Inhabited Island Vanishes Forever Underwater

PhreakOfTime writes "For the first time the rising ocean levels have washed away an inhabited island. Lohachara island was at one point home to some 10,000 people. It, along with several other spits of land near the Indian mainland, is now permanently underwater. From the article: ' As the seas continue to swell, they will swallow whole island nations, from the Maldives to the Marshall Islands, inundate vast areas of countries from Bangladesh to Egypt, and submerge parts of scores of coastal cities. Eight years ago ... the first uninhabited islands - in the Pacific atoll nation of Kiribati - vanished beneath the waves. The people of low-lying islands in Vanuatu, also in the Pacific, have been evacuated as a precaution, but the land still juts above the sea. The disappearance of Lohachara, once home to 10,000 people, is unprecedented.'"

Now... or... 22 years ago?

[Behrooz]

Short-term changes in sea level like waves, tides, and storm surge mask the effects of rising sea levels. When the signal-to-noise ratio is that low, you end up with news articles stating that the island in question became uninhabitable 22 years ago [expressindia.com].
 
Not to rain on anyone's parade, but compared to serious examination of [uea.ac.uk] long-term sea level trends [nasa.gov], one island isn't a very useful measuring stick.
 

Sorry to rain on YOUR parade, but...

[Anonymous Coward]

Your sea level source is over 10 years old. Speaking of old stuff. Try to find something more modern next time.

Maybe next time also see this graph [uea.ac.uk] from your page, and think, if such warming does have side effects?

Re:Now... or... 22 years ago?

[node 3]

Not to rain on anyone's parade, but compared to serious examination of long-term sea level trends, one island isn't a very useful measuring stick.

The article--hell, the *summary*--pointed out that it's not just one island that's going under. This is just the first one that used to be habited.

If "there used to be an island here big enough for people to live on. Now it's uninhabitable." isn't enough to raise your eyebrow, you've really got to remove your blinders.

It has happened in Europe, too

[dybdahl]

The small island of "Jordsand" was inhabited in the 17th and 18th centuries. However, rising water has since then made the island vanish entirely. I visited the island in the 1980s before it vanished entirely. More info here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jordsand [wikipedia.org]

Plate tectonics means that some part of continents are rising, and some are falling. In Denmark, the northern part is rising, and the southern part is going down. Jordsand was located in the area that is going down. This means, that measured relatively to the ground, the water is "rising" in south Denmark and "falling" in north Denmark.

Here is a picture of the remains of the "Ferry farm" in Ræhr, Denmark:

http://www.saarup.dk/saarup2/johannespedersen.htm [saarup.dk]

From this place, there was once a ferry going to "Boat farm" in Hanstholm. Today, you drive this distance by car instead. Both farms are located in the middle of this map:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Hanstholmen-map .png [wikipedia.org]

What has once been a collection of islands, is today countryside with a few lakes. More information about the former island of Hanstholm is here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanstholm [wikipedia.org]

Re:It has happened in Europe, too

[dybdahl]

I think I'd better explain better where the two farms actually are: The "Ferry farm" (Danish: Færgegården) was in the northern part of the town Sårup. The Boat farm (Danish: bådsgård) is located in Nytorp.

Ræhr and Nytorp are both located on the former island of Hanstholm.

Sårup was once another island.

This lake is just between those two, and is the remainder of the North Atlantic Ocean's presence here:

http://maps.google.com/?ie=UTF8&z=14&ll=57.088282, 8.64521&spn=0.034184,0.11467&om=1 [google.com]

Ahem ... not global warming

[vtcodger]

Not to minimize the potential problems of global warming, but sea level rises associated with global warming so far are measured in inches, and not very many of them. So few inches in fact that it isn't even 100% certain that sea levels have changed at all. It's difficult to measure sea level changes of a few inches because the sea moves up and down all the time on its own due to tides and storms. It doesn't help that many places are locally rising or sinking on their own for a variety of reasons.

It's a bit of a stretch to believe that a phenomenon that is (so far) too small to even measure with confidence could erase an island big enough to have a substantial population. It's a bit hard to tell because of the "noise", but it looks like the total sea level rise in the 20th Century was maybe 4-6 inches ... at most.

So what really happened to this island? Who knows -- either erosion or local sinking one suspects.

Wikipedia has a long article on global warming href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sea_level_rise" >http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sea_level_rise.

And here's an article that says that the Sundabaran Islands of which Lohachara is (was?) a member are sinking at 3.4cm (about 1.4 inches) a year which is maybe 20 times the estimated rate of sea level rise from global warming. href="http://membrane.com/global_warming/notes/tig er.html">http://membrane.com/global_warming/notes/ tiger.html

Re:Now... or... 22 years ago?

[OriginalArlen]

Quite right. Here's a single chart that's worth more than a thousand ignorant and misinformed climate-change trolls [nasa.gov]. May I now post my regular link to RealClimate.org [realclimate.org] for the benefit of any sceptics out there who really do have an interest in what the actual science actually says.

Re:Another submerged city is ...

[Faylone]

Urk, preview links before you post them. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dwarka [wikipedia.org] Interesting article, though.

Google has the pic

[mangu]

Open Google Earth and search for "21.90N 88.11E"

Re:Hurricane Katrina...

[localroger]

As others have pointed out the disappearance of river delta island that was abandoned over 20 years ago is not all that unprecedented, but the near total destruction of a first-world city of over 1,000,000 followed by total failure to deal with the situation is.

The land is sinking...

[bradbury]

While others have commented on the fact that the oceans are not rising (and will not ultimately rise very much) it is useful to note that the land on which the island rested could be sinking. You have both (a) the problem of sea floors being driven under the continent plates (subduction) as well as (b) the fact that islands which are built out of sedimentary material are going to be compressed (and sink) over time. So before everyone runs off to cite this as an example of global warming at work it would be useful to know whether other processes may be contributing.

