Global warming is already a tragedy for these people

Hi,

I was reading in the Straits Times of 11 November 2008 that the new President of Maldives, Mr Mohamed Nasheed, is looking around the world for a place for his people to migrate to as his country is fast going underwater.

Click here to read more about the Maldives

Many of you know that global warming is happening but we have yet to feel its full impact. The people of Maldives, a group of small islands in the Indian Ocean, are powerless against the march of the sea. The 300,000 odd islanders live on land with is just about 1.5m above sea level. This means that at high tide, the area of the country would shrink considerably.

Another country that many of you would remember me talk about that is facing the same fate is Tuvalu. This country also consists of many small islands, close to Fiji, in the Pacific Ocean. Most of the country is already underwater. Only some old folks are still living on the islands, as all the youth and young adults have abandoned their country. At high tide, most of the roads will be underwater. I saw a National Geographic documentary on this tragic occurrence. Most of the population have already migrated to Australia, New Zealand and Fiji. They are called environmental refugees. Even small rises in sea level would inundate large areas of their country. They have no more land to grow crops, the roads are underwater. the waves eat away at the coast line. (Their country exists in cyber-space as the domain .tv)

Delta of the Ganges River
(Source: Wikipedia)

This brings to my mind another documentary I saw late one evening on TV. It was on Bangladesh. As you would know, the great Ganges-Brahmaputra flows through this country. Most of the land consists of low lying delta in the form of mud-flats. The whole episode was about how water level keeps on rising in the villages. There was an interview with a teacher who pointed to some steps leading to her classrooms. She said that each year the water level has been rising by the height of one step. The school's field was already totally immersed. The students come to school by boat in the last 2 years! They used to walk or cycle to school before.

(Source: Wikipedia)

Since most of the arable land was already underwater, the villagers were living very violent lives in the village documented. The stronger ones were grabbing land from the weaker ones. One villager pointed towards a wide expanse of water in the distance and said that his house used to be there. He said that one day a new river just cascaded down from mountains and washed away all the houses in its way. Students, I am sure you would remember what we saw in the movie "The Inconvenient Truth", by Al Gore that we saw on 4th November. Mr Gore explained how melting of ice caps would cause flooding in the low lying areas. Well the ice on Himalayas is melting fast, forming so much liquid water that new tributaries and rivers were created overnight and Bangladesh happens to be where it has to flow through to reach the sea.

If you want to listen to songs on the environment by Peter Garrett of Midnight Oil, click on the link below:

http://asal-sakti.blogspot.com/search/label/Peter%20Garrett



Cheers,
Have a good day.