The Carteret Islands are almost invisible on a map of the South
Pacific, but the horseshoe scattering of atolls is on the front-line of

climate change, as rising sea levels and storm surges eat away at their

existence.


For 20 years, the 2,000 islanders have fought a losing battle against
the ocean, building sea walls and trying to plant mangroves. Each year,

the waves surge in, destroying vegetable gardens, washing away homes
and poisoning freshwater supplies.


Papua New Guinea's Carteret islanders are destined to become some of
the world's first climate change refugees. Their islands are becoming
uninhabitable, and may disappear below the waves.


A decision has been made to move the islanders to the larger nearby
Bougainville island, four hours' boat ride to the southwest. Ten
families at a time will be moved, over one to two years, once funds are

allocated for the resettlement program.


"It's a pretty hard life out there on the islands. Some of the homes
have been washed away," Joe Kaipu, the senior district coordinator of
Bougainville, told Reuters by telephone.


"The only action now is to resettle them," he said.


A United Nations panel of more than 2,000 scientists has predicted that

average sea levels are likely to rise between 9 and 88 cm (3.5 to 35
inches) by 2100, mainly because of a build-up of heat-trapping
greenhouse gases in the atmosphere from the burning of fossil fuels,
such as oil and coal.


Sea levels are expected to rise because of a melting of ice caps and
because water expands when it warms. If the entire Greenland ice sheet
melted in coming centuries, for instance, sea levels would rise by
seven meters.


Many scientists say a 50 cm rise in sea levels could cause a 50 meter
retreat of the coastline in low-lying areas.


At the higher end of the forecast, the sea would overflow the heavily
populated coasts of countries such as Bangladesh, and cause low-lying
island states like the Indian Ocean's Maldives and South Pacific's
Kiribati and Tuvalu to disappear.


SINKING ISLANDS


"It's a matter of survival for us. If our islands go under, we all go
under," said President Anote Tong of Kiribati, 33 low-lying islands
covering 5 million sq. km (1.9 million sq. mile) in the South Pacific
and home to about 100,000 people.


"We move back from the shoreline, (but) how far can we move back? We
are in danger of falling off the backside of our islands," Tong told
Reuters at a recent Pacific leaders' summit in Port Moresby, capital of

Papua New Guinea.


Kiribati's highest point is 87 meters (261 ft) above the sea. Most
islands are coral atolls covered with just 2.5 meters (just over 8 ft)
of hard sand and meager soil. There are no rivers and most islands
enclose a lagoon.


Two uninhabited Kiribati islands, Tebua Tarawa and Abanuea, disappeared

underwater in 1999, according to the South Pacific Regional Environment

Program, and the island of Tepuka Savilivili no longer has any coconut
trees due to salination.


Tong said the world's big polluters, like the United States and
Australia who have remained outside the United Nations' Kyoto Protocol
on reducing greenhouse gases, must face the moral consequences of their

inaction.


"That is a question that they have to ask themselves -- are they
willing to see us go under?" Tong said.


The United States pulled out of Kyoto in 2001 when President George W.
Bush said it was too expensive and wrongly excluded poor nations from
the first round of cuts to 2012. Australia has also refused to ratify
the protocol.


ENVIRONMENTAL REFUGEES


Scientists say rising sea levels would also foul freshwater supplies
for millions of people and spur mass migrations.


A recent UN study forecast that some 50 million people could became
environmental refugees by 2010, driven from their homes by
desertification, rising sea levels, flooding and storms linked to
climate change.


Tuvalu Prime Minister Maatia Toafa hates the term "environmental
refugee" but admits his 11,600 people may have to abandon their South
Pacific island homes.


Tuvalu consists of a fringe of nine atolls, with the highest point no
more than 5 meters (17 ft) above sea level, but most a mere 2 meters
(6.5 ft) high.


A small island off the capital Funafuti has already disappeared beneath

the sea and some islanders have been forced to grow crops in tins
because the soil has become too salty.


