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The Global Warming Cause
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Loading...Paradise Denied: Climate Change Refugees in Panama and Elsewhere Flee to Mainland
A combination of global warming and coral reef destruction is forcing communities in Panama to relocate to the mainland, abandoning their island homes. They defeated pirates, conquistadors, and overlords, but the rising sea levels caused by climate change proved too much; some 2,000 inhabitants of Carti Sugdub, members of the indigenous Kuna people, are preparing to leave their village and move inland.
Reuters quotes marine biologist Hector Guzman of the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama, “This is no longer about a scientist saying that climate change and the change in sea level will flood (a people) and affect them. This is happening now in the real world.”
Effects of rising ocean levels were exacerbated by the traditional coral mining practices of the Kuna people, who extract coral for landfill and other construction as well as to sell to tourists as souvenirs.
The people of Carti Sugdub may be among the first climate change refugees, but they will not be the last. A 2009 report from the International Institute for Environment and Development warns that the ancient city of Mombasa, Kenya can expect to see 17% of the city submerged within the next 20 years. Salt water is predicted to infiltrate the water supply, putting further strain on a community–current population 800,000–that has been battling invaders and welcoming travelers for 2,000 years.
Island communities in the Pacific–Fiji, Papua-New Guinea, Tuvalu and others– are likewise threatened or are already being evacuated to safer ground.
As negotiations continue around reducing manmade emissions of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, it is more than time to also consider actions that will be needed to adapt to the inevitable effects of global warming, even if we were somehow to halt all emissions tomorrow. Public policy decisions around agriculture, population migration, and major infrastructure, such as roads, water systems, and drains, take many years to develop; plans underway now must take into account the changes that are likely to occur no matter the outcome of ongoing climate talks.
Read more: adaptation, climate change, climate talks, global warming, kenya, mombasa, panama, sea level rise
Photo: Low-lying homes in Panama and elsewhere are threatened by sea level rise.
R.J. Lerich via iStockphoto
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+ add your ownThe glaciers are melting rapidly causing the oceans to rise which eventually will make all islands disappear. This is due to international pollution, governmental and corporate greed Drilling for oil, cutting down trees world-wide, clearing Amazon jungle,etc. Unfortunately the greedy governments don't understand that we have climate change already and it will get worst with time and will cost billions of dollars and loss of innocent lives.
And it's more than likely that it can happen in the US. In the not too distant future.
Joanne B.s comment and suggestion was a positive and helpful. Thank you.
thanks
Scary
Unless we take immediate actions to stop our dependance on fossil fuels, their byproducts and start living "Green" there will be no "Paradises" Left! We Paved Paradise and put up a parking lot...what a legacy for our children!
thankyou for shareing
Le temp de John Wayne c'est fini,on est actuellement sur une
pente raide,si les grands de ce monde et les pays ou leurs
populations est trés dense comme la chine et d'autres ne font
pas plus d'éfforts a controler leurs pollutions atmosphérique on
est tous sur une dérive.
United States and China must reduce their CO2 emission. Because thy are the dominant emitters in the world. They emitted 12,000 million metric tons of CO2 by 2010 (source EIA:2005).And other countries should be follow them.
We must reduce our climate changing emissions, quickly and significantly.
We live ten miles inland from Pacific...soon to be beachfront..if we pigs don't start saving our earth!!
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