Re:But temperatures are rising on Mars!

[gaim]

Islands have been known to sink beneath the waves without sea level rising. Islands can and do naturally sink. Pacific volcanic islands are famous for this (like Hawaii or Fiji) will all eventually sink beneath the waves after the volcanic activity has ceased and the island rock cools becoming more dense. So to state an island is sinking without knowing the context on how the island was created is laughable evidence of global warming. Do you also know that the gravitation pull of the Himalayas near India actually deflect the ocean water up? So sea level is higher there than in the open Indian Ocean. Why this trivia? Himalayas on the whole are still rising very slowly ==> sea level near them is also rising very slowly. "If the Sky is falling, save me a piece for my mineral collection" Gaim

Re:First Time?

[kfg]

Yes, but what is the sound of shit happening?

Brown 25.

KFG

Re:River deltas are disappearing

[aaronl]

It takes a long time to build up new islands in a busy delta. The sand that formed these islands was eroded, and then washed out to sea. It could be decades, or more, before more silt builds up to make new islands. It has taken decades for the islands that *have* disappeared to do so, even.

If you jump to Wikipedia and search for Lohachara Island, there are links to a few other articles on the topic. TFA is probably the worst written of all of them.

We haven't reached Kyoto levels...

[Iloinen Lohikrme]

We haven't reached Kyoto levels of pollution in Europe, so we really can't beat our chest loudly. Further more the levels of pollution are that of 1990, which still means quite heavy pollution: remember the biggest industrial base in the world is in Europe and although European factories and plants do clean emissions, they aren't 100% clean. Actually what is happening in Europe largely is that by trying to achieve Kyoto levels we only have been able to decrease the increase of pollution.

Just to make my point more clear, here are some excerpts from Wikipedia article about Kyoto Protocol [wikipedia.org].

On June 28, 2006, the German government announced it would exempt its coal industry from requirements under the Kyoto agreement. Claudia Kemfert, an energy professor at the German Institute for Economic Research in Berlin said, "For all its support for a clean environment and the Kyoto Protocol, the cabinet decision is very disappointing. The energy lobbies have played a big role in this decision."

To date (October 2006), there is no legislative framework in place within the UK to guarantee year-on-year reductions in emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouses gases.

The position of the EU is not without controversy in Protocol negotiations, however. One criticism is that, rather than reducing 8%, all the EU member countries should cut 15% as the EU insisted a uniform target of 15% for other developed countries during the negotiation while allowing itself to share a big reduction in the former East Germany to meet the 15% goal for the entire EU. Also, emission levels of former Warsaw Pact countries who now are members of the EU have already been reduced as a result of their economic restructuring. This may mean that the region's 1990 baseline level is inflated compared to that of other developed countries, thus giving European economies a potential competitive advantage over the U.S.

The good thing is that we are really doing something to make a difference, but we aren't making real progress in the issue. Further more many countries in the European Union have really unrealistic energy politics going i.e. Germany and Sweden who both made political decision to stop using nuclear power and who now buy more and more gas from Russia and electricity from other member countries. Today only Finland is building more nuclear power and France is the next country to do the same. If not all member countries don't educate their citizens and start to have rational energy policy which includes nuclear power, we as Europeans don't really have a position to shout to the US or rest of the world "Fuck you, you irresponsible pollution loving lunatics" when we are just as bad.

Re:Nothing new here...

[Watson Ladd]

Most of the North Polar Icecap and all of the South Polar Icecap is on land, not water. When it melts it will pour water into the sea.

Re:But temperatures are rising on Mars!

[Qzukk]

the islands are part of a river delta.

Refer to a map, please, like this one [tuvaluislands.com]. Unless you're going to claim Tuvalu and Kiribati (you know, the other nations that are becoming "washed up") are part of the "Pacific Ocean River Delta" just to try to convince everyone you're right.

Re:Ongoing damage, political opposition to change

[tacocat]

Won't work. You can't beat the PAC and special interest groups.

But if you start pushing your money into a new segment of the economy then the businesses will follow your money and they will drive the PAC and Special Interest groups into the same direction. And it doesn't matter who you vote for. And it will happen very nicely.

How long did it take for the US to decide they want to invade Iraq?

How long did it take for the US to start subsidizing E85 fuel?

Guess which one was faster? E85! Why? Because ADM sells corn and ethanol. GM figured out how to make E85/Gasoline engines. And they believe they can make money and corner the market for E85 fuel.

Funny part is, E85 is a really bad idea all the way around. It's very expensive and less efficient than gasoline, diesel, or bio-diesel. But they believe they can use marketing to convince people to buy E85 even if it makes no economic or financial sense. The idea is you can believe you are saving your environment while spending 50% more money without really making a difference.

So the best thing you can do is ignore the E85 crap and see what else you can buy as a real alternative. Study the options and choose intelligently.

Old news. Literally.

[crmartin]

d000d! These islands washed away twenty two years ago [expressindia.com].

In fact, the intruding salty water has already had its effects on the region's flora and fauna: Lohachara and Bedford islands, with an area of more than six square kilometres between them, "vanished from the map" two decades ago. (See here. [indianjungles.com])

FACT: The enviorment is changing.

[PinkyGigglebrain]

It doesn't mater if the cause is human, sunspots or some other natural cycle.

The climate is changing and Homo Sapiens need to start adapting or we will end up just like the Dinosaurs. Just like everything else on the planet, we are expendable as far as the Earth is concerned.

The sooner we start making changes the easier, and cheaper, its going to be in the long run.