Rising Sea levels threaten Indian Islands
my2hands
Posts: 17,117
what the hell are we going to do about this? what a mess we have made of this planet. all of us have contributed, so i imagine it will have to be all of us to clean it up, if that is possible at this point? only a few months ago a populated island in the south pacific was overwhelmed by rising seas, the first time that has ever happened on record.
Rising Sea Levels Threaten Indian Islands
By Bappa Majumdar
Reuters
Sunday 18 March 2007
Sheikh Alauddin, like hundreds of other residents living on West Bengal's Moushuni island, has never heard the term "global warming." But he is living with its consequences.
"At night we just pray to God, and hope the sea does not drown us," the 60-year-old told Reuters in Poilagheri village on the sparsely-populated island, part of the Sunderbans national park and the world's largest mangrove forest.
When the tide comes in, sea water laps at the top of a mud embankment that towers 6 meters (20 feet) above Alauddin's adjacent house and is all that keeps it from being washed away.
After a 10-year study in and around the Bay of Bengal, oceanographers say the sea is rising at 3.14 millimeters a year in the Sunderbans against a global average of 2 mm, threatening low-lying areas of India and Bangladesh.
"At least 15 islands have been affected but erosion is widespread in other islands as well," said Sugato Hazra, an oceanographer at Jadavpur University in Kolkata, the capital of West Bengal.
A United Nations climate panel, which grouped 2,500 scientists from 130 countries, concluded last month that human activity was causing global warming and predicted more droughts, heatwaves and rising seas.
But for the Sunderbans, made up of hundreds of islands and criss-crossed by narrow water channels and home to many of India's dwindling tiger population, the threat is more immediate.
"The crops have failed due to scanty rainfall but where do we go?" says Alauddin as his family of twelve stares at their parched farmland.
A combination of drought and then heavy rainfall this year and increasing soil salinity have made it impossible to grow enough food to survive on traditional agriculture alone.
"We now depend on fishing in the high seas and sometimes even eat leaves from different plants to survive," a frail-looking Jameel Mullick said.
At least 4 million people live in the islands spread across 9,630 sq. km (3,700 sq. miles) of mangrove swamps.
Top climate experts on the UN panel predicted that temperatures would increase by between 1.8 and 4 Celsius (3.2 and 7.8 Fahrenheit), and sea levels would rise by between 7 and 23 inches to submerge islands in the 21st century.
The impact could be even greater if ice sheets in Antarctica and Greenland thaw.
The 400 or so families living on tiny Moushuni know what is coming.
Two nearby islands disappeared beneath the sea after residents were forced to leave, and the sea has swallowed about 100 sq. km of mangrove forest in three decades in the Sunderbans.
"Global warming and rising sea levels are already having a telling effect on the tiger's habitat," said Pronobes Sanyal of the National Coastal Zone Management Authority.
Rapid erosion over the last five years has destroyed mangrove cover up to 15 meters inland on several islands, environment experts say.
Salt and Sorrow
For centuries, the mangroves fed on both saline and fresh water - tides brought sea water upstream and mixed it with water from the Ganga and Brahmaputra rivers.
But now rising sea levels are pushing salt water inland.
Sixty year old Ayesha Khatoon stood on top of a mud embankment in Moushuni that has been breached at least seven times in the past 10 years.
"There was a lovely mud road surrounded by trees beyond this embankment and we had 3 acres of farmland which the sea swallowed in the last few years," recalled Ayesha.
"No one visits us now and they have left us all to die," she said, tears welling in her eyes as she hugs her young grandson.
Rapid felling of trees on the islands - in part to fuel two small power plants - is adding to erosion woes.
Dilip Maity, a farmer, lamented how he had erred in hacking down several rows of trees, an act which weakened and led to sea water flooding his small farm.
Alarmed, West Bengal's minister for the Sunderbans, Kanti Ganguly, said the islands had to be protected.
"We have realized it now and have taken a decision to raise heights of the mud embankments and increase mangrove cover in Sunderbans," he said.
Oceanographer Hazra says it might be too late.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070319/lf_nm/india_sunderbans_dc;_ylt=AtSTT6lJUN5DNM2BqZs6SV.GOrgF
Rising Sea Levels Threaten Indian Islands
By Bappa Majumdar
Reuters
Sunday 18 March 2007
Sheikh Alauddin, like hundreds of other residents living on West Bengal's Moushuni island, has never heard the term "global warming." But he is living with its consequences.
