Rising sea drives Panama islanders to mainland

[Judi Lynn]

Monday July 12, 2010
Rising sea drives Panama islanders to mainland
By Sean Mattson

CARTI SUGDUB, Panama (Reuters) - Rising seas from global warming, coming after years of coral reef destruction, are forcing thousands of indigenous Panamanians to leave their ancestral homes on low-lying Caribbean islands.

Seasonal winds, storms and high tides combine to submerge the tiny islands, crowded with huts of yellow cane and faded palm fronds, leaving them ankle-deep in emerald water for days on end.

Pablo Preciado, leader of the island of Carti Sugdub, remembers that in his childhood floods were rare, brief and barely wetted his toes. "Now it's something else. It's serious," he said.

The increase of a few inches in flood depth is consistent with a global sea level rise over Preciado's 64 years of life and has been made worse by coral mining by the islanders that reduced a buffer against the waves.

More:
http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2010/7/12/worldupdates/2010-07-12T092659Z_01_NOOTR_RTRMDNC_0_-500447-1&sec=Worldupdates

[aquart]

1. Does anybody hear?

Islands are drowning. They are being lost, if not forever, then for the next thousands of years.

[Delphinus]

4. Nobody hears

until it hits them directly.

[aquart]

5. The Maldives people are searching for a new home.

Their government knows their white sand beaches will drown. And then their homes.

[Nihil]

6. Rather like oil pollution in that respect ...

... or unexpected high/low temperature events ... or species extinctions ...

:-(

[The Backlash Cometh]

2. San Blas islands.

There are, or were, on the Atlantic side, pristine white sand islands, small enough to walk across in minutes. Tragic if we lose them, and the indian culture that depended on them.

[Nihil]

3. Oops ...

> The increase of a few inches in flood depth is consistent with a global
> sea level rise over Preciado's 64 years of life and has been made worse
> by coral mining by the islanders that reduced a buffer against the waves.

At least they've only shot themselves in the foot this time rather than someone else
on the other side of the world ...