Rising Seas swamp Australian islands
Pastor Dale Morgan
Rising Seas swamp Australian islands*
Torres Strait islands at risk from global warming
By Peter Michael
August 02, 2007 06:41am
Article from: The Courier-Mail
* Roads swallowed, houses flooded on some islands
* Communities fear next generation will have to leave
* Water level could rise by as much as 88cm
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.
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Authorities have ordered evacuation and relocation plans for more than
2000 people who face losing their land and livelihood from the invading sea.
"These islands are sinking," Torres Shire Mayor Pedro Stephen said
yesterday.
"People are looking at options of building on stilts or even floating
pontoons because of the rising sea levels.
"And this is the heartbreaking thing, this generation or the next may
have to leave behind all they have ever known, all because of global
warming."
Scientists predict warmer sea temperatures (thermal expansion) and the
meting of the ice caps will contribute to a sea-level rise of between
9cm and 88cm in the next 50 years.
Some parts of the most vulnerable islands – Masig (Yorke), Poruma
(Coconut), Warraber, Yam, Saibai and Boigu – are today less than 1m
above sea level.
Mother-of-two Helen Mosby, 21, of Yorke Island, yesterday showed
Brisbane's The Courier-Mail newspaper the dramatic impact of global
warming on her island home.
"You can see where the ocean has eaten up the road," said Ms Mosby
walking with son Josiah, 5.
"It is a big change, and it seems to be getting worse in the past two
years or so."
James Cook University's Dr Kevin Parnell, a coastal geomorphologist
studying the sinking islands, said they would probably not disappear
within a generation, but the threat was "not trivial".
"There is the possibility of more frequent extreme events, like storm
surge and high tides, causing the water to come up higher on to the
land," he said.
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.