Island Disappears Beneath the Waves

This week, an article in The Independent entitled “Disappearing world: Global warming claims tropical island” seems to confirm for the first time that an inhabited island has been officially washed off the face of the Earth by rising seas. “The obliteration of Lohachara island, in India's part of the Sundarbans where the Ganges and the Brahmaputra rivers empty into the Bay of Bengal, marks the moment when one of the most apocalyptic predictions of environmentalists and climate scientists has started coming true.” Refugees fled to neighbor islands which are doomed to similar fates; a total of 70,000 people will soon become homeless due to global warming.

The Independent also reported eight years ago when the first uninhabited islands, in the Pacific nation of Kiribati, “vanished beneath the waves.” One may remember when the tiny island nation of Tuvalu was evacuated in 2001. Another article from 2002, “Global Warming & Rising Oceans” by Florida State University oceanographer Jeffrey Chanton, Ph.D., explains that rising oceans are eroding coastal areas and submerging low-lying islands. He suggests the “near future could see millions of ‘climate refugees’”, and recommends alternative fuel sources to alleviate the problem. His references include great links to scientific studies, online maps of sea levels, and a personal carbon counter to estimate your own CO2 emissions.

By now most people have seen or at least heard about Al Gore’s movie An Inconvenient Truth, about global warming. What have we done to our planet, and can it be saved?

“The world is sacred. It can’t be improved. If you tamper with it, you’ll ruin it. If you treat it like an object, you’ll lose it.” –Tao Te Ching #29

Thanks to www.wanttoknow.info