Thursday, August 02, 2007

Torres Strait Islands drowning

This is going to disappoint those denialists who make money mocking predictions of rising sea levels swallowing up low lying islands.

clipped from www.news.com.au

GLOBAL warming is not just a theory in Torres Strait – it is lapping at people's doorsteps.

The phenomenon is a visible reality as rising sea levels threaten to erase centuries-old island communities.

Roads have been swallowed whole, buildings washed out, graveyards swamped and houses flooded in six of the most vulnerable low-lying island communities.

Yorke Island / Brian Cassey
Swamped ... Helen Mosby and her son Josiah walk along what used to be
a road on Yorke Island / Brian Cassey
Authorities have ordered evacuation and relocation plans for more than 2000 people who face losing their land and livelihood from the invading sea.
Some parts of the most vulnerable islands – Masig (Yorke), Poruma (Coconut), Warraber, Yam, Saibai and Boigu – are today less than 1m above sea level.
The Yorke Island church – more than 50m inland from the high-tide mark –was last year inundated while more than 60m of land on Coconut Island has been consumed since 2000.

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