The Independent reports that global warming has claimed its first entire inhabited island. Those who lived there can never go home again. So begins the exodus to high ground. I wonder if this story would have received more press if there was oil involved?
From the article:
Rising seas, caused by global warming, have for the first time washed an inhabited island off the face of the Earth. 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.
As the seas continue to swell, they will swallow whole island nations, from the Maldives to the Marshall Islands, inundate vast areas of countries from Bangladesh to Egypt, and submerge parts of scores of coastal cities.
Eight years ago, as exclusively reported in The Independent on Sunday, the first uninhabited islands - in the Pacific atoll nation of Kiribati - vanished beneath the waves. The people of low-lying islands in Vanuatu, also in the Pacific, have been evacuated as a precaution, but the land still juts above the sea. The disappearance of Lohachara, once home to 10,000 people, is unprecedented.
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One for the Books
One for the books.
I don't know if governments
I don't know if governments have carefully prepared responses to the (apparently realised) possibility of inhabited land disappearing under (relatively) rising seas. A thoughtful and humane policy response is required.
According to media reports, several Pacific islands are or may be inundated by (relatively) rising sea levels. I would be quite happy for Australia to help adversely affected people on such islands. One way for Australia to help these people is to allow/invite them to become Australian citizens. Perhaps a easy way to do this is for an affected pacific country to ask to become a territory of Australia and for Australia to agree to that request - as a territory, the affected islands could have their own self-government, and residents of the island could be free to stay on their island(s) or settle in the rest of Australia.
Perhaps Australia will find
a better solution for dealing with immigrants than the United States. I view the bulk of the immigrants from Mexico (and other countries) as the first wave of refugees from global warming, and the country's general attitude towards them is very poor. I fear our response to victims from even with the country (e.g. Katrina) will not be received favorably.
I thought I heard something about either New Zealand or Australia having arranged for the residents of Kiribati to evacuate there as needed. Do you recall hearing that?