, including Charles Dalli, Simone Azzopardi and Professor Dominic Fenech.
The Facebook post’s edit has not altered its fundamental claim, which is that the photo shows the sea level, at least around Malta, has not risen since the time they were built.
Experts said the photo alone doesn’t provide evidence to confirm or deny a rise in sea level caused by climate change. However, there is considerable evidence that sea levels around Malta have risen in recent decades.
Professor Phil Woodworth, emeritus fellow at the National Oceanography Centre in the UK, pointed AAP FactCheck to a study which found the average sea level rise in the Mediterranean Sea, in which Malta is located, was about 3.6mm per year between 2000 and 2018.
He also said tide gauge records, taken from a village in the island nation’s southeast, found an average sea level increase of around 2.77mm per year since 1988.
Emeritus Professor John Church, of UNSW’s Climate Change Research Centre, said a large number of papers showed the global sea level has been rising at an accelerating rate.
He pointed AAP FactCheck to a 2021 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report, which found the global mean sea level rose by 200mm between 1901 and 2018 (page 5).
It also found the average rise was 1.3mm per year between 1901 and 1971, increasing to 1.9mm per year between 1971 and 2006, and further increasing to 3.7mm per year between 2006 and 2018.
Even if there hadn’t been a rise in a particular location, Prof Church said this would not be out of step with the scientific consensus on climate change leading to rising seas.
He said there were a number of reasons why a particular regional location may not have an observable rise, including changing ocean currents and air pressure, and movement of the sea level floor.
The Verdict
False – The claim is inaccurate.
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