Rising water forces nation to buy another island

[Luddly Neddite]

One Small Pacific Island Nation Just Bought Part Of Another Island To Escape Climate Change | ThinkProgress

The president of Kiribati, an island nation in the Pacific ocean, recently purchased eight square miles of land about 1,200 miles away on Vanua Levu, Fiji’s second-largest island. Like other Pacific Island nations, including Tuvalu and the Maldives, Kiribati is highly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change — especially sea level rise. In certain areas around these islands sea level is rising by 1.2 centimeters a year, about four times more than the global average. Within decades significant chunks risk submersion.

Kiribati president Anote Tong is well aware of this, saying of the purchase, “we would hope not to put everyone on [this] one piece of land, but if it became absolutely necessary, yes, we could do it.”

With just over 100,000 people scattered across 33 low-lying coral atolls totaling about 313 square miles, the land purchase provides some guaranteed high ground to escape to if sea level rise renders the country mostly uninhabitable. The Church of England owned the land, which is mainly covered in forest, and sold it to Kiribati for $8.77 million. Barring imminent relocation, it will be used primarily for agriculture and aquatic farming to ensure Kiribati’s food security. With sea level rise contaminating groundwater and climate change causing devastating coral bleaching, the nation’s food supply is also in jeopardy.

In a statement, the government said the purchase marked “a new milestone” in its “development plans, which include exploring options of commercial, industrial and agricultural undertakings such as fish canning, beef/poultry farming, fruit and vegetable farming.”

Kiribati is the first country to actually purchase land in another country as a hedge against climate change.

More at the link. I wonder if the water at the new island will also rise.

Maldivian Leaders Might Move the Entire Nation to Australia If Sea Keeps Rising | Popular Science

If their islands are deluged by rising seawater, the people of the Maldives would have to evacuate, becoming the first refugees driven from their homes by global warming. Their president considers this an eventuality, not a possibility, and so he is buying up land in foreign countries and urging those countries to be prepared for an influx of people with no return destination.

President Mohamed Nasheed told the Sydney Morning Herald that his government was considering Australia as a potential new home for the Maldives' 350,000 citizens. He said Maldivians want to stay on their archipelago, but "moving was an eventuality his government had to plan for," the newspaper said. "He said he did not want his people living in tents for years, or decades, as refugees," the Herald writes.

Australia has plenty of open space and a decent climate, although Nasheed has also considered India and Sri Lanka because of their cultural similarities.

If sea levels rise as predicted over the next century — by 23 inches, according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change — the 1,200 islands of the Maldives archipelago will largely be submerged. About 80 percent of the land mass is less than three feet above sea level, and already 14 islands have been abandoned because of erosion, the Herald says. "It is increasingly becoming difficult to sustain the islands, in the natural manner that these islands have been," Nasheed told the newspaper.

Its already happening in some parts of the world. Flooding in Florida, Venice and we saw signs of rising water in the Caribbean.

Apparently, one of the hardest hit is and will be Bangladesh. They're dirt poor and have no resources.

 

[Crick]

They are just stupid. The sea is not rising. The ocean is not getting warmer. The ice is not melting. Like the stupid Americans spending hundreds of millions to put up a satellite to watch a gas that has no effect on the climate whatsoever. Hundreds of millions of dollars into the pockets of those thieving hoaxers. I bet Al Gore actually owned that land they bought. Him or some of those left wing Hollywood idiots.

Have I got it down Skooks? Did I miss anything FCT? Westwall? Anything to add? Okay JC456?

 

[Stephanie]

good grief, SO WHAT?

They delt with it

you gollbull warmers are a bunch of kooks

Get the TITLE................omg omg omg omg omg


how did they survive the Great Dust bowl without you idiots

Humans ADAPT

 

[CrusaderFrank]

That's why Manhattan is underwater...oh wait

 

[dilloduck]

Actually the bottom of the ocean is rising thereby displacing more water. Not many know this yet.

 

[Crick]

good grief, SO WHAT?

They delt with it

No, Stephanie, they have NOT dealt with it. They still have 450,000 people to relocate. Permanently. Homes, roads, businesses, utilities, food supplies, water. How much money do you think Kiribati and the Maldives have lying around to spend on this sort of thing? You think this is trivial? You think this is not worth caring about? You think this doesn't matter to anyone?

What the fuck is wrong with you?

 

[Stephanie]

good grief, SO WHAT?

They delt with it

No, Stephanie, they have NOT dealt with it. They still have 450,000 people to relocate. Permanently. Homes, roads, businesses, utilities, food supplies, water. How much money do you think Kiribati and the Maldives have lying around to spend on this sort of thing? You think this is trivial? You think this is not worth caring about? You think this doesn't matter to anyone?

What the fuck is wrong with you?

what the fuck is wrong with you
relocations have been done with, volcanoes, hurricanes, earthquakes, etc
so don't give us all this bs you spew about globull warming, people adapt all the TIME
you are a cult member

 

[mamooth]

Actually the bottom of the ocean is rising thereby displacing more water. Not many know this yet.

Actually, the reverse is happening. As more water goes into the oceans, more weight goes into the oceans. That's pushing down harder the bottom of the oceans, making them deeper. It's not a big effect, "reducing" sea level by about 0.3 mm/year, but it does have to be accounted for.

 

[Mr. H.]

Seafloors subside because of offshore hydrocarbons production.

 

[dilloduck]

Magma pushes them back up.

 

[Mr. H.]

I'm getting dizzy.

 

[Samson]

I'm getting dizzy.

That's the Earth's rotation.

 

[Samson]

good grief, SO WHAT?

They delt with it

No, Stephanie, they have NOT dealt with it. They still have 450,000 people to relocate. Permanently. Homes, roads, businesses, utilities, food supplies, water. How much money do you think Kiribati and the Maldives have lying around to spend on this sort of thing? You think this is trivial? You think this is not worth caring about? You think this doesn't matter to anyone?

What the fuck is wrong with you?

Can't they learn to swim?

 

[dilloduck]

I'm getting dizzy.

That's the Earth's rotation.

Bingo----it goes so fast all the blood rushes to your head.

 

[Samson]

I'm getting dizzy.

That's the Earth's rotation.

Bingo----it goes so fast all the blood rushes to your head.

Indeed....much like sea water.