In February, only days before Kyoto came into effect, Tuvaluans in the
capital watched high tides and strong winds send waves crashing across
the main road. Children rode the waves on makeshift surfboards,
trailing behind cars and vans dashing for higher ground.


"The prediction is (that) in 50 years Tuvalu will not exist," said
Toafa. "Resettlement is impossible in the country because all the
islands are low-lying," he said from Funafuti.


MONTREAL HOPE


In the Indian Ocean, the Maldives' 1,200 coral islands lie so low that
some were briefly swamped when the December 26 Asian tsunami hit the
scattered island state off India.


Maldives President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom published "The Maldives: A
Nation in Peril" in 1998, outlining the danger of rising seas. Since
then, coastal defenses have been built and efforts made to protect
reefs and guard against storm surges.


"We are doing all we can to protect our nation. However, what we do
here in the Maldives does not guarantee us an environmentally secure
future," Gayoom told Reuters.


"Our safety would only be certain when the international community
takes concrete steps to curb greenhouse gas emissions, and specific
actions to reduce the threat of sea level rise."


Small island nations want a new insurance facility to help underwrite
the cost of climate change-related weather damage, and have called for
a special fund to build coastal defenses, protect water supplies and
develop new forms of agriculture.


Gayoom said he hoped the UN climate change conference in Montreal,
starting on November 28, would lay foundations for a post-Kyoto
solution to climate change, by finding common ground with big polluting

nations.


"Those who have rejected the Kyoto Protocol should not wait for
unequivocal scientific proof of the climate change process, but need to

find the political will to go beyond the short-term benefits of their
respective countries, for an environmentally secure future," Gayoom
said.

http://www.lookaboutusa.com/

So your telling me these islands have become so low in the water if someone
craps into the ocean directly in California the Turd's Tsunami will probably
finish em off?


"http://www.lookaboutusa.com/" wrote in message
oups.com...
The Carteret Islands are almost invisible on a map of the South
Pacific, but the horseshoe scattering of atolls is on the front-line of

climate change, as rising sea levels and storm surges eat away at their

existence.


For 20 years, the 2,000 islanders have fought a losing battle against
the ocean, building sea walls and trying to plant mangroves. Each year,

the waves surge in, destroying vegetable gardens, washing away homes
and poisoning freshwater supplies.


Papua New Guinea's Carteret islanders are destined to become some of
the world's first climate change refugees. Their islands are becoming
uninhabitable, and may disappear below the waves.


A decision has been made to move the islanders to the larger nearby
Bougainville island, four hours' boat ride to the southwest. Ten
families at a time will be moved, over one to two years, once funds are

allocated for the resettlement program.


"It's a pretty hard life out there on the islands. Some of the homes
have been washed away," Joe Kaipu, the senior district coordinator of
Bougainville, told Reuters by telephone.


"The only action now is to resettle them," he said.


A United Nations panel of more than 2,000 scientists has predicted that

average sea levels are likely to rise between 9 and 88 cm (3.5 to 35
inches) by 2100, mainly because of a build-up of heat-trapping
greenhouse gases in the atmosphere from the burning of fossil fuels,
such as oil and coal.


Sea levels are expected to rise because of a melting of ice caps and
because water expands when it warms. If the entire Greenland ice sheet
melted in coming centuries, for instance, sea levels would rise by
seven meters.


Many scientists say a 50 cm rise in sea levels could cause a 50 meter
retreat of the coastline in low-lying areas.


At the higher end of the forecast, the sea would overflow the heavily
populated coasts of countries such as Bangladesh, and cause low-lying
island states like the Indian Ocean's Maldives and South Pacific's
Kiribati and Tuvalu to disappear.


SINKING ISLANDS


"It's a matter of survival for us. If our islands go under, we all go
under," said President Anote Tong of Kiribati, 33 low-lying islands
covering 5 million sq. km (1.9 million sq. mile) in the South Pacific
and home to about 100,000 people.