"At night we just pray to God, and hope the sea does not drown us," the 60-year-old told Reuters in Poilagheri village on the sparsely-populated island, part of the Sunderbans national park and the world's largest mangrove forest.
When the tide comes in, sea water laps at the top of a mud embankment that towers 6 meters (20 feet) above Alauddin's adjacent house and is all that keeps it from being washed away.
After a 10-year study in and around the Bay of Bengal, oceanographers say the sea is rising at 3.14 millimeters a year in the Sunderbans against a global average of 2 mm, threatening low-lying areas of India and Bangladesh.
"At least 15 islands have been affected but erosion is widespread in other islands as well," said Sugato Hazra, an oceanographer at Jadavpur University in Kolkata, the capital of West Bengal.
A United Nations climate panel, which grouped 2,500 scientists from 130 countries, concluded last month that human activity was causing global warming and predicted more droughts, heatwaves and rising seas.
But for the Sunderbans, made up of hundreds of islands and criss-crossed by narrow water channels and home to many of India's dwindling tiger population, the threat is more immediate.
"The crops have failed due to scanty rainfall but where do we go?" says Alauddin as his family of twelve stares at their parched farmland.
A combination of drought and then heavy rainfall this year and increasing soil salinity have made it impossible to grow enough food to survive on traditional agriculture alone.
"We now depend on fishing in the high seas and sometimes even eat leaves from different plants to survive," a frail-looking Jameel Mullick said.
At least 4 million people live in the islands spread across 9,630 sq. km (3,700 sq. miles) of mangrove swamps.
Top climate experts on the UN panel predicted that temperatures would increase by between 1.8 and 4 Celsius (3.2 and 7.8 Fahrenheit), and sea levels would rise by between 7 and 23 inches to submerge islands in the 21st century.
The impact could be even greater if ice sheets in Antarctica and Greenland thaw.
The 400 or so families living on tiny Moushuni know what is coming.
Two nearby islands disappeared beneath the sea after residents were forced to leave, and the sea has swallowed about 100 sq. km of mangrove forest in three decades in the Sunderbans.
"Global warming and rising sea levels are already having a telling effect on the tiger's habitat," said Pronobes Sanyal of the National Coastal Zone Management Authority.
Rapid erosion over the last five years has destroyed mangrove cover up to 15 meters inland on several islands, environment experts say.
Salt and Sorrow
For centuries, the mangroves fed on both saline and fresh water - tides brought sea water upstream and mixed it with water from the Ganga and Brahmaputra rivers.
But now rising sea levels are pushing salt water inland.
Sixty year old Ayesha Khatoon stood on top of a mud embankment in Moushuni that has been breached at least seven times in the past 10 years.
"There was a lovely mud road surrounded by trees beyond this embankment and we had 3 acres of farmland which the sea swallowed in the last few years," recalled Ayesha.
"No one visits us now and they have left us all to die," she said, tears welling in her eyes as she hugs her young grandson.
Rapid felling of trees on the islands - in part to fuel two small power plants - is adding to erosion woes.
Dilip Maity, a farmer, lamented how he had erred in hacking down several rows of trees, an act which weakened and led to sea water flooding his small farm.
Alarmed, West Bengal's minister for the Sunderbans, Kanti Ganguly, said the islands had to be protected.
"We have realized it now and have taken a decision to raise heights of the mud embankments and increase mangrove cover in Sunderbans," he said.
Oceanographer Hazra says it might be too late.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070319/lf_nm/india_sunderbans_dc;_ylt=AtSTT6lJUN5DNM2BqZs6SV.GOrgF
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when it hits you, you feel to pain.
So brutalize me with music.”
~ Bob Marley
i hear what you're sayin but lets face it, they have no other option.
thats what i think about all those starving people in Africa... why dont they just move to somewhere where food is plenty... like Supermarketland or somewhere
:rolleyes:
links, man, links.
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Well, sheesh, if you don't have a car you could swallow your pride and go greyhound.
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how do you say "uhm...doh!" in Bengalese?
