Sinking Feeling: More Bad News for Pacific Island Nations

[one...two...tree 2,762]

In climate negotiations in Durban, South Africa, the most urgent calls for action have come from the world's small island nations. For many of those nations, the negotiations aren't about some far-off, abstract problem. It's something they're already living with, as a new Australian research project on the dramatic climate shifts underway for 15 Pacific nations reaffirmed this week.

Basically, the report finds that the closer one lives to the equator, the warmer it's going to get. And even in the best-case scenario, oceans will rise up to 12 inches by 2100. It confirms what Pacific islanders have long feared: Home is getting windier, saltier, wetter, hotter and, well, submerged in water.

No wonder the Pacific islanders have banded together in the climate talks. Many negotiate together as the Alliance of Small Island States, or AOSIS. Representatives of those nations have demanded immediate action in Durban, rather than further delay, as some parties have suggested. The group also issued a joint statement with the European Union and the least-developed countries calling for a legally binding agreement. "We have all that it takes to begin the work right now," said Karl Hood, the chairman of AOSIS and minister for foreign affairs in Granada. "We believe that waiting is a disaster."

"Where we live, some say it's a paradise," Hood continued. "It's a paradise when you come to visit. But we live there. We don't leave after a week and go back home. This is our lives."

Taito Nakalevu, a climate change adaptation officer with the Pacific Regional Environment Programme, has also been in Durban for the meeting and discussed this latest report. "The soil, the water, is slowly being affected," he said. "This is our livelihood." He noted a single flood in his homeland of Fiji in 2009 that did $162 million in damage in just one town, a burden for the country. "The funds that need to be used for development are being used for adaptation," he said. "We cannot cope with that."

http://motherjones.com/blue-marble/2011/12/pacific-islands-get-fresh-whiff-disaster

[spookyturtle 9,466]

They should move now while there is still time. Since Australia did the study, send them there.

[Bad_Daddy 2,209]

They should move now while there is still time. Since Australia did the study, send them there.

btw several islands and coastal villages in Alaska have had this problem in the past two plus decades. Some islands with villages have been evacuated and look like a rock in the ocean now.

[Gary and Alla 3,694]

Good that they have plenty of time to plan an orderly evacuation and relocation.

[I AM NOT THAT GUY 5,715]

Twelve inches? Is that all? Boy, did Algore get that one wrong.

[SuperDuper! 230]

" oceans will rise up to 12 inches by 2100."

Good thing we will all be dead!

[Hilarious Clinton 452]

The ocean level has 'changed' since it was first formed. Get the memo?

Edited December 11, 2011 by John Galt

[luckytxn 2,265]

The good thing is that this is a cyclical thing and after they have to evacuate then they can just wait as eventually the sea will lower again and they can move back then.

[I AM NOT THAT GUY 5,715]

The good thing is that this is a cyclical thing and after they have to evacuate then they can just wait as eventually the sea will lower again and they can move back then.

Sorta. As the Earth cools, it contracts raising sea levels, and the Earth is also gaining water in the form of material left over from the formation of the solar system constantly entering the atmosphere.

Edited December 11, 2011 by Crusty Old Perv

[luckytxn 2,265]

Sorta. As the Earth cool, it contracts raising sea levels, and the Earth is also gaining water in the form of material left over from the formation of the solar system constantly entering the atmosphere.

Let me drink more coffee and wake up before I attempt to answer this.