"We move back from the shoreline, (but) how far can we move back? We
are in danger of falling off the backside of our islands," Tong told
Reuters at a recent Pacific leaders' summit in Port Moresby, capital of

Papua New Guinea.


Kiribati's highest point is 87 meters (261 ft) above the sea. Most
islands are coral atolls covered with just 2.5 meters (just over 8 ft)
of hard sand and meager soil. There are no rivers and most islands
enclose a lagoon.


Two uninhabited Kiribati islands, Tebua Tarawa and Abanuea, disappeared

underwater in 1999, according to the South Pacific Regional Environment

Program, and the island of Tepuka Savilivili no longer has any coconut
trees due to salination.


Tong said the world's big polluters, like the United States and
Australia who have remained outside the United Nations' Kyoto Protocol
on reducing greenhouse gases, must face the moral consequences of their

inaction.


"That is a question that they have to ask themselves -- are they
willing to see us go under?" Tong said.


The United States pulled out of Kyoto in 2001 when President George W.
Bush said it was too expensive and wrongly excluded poor nations from
the first round of cuts to 2012. Australia has also refused to ratify
the protocol.


ENVIRONMENTAL REFUGEES


Scientists say rising sea levels would also foul freshwater supplies
for millions of people and spur mass migrations.


A recent UN study forecast that some 50 million people could became
environmental refugees by 2010, driven from their homes by
desertification, rising sea levels, flooding and storms linked to
climate change.


Tuvalu Prime Minister Maatia Toafa hates the term "environmental
refugee" but admits his 11,600 people may have to abandon their South
Pacific island homes.


Tuvalu consists of a fringe of nine atolls, with the highest point no
more than 5 meters (17 ft) above sea level, but most a mere 2 meters
(6.5 ft) high.


A small island off the capital Funafuti has already disappeared beneath

the sea and some islanders have been forced to grow crops in tins
because the soil has become too salty.


In February, only days before Kyoto came into effect, Tuvaluans in the
capital watched high tides and strong winds send waves crashing across
the main road. Children rode the waves on makeshift surfboards,
trailing behind cars and vans dashing for higher ground.


"The prediction is (that) in 50 years Tuvalu will not exist," said
Toafa. "Resettlement is impossible in the country because all the
islands are low-lying," he said from Funafuti.


MONTREAL HOPE


In the Indian Ocean, the Maldives' 1,200 coral islands lie so low that
some were briefly swamped when the December 26 Asian tsunami hit the
scattered island state off India.


Maldives President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom published "The Maldives: A
Nation in Peril" in 1998, outlining the danger of rising seas. Since
then, coastal defenses have been built and efforts made to protect
reefs and guard against storm surges.


"We are doing all we can to protect our nation. However, what we do
here in the Maldives does not guarantee us an environmentally secure
future," Gayoom told Reuters.


"Our safety would only be certain when the international community
takes concrete steps to curb greenhouse gas emissions, and specific
actions to reduce the threat of sea level rise."


Small island nations want a new insurance facility to help underwrite
the cost of climate change-related weather damage, and have called for
a special fund to build coastal defenses, protect water supplies and
develop new forms of agriculture.


Gayoom said he hoped the UN climate change conference in Montreal,
starting on November 28, would lay foundations for a post-Kyoto
solution to climate change, by finding common ground with big polluting

nations.


"Those who have rejected the Kyoto Protocol should not wait for
unequivocal scientific proof of the climate change process, but need to

find the political will to go beyond the short-term benefits of their
respective countries, for an environmentally secure future," Gayoom
said.

http://www.lookaboutusa.com/

In article .com,
"http://www.lookaboutusa.com/" wrote:

The Carteret Islands are almost invisible

Snip

As is the on topic subject matter of this post.

Plonk

--
Telamon
Ventura, California