Global Warming

Islands in the Stream
How can we be wrong?

Global Warming. It's all over the news, and we're constantly being urged to sit up, listen and take action before 'the situation' gets worse.

But what exactly is the situation? In 2007–2008, The Gallup Polls surveyed 127 countries and found that over a third of the world's population was unaware of Global Warming. Whilst Europe was debating the appropriate response to Warming, the United States debated whether climate change was even happening.

It's all too easy to ignore or misunderstand the problem, based on misinformation (it's getting colder in the UK, right?), a lack of proof and evidence, and the general fact that nothing appears to be changing in our everyday lives as a result to this 'global emergency'. It's like we are being asked to take pills for a disease we have no symptoms of. Sort of like chlamydia.

We ask, is it really a problem? And, how can we be sure it even exists? Let's be honest; half of us reckon it's probably just some over-hyped conspiracy theory perpetuated by a bunch of tree-hugging eco-warriors high on Kopi Luwak, right? Well, not quite. Forget the foggy predicitons and inconclusive evidence, and let's take a look at what is really happening as a result of rising sea levels.


If you're planning a trip to check out the mangroves on the beautiful New Moore Island between India and Bangladesh, you might be surprised at what you see. It simply isn't there anymore - it has disappeared beneath the waves. Fancy a trip to the exotic Lohachara island instead? The 6000 people who used to live here might too, but unfortunately their home land has been drowned. These are two of four islands which have vanished in India's part of the delta in the past two decades, also including Bedford (or Suparibhanga) and Kabasgad.
In Kiribati, the ocean is rapidly reclaiming the island of Tepuka Savilivili. In the summer of 2008, Kiribati officials asked Australia and New Zealand to accept Kiribati citizens as permanent refugees. Kiribati is expected to be the first country in which all land territory disappears due to global climate change. In June 2008, the Kiribati president Anote Tong explained that climate change for Kiribati is "not an issue of economic growth, it's an issue of human survival". A similar story tells how the inhabitants of the Carteret Islands in Papua New Guinea were forced to relocate to the higher island of Bougainville due to rising sea levels.

Islands have actually disappeared due to rising sea levels. True, New Moore Island never reached 2 meters above sea level, but some parts of lower Manhattan only reach 1.5 meters above the sea level.


How can we be sure that these disappearing islands are a result of Global Warming? Where is the proof? Unfortunately, the only cold hard evidence you're likely to get is the fish swimming around your ankles when you're collecting your pension a few decades from now, and by the time this evidence comes through, it will indeed be too late. If it turns out that Global Warming is just a conspiracy theory after all, we'll certainly look very silly for having bought into this hippy-theory - but if we're right, and we do something about it now - there is at least a chance we won't be donning scuba gear to swim to the office every morning.