The settlement history of the ocean

One of the challenges of discussing the Anthropogenic Global Warming hypothesis is that the claims are made in the context of the Holocene, a period of interglacial global warming during which the world has indeed warmed. But for geological reasons rather than man-caused reasons.

We have to distinguish between the background warming that is occurring anyway and the possible AGW contribution which might be accelerating an already existing trend.

One aspect of the Holocene has been the worldwide rise in sea-levels. Much of my youth was spent in the general vicinity of the North Sea which is one of the areas most affected by this geological sea-level rise. The Dogger Bank is rich maritime history and for ages, modern fishermen have been accustomed to hauling up relics of past human activities indicating that the area was once settled land.

Came across this evocative map of the the rise of the ocean and the retreat of land during the interglacial Holocene.

Click to enlarge.