AGW Today: Marshall Islands Could Disappear Due To Sea Rise

by William Teach | December 7, 2010 7:49 am

Unshockingly, this breathless report comes from a reporter in…….exotic Cancun, Mexico, rather than from the Marshall Islands

CANCUN, Mexico[1] — Encroaching seas in the far Pacific are raising the salt level in the wells of the Marshall Islands. Waves threaten to cut one sliver of an island in two. “It’s getting worse,” says Kaminaga Kaminaga, the tiny nation’s climate change coordinator.

Two things to pre-notice: if all the glaciers and ice are melting, and they are composed primarily of fresh water, wouldn’t that mean the seas are getting less salty? Second, remember that thing about waves.

The rising ocean raises questions, too: What happens if the 61,000 Marshallese must abandon their low-lying atolls? Would they still be a nation? With a U.N. seat? With control of their old fisheries and their undersea minerals? Where would they live, and how would they make a living? Who, precisely, would they and their children become?

For years global negotiations to act on climate change have dragged on, with little to show. Parties to the 193-nation U.N. climate treaty are meeting again in this Caribbean resort, but no one expects decisive action to roll back the industrial, agricultural and transport emissions blamed for global warming – and consequently for swelling seas.

OK, scrolling through the article, scrolling, scrolling…..hmph. I can’t seem to find how much the seas have actually risen at the Marshall Islands. It’s almost like the data is so disparate that they cannot come to an agreement on how much.

Now, remember the waves? Here’s a little bit of information for the climate alarmists, which the rest of us intuitively understand: the Marshall Islands are islands, consisting primarily of coral and sand. They are mostly considered to be at sea level, with an overall size comparable to Washington, D.C. They are out in the Pacific Ocean, and are vulnerable to sea storms, wave action, and typhoons. They have zero arable land. And, being islands, they are going to……erode! Amazing, eh?

“People who built their homes close to shore, all they can do is get more rocks to rebuild the seawall in front day by day,” said Kaminaga, who is in Cancun with the Marshallese delegation to the U.N. talks.

Here in North Carolina, they get the government to do that, in places like the Outer Banks and the islands near the South Carolina border. Because they are constantly eroding due to…..nature!

The U.N. network of climate scientists projects that seas, expanding from heat and from the runoff of melting land ice, may rise by up to 1.94 feet (0.59 meters) by 2100, swamping much of the scarce land of coral atolls.

There’s that “may” word again, and a time when most of us will be dead.

But the islands may become uninhabitable long before waves wash over them, because of the saline contamination of water supplies and ruining of crops, and because warming is expected to produce more threatening tropical storms.

Interestingly, the past few years have been pretty quiet on the tropical storm front. And they do not really have crops to speak of, having zero arable land. Obviously, though, none of this can natural, as it has been for all of Earth’s history. It has to be you driving your car, heating your house, and watching breathless reports about the dangers of climate change on your electricity sucking television.

Meanwhile, South Florida is bracing for record low temperatures[2], Ft. Lauderdale broke theirs, and cold weather homeless shelters opened early.

Crossed at Pirate’s Cove[3]. Follow me on Twitter @WilliamTeach[4]. sit back and Relax. we’ll dRive[5]!

Endnotes:
  1. CANCUN, Mexico: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20101206/ap_on_sc/climate_disappearing_nations
  2. bracing for record low temperatures: http://www.sun-sentinel.com/fl-cold-outside-update-20101206,0,5115155.story
  3. Pirate’s Cove: http://www.thepiratescove.us/
  4. @WilliamTeach: http://twitter.com/WilliamTeach
  5. sit back and Relax. we’ll dRive: http://www.cafepress.com/wteach1

Source URL: https://rightwingnews.com/climate-change/agw-today-marshall-islands-could-disappear-due-to-sea-rise/