Australian Government Orders 2,000 Torres Strait Islanders To Move As Sea Erases Roads, Buildings

[hatrack]

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.

Authorities have ordered evacuation and relocation plans for more than 2000 people who face losing their land and livelihood from the invading sea.

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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.

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http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,22175611-2,00.html

[MADem]

1. Bummer. nt

[thunder rising]

2. yeah bummer ... look Paris has a new doggie

[BonnieJW]

3. We will see more and more of this.

Climate refugees. Many countries will refuse them entry.

[rodeodance]

4. looks like it was/is part of the indigenous populations land