Even if so…
… one billion people around the world don’t have electricity. There are only 70,000 people on the Marshall Islands. Even if CO2 emissions were causing the Marshall Islands to “disappear,”the moral case for fossil fuels prevails.
Even if so…
… one billion people around the world don’t have electricity. There are only 70,000 people on the Marshall Islands. Even if CO2 emissions were causing the Marshall Islands to “disappear,”the moral case for fossil fuels prevails.
a lot of the islands are subsiding due to pumping out the fresh water from the lens shaped fresh water under the island. This was published some long time ago. As the fresh water is pumped out faster that rain can replenish it the island collapses onto what remains. It’s kind of like sitting on a balloon that is slowly deflating. There are other factors such as erosion, but this is a factor for a number of islands in the Pacific.
Here, have an excellent, no hand-wringing B.S. article that explains it all regarding atoll formation, written by a guy who has actually lived on one:
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2010/01/27/floating-islands/
Thumbnail: Quit worrying. Atolls are self renewing as long as you don’t screw with the reefs and Parrot Fish. You’re not going to sink into the ocean.
Hope this helps.
Just a thought.
VicB3
The Marshal Islands are experiencing the same natural processes as the Hawaiian Islands.
While the Marshalls are Coral Atolls and therefore even more subject to rapid geological changes than the Hawaiian Islands the processes involved are similar.
The islands at the western end of the Hawaiian chain are smaller because of the erosive geological forces acting over hundreds and thousands of years. It has been scientifically demonstrated that the western end of the chain is older, having moved from over the hot spot powering the volcanic action that is building the chain. Without continual renewal through volcanism the islands eventually are eroded away.
There are not sufficient island building forces occurring in the Marshalls to offset the forces of natural erosion. ~That is why the Marshalls are shrinking.
Coral atolls are not a permanent geological feature in terms of geologic time. The fact that they last for what is a “long time” on a human timescale doesn’t change the facts of geologic time.
Charles Darwin himself observed that coral atolls are not fixed but grow as the sea level rises and are eroded as the sea level falls.
“Even if CO2 emissions were causing the Marshall Islands to “disappear,”
. . .but, it’s not. NOAA’s been quite clear — they see no increasing trend in sea level rise following the “consensus” birth of AGW (1950 – 1970’s) as compared to prior to. Still plugging along at about a 7in/100yr clip. Noting that several studies (including one report out of NOAA) found that the rate decelerated from 2004 – 2012.
If the islands are disappearing because of sea level rise, then it’s nature’s natural process. Developing those islands with hard fixed improvements seals their fate.