O to be a boat salesman in those parts...
and reveling in it's loyalty. It's made by forming coalitions
over specific principles, goals, and policies.
http://i36.tinypic.com/66j31x.jpg
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i agree; but people act like this is something new. they also refuse to look beyond the obvious. in a few years when manhattan is under water; think of the toxic waste that will be entering the oceans. the sewage and dead bodies alone made new orleans a toxic waste site after katrina. and what about food? as the masses of people move inland and start living on the farmlands; where will the food come from?
the indian islands will be a good model for the world to watch. it will give the world an idea what it's up against. naturally it's too late to change it. man always waits until it's too late.
if you haven't been paying attention thus far; why should i waste my time?
Didn't that start when you clicked "login"?
and reveling in it's loyalty. It's made by forming coalitions
over specific principles, goals, and policies.
http://i36.tinypic.com/66j31x.jpg
(\__/)
( o.O)
(")_(")
It would be a good way to round out this story of Global Warming a bit if you did.
all posts by ©gue_barium are protected under US copyright law and are not to be reproduced, exchanged or sold
except by express written permission of ©gue_barium, the author.
If you don't have time just say so, but don't try to discourage people who want to learn more. Better they start paying attention now than not at all, right?
They will eventually evolve fins and gills...it's gods way. The rest will climb back into the trees and live like monkeys.
What a time to sell fishing rods...
and reveling in it's loyalty. It's made by forming coalitions
over specific principles, goals, and policies.
http://i36.tinypic.com/66j31x.jpg
(\__/)
( o.O)
(")_(")
i used to think that way too. but the research done after the big "global warming" report; scientists discovered that in greenland; the meltwater is seeping through the cracks to lubricate the base of the ice; causing them to move much faster than anyone expected. in antartica; the melt water is seeping into the cracks but it's refreezing; causing it to expand and break off large pieces of ice. in 2005 nasa reported that 1250 sq miles of ice disappeared in 3 weeks.
in the year 2000 the earths ice was about the size of the us. in 2006; it would only cover the states west of the missippi river.
the earths fail-safe system is it's ice. ice reflects heat back into space. the more ice that melts; the faster the earth will warm.
Moving people is quite easy. Nomadic tribes have been doing this for thousands of years. Yes, peoples lives will be uprooted and go through tremendous upheaval. I don't dispute this. But when the choice is move or die, I'd stop shitting on the move idea. Instead I'd start looking into what can be done to first facilitate the move then building new lives for all the transplanted people.
Shitting on the one idea that will save the lives of the affected people just seems retarded to me.
when it hits you, you feel to pain.
So brutalize me with music.”
~ Bob Marley
and reveling in it's loyalty. It's made by forming coalitions
over specific principles, goals, and policies.
http://i36.tinypic.com/66j31x.jpg
(\__/)
( o.O)
(")_(")
Shit so all along people like Cheney where just trying to save the world from rising sea levels.
It certainly is one of the more elaborate kyoto plans going. I'll put dollars to donut holes they often sneak away and wet dream about it.
and reveling in it's loyalty. It's made by forming coalitions
over specific principles, goals, and policies.
http://i36.tinypic.com/66j31x.jpg
(\__/)
( o.O)
(")_(")
i've been saying the same thing and posting links for about 3 years now. in those cases; posting links only yielded links of opposing opinions and arguments about which was right. i'm tired of talking until somebody hears.
For us, I believe we are all in this together and we should help them. That as much resources that are spent on slowing our impact on climate change should also be spent on adapting to climate change. You won't hear this from the scientific community as they haven't found a way to profit from adapting.
when it hits you, you feel to pain.
So brutalize me with music.”
~ Bob Marley
This is a really important issue for a country that is already bursting at the seams with people. India is a country that is walking a tight-rope between its exploding population, its limited land mass, its need to protect the threatened flora and fauna of the country and its ability to produce food.
i'm in the process of adapting. carefully study facts and ignore opinions. that's the key. look at the logical progression of events and go from there. it's obvious the government is going to ignore the situation and scientists rarely agree. i'd move away from the coasts while the land is worth something. this is where most people will lose. the inability to produce/hunt/gather food for themselves is the other.
katrina taught us a lot of things..............for those who listen.
when it hits you, you feel to pain.
So brutalize me with music.”
~ Bob Marley
and reveling in it's loyalty. It's made by forming coalitions
over specific principles, goals, and policies.
http://i36.tinypic.com/66j31x.jpg
(\__/)
( o.O)
(")_(")