The ocean is slowly claiming Malasiga. They say it's global warming.

[Pirate Smile]

The ocean is slowly claiming Malasiga. They say it's global warming.

By Evan Osnos
Tribune foreign correspondent
Published August 20, 2006


MALASIGA, Papua New Guinea -- First, their fathers noticed the palm trees that seemed to be inching toward the water's edge and the fire pit that vanished beneath the tides.
Later, researchers came, scribbled measurements and offered a grim diagnosis: The sea is coming.

-snip-
"There used to be two rows of houses," said Mickey Tarabi, a wood carver in his 50s, nodding toward the crystal blue sea. "The first one has been moved, and the second one will be gone soon."

-snip-
Here, rising waters are swamping coastal villages and small islands. Salt water is inundating coastal farms, destroying vital crops and orchards. Among the hardest hit areas are the Carteret Islands, where citizens have tried and failed to hold back rising waters. In April, a minister who visited the area returned to report that islanders were surviving on only coconuts and fish after relief supplies ran out.

-snip-
"In 1997, some graduate students came and told us this was going to happen," he said, "And now it has happened."

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-0608...

[donsu]

1. it's happening

nt

[gula]

2. Sadly only the first of many.

Water and/or the lack thereof will create the greatest number of refugees this world has ever seen. Not to mention the wars which will be (and already are under cover of bogus issues) fought over this resource. If you think oilwars are bad ......

[Penance]

12. Ice Ages cause deserts

Warming periods do two things: free polar ice and put it back into the hydrologic cycle and put more water vapor into the atmosphere due to increased evaporation. If anything, global warming would help make it more easily available. Water problems for the most part are not related to global warming. Large-scale water pollution, aquifer overuse and river-diversion projects are all more problematic and have nothing to do with global warming.

[gula]

13. I hope you're right in the meantime the glaciers, ice in both polar caps

melting cannot possibly help peoples in low laying lands.

[Jim__]

3. Global Warming is only a theory!

[snappyturtle]

4. I just completed a Zogby poll this morning....

that had one "question" which was a list of the most important issues for the upcoming elections. There were so many worthy subjects listed. The instructions said to pick two on the list. So I picked the environment for one and the other was a cluster war in Iraq/foreign policy. Doesn't our government "get it"? If the world is swallowed up by the oceans, and we lose farmland while being eaten alive by insects that nothing else matters? Maybe this little island will send a huge message.....we need to talk with everyone we come into contact with about this subject! Let's make it a major election issue.

[alfredo]

5. I read an article a few months ago that said that the oceans

are bulging at the equator. They don't know why, but it is.

[Penance]

8. Centripital force

All objects in motion want to continue in a straight line. The Earth is rotating in a circular motion, so there is a force that tends away from the Earth (at a right angle) in the direction of the Earth's rotation. It's strongest at the equator and non-existant at the poles, so the Earth is a bit "squashed" at the poles and bulges a bit as you get towards the equator. This force will also affect water, so it will tend to bulge in the places where this force is strongest.

[Phrogman]

19. Did you know you weigh less at the equator than you would at the poles?

But still no reason to avoid the tropics, where life is good.

Phrogman
Philippines

[reprobate]

9. I suspect that it's because as the ice at the poles melt....

and add water to the oceans, the centrifugal force of the earth's spin forces it toward the equator and more water there causes it to form a 'bulge'.

[alfredo]

10. The heat also could be adding to that.

[muriel_volestrangler]

15. I think it's more complicated than that

I think this is the story alfredo was refering to:

Arctic dips as global waters rise

Arctic sea level has been falling by a little over 2mm a year - a movement that sets the region against the global trend of rising waters.
...
"This may provide clues as to what is causing the changes we're seeing," explained co-researcher Dr Seymour Laxon, from University College London (UCL). "I think it's a true statement to say the Arctic Ocean is the least well understood body of water out there."

The recent trend could be linked to changes in the temperature and salinity (saltiness) of Arctic waters. This would have to be investigated, he said.
...
Working through all these sorts of issues, Dr Scharroo and colleagues have now established seasonal and yearly sea-level trends in the Arctic (from 60 to 82 degrees latitude) for the period 1995 to 2003. The analysis reveals an average 2.17mm fall per annum.
...
When this is done, ocean waters are shown to have gone up across the planet by 3.2mm per year for the period 1992 to the present.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/5076322.stm

The centripetal effect is already there, and has determined the levels near the poles and equator that we're used to; with overall sea levels rising, you would expect the difference in rise between the two areas to be insignificant. But something has concentrated the rise near the equator, while the Artics has actually fallen slightly.

[snappyturtle]

14. THAT doesn't sound good. nt

[ArmchairMeme]

6. D.C.'s next

This is the first year that I have read about the basements of federal buildings having to pumped out after a rainstorm that left 12 feet of water in some federal buildings.

[NotGivingUp]

7. doesn't give me a good feeling being down here in florida...

crazy thing is they just keep building more and more high-rise condos all along the coast.

[welder union]

11. Waterworld

There is no dry land in waterworld! LOL

[newyawker99]

18. Hi welder union!!

Welcome to DU!!

[Psephos]

16. Island arc subsidence is the real explanation

Google "guyot" for a gloss on the life cycle of such islands. Global warming has nothing to do with the subsidence of volcanic islands on ocean basin plates.

We'll see ocean levels rising more rapidly in the future if current trends continue, but so far, the change has been on the order of a centimeter.

Peace.

[Xithras]

21. In this case, it's more likely natural erosion.

I looked it up, and it appears that Malasiga is a tiny flyspeck of an island a few miles off the coast of New Guinea, and that it's actually sitting on the rim of a subsurface volcanic vent. These types of islands typically erode quickly and may not last more than a few thousand years, and as few as several hundred. The pounding of the ocean simply breaks up and washes away a few additional inches of rock a year, until nothing is left.

It's possible that global warming might accelerate the destruction of these types of islands by intensifying storms and erosion, but rising seas aren't the cause of this islands destruction.

By the way, depending on which measure you use, ocean levels may have risen as much as 6" in the last century. It's a bit controversial though, since it has undoubtably risen that much in some areas, while others have been confirmed to have risen only an inch. It's unclear how much effect subsidence has had on these numbers. Officially, I believe the number is still at a few centimeters, but nobody really considers that accurate anymore...we simply can't agree on what the accurate number really is.

[Psephos]

22. A thoughtful post

Great points you raised there.

Changes in ocean level over the past few hundred years, as you point out, seem to have varied to different degrees, based on location. Clearly, though, historical data shows current levels to be quite below the long-term average. Time to move off that beach-front property. Heh heh.

As a Pacific volcanic, Malasiga has a short predicted lifespan before it slips beneath the waves due to erosion. If it were supporting a coral reef, the reef would form an atoll as the island sank and the coral grew upward. But it's not, so "sayonara," Malasiga. :-P

Peace.

[lovuian]

17. I think there is more in the works than rising seas

thats a possible polar shift... its happen before and with the redistributed weight thats going on may activate it


These Islands are goners...

[sattahipdeep]

20. Scientists are disturbed with what they can ‘perceive’

through Cosmic Microwave Background radiation and Dark Matter models.
The models project the fact that our Sun and the whole galaxy is
about to accelerate and move to denser part of the Milky way.

http://www.indiadaily.com/editorial/12825.asp


Interesting

NASA Announces Dark Matter Discovery

http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2006/aug/HQ_M06128_dark...