The Australian PM braved desperate circumstances to rescue Tuvalu.
“Tuvalu had asked Australia to implement a migration scheme, given the risk that low-lying islands and atolls faced from rising sea levels.”
Australia offers Tuvalu residents climate change visas
“Farewell Tuvalu
Andrew Simms
Monday 29 October 2001
The GuardianThe world has just shifted on its axis, but not in the way you might first imagine. A group of nine islands, home to 11,000 people, is the first nation to pay the ultimate price for global warming.
For many years the most interesting thing to happen to the Pacific island state of Tuvalu was the sale of its internet domain name, .tv, for $50m (£35m). But, just as Tuvalu has traded in its virtual domain, it is about to lose its real one.The authorities in Tuvalu have publicly conceded defeat to the sea rising around them. Appeals have gone out to the governments of New Zealand and Australia to help in the full-scale evacuation of Tuvalu’s population. After an apparent rebuff from Australia, the first group of evacuees is due to leave for New Zealand next year.”
Comment: Farewell Tuvalu | Guardian daily comment | guardian.co.uk
“A new geological study has shown that many low-lying Pacific islands are growing, not sinking. The islands of Tuvalu, Kiribati and the Federated States of Micronesia are among those which have grown, because of coral debris and sediment.”
Low-lying Pacific islands ‘growing not sinking’ – BBC News
“Kiribati consists of 33 islands, totaling 310 square miles surrounded by the Pacific Ocean. The population is 103,000. Nearly half live on a strip of land less than a mile wide. Over the last 20 years, the planet’s oceans have risen faster than at any time in history. Kiribati will soon be engulfed by water, and its people have nowhere to go”
Drowning Kiribati – Bloomberg Business
“Scientists at the University of Auckland found atolls in the Pacific nations of Marshall Islands and Kiribati, as well as the Maldives archipelago in the Indian Ocean, have grown up to 8 per cent in size over the past six decades despite sea level rise.”
Hundreds of Pacific Islands are getting bigger despite global warming – ABC News
Hundreds of Pacific Islands are getting bigger … because of global warming & extra CO2 that brings ; the corals are loving it.
For the past 250 million years, CO2 has been decreasing linearly (roughly), such that it would hit the zero point in about 70 million years. Zero, all taken up by limestone deposits on the ocean floor. Currently, when calcium carbonate settles on the ocean floor at depths lower than the lysocline and CCD, it is dissolved. The high CO2 content on the ocean floor at great depth dissolves CaCO3, and releases CO2 back into the atmosphere. When atmospheric CO2 gets lower, the depth of the CCD decreases, and when it gets low enough, and the CCD reaches the bottom of the ocean, there can be no more lysocline or CCD. CO2 levels at the bottom of the ocean would be too low to dissolve calcium carbonate, limestone would collect there, with more CO2 being taken out of the air, and the jig is up for CO2 in the atmosphere. Sooner or later, CO2 drops to zero and all life ends. The CO2 has been decreasing for 250 million years, but once the lysocline is gone, the rate at which it decreases would rise quickly until it reaches zero. The best thing humans have ever done is put CO2 back in the air where it belongs.
I edited the above post to make it more clear and accurate:
For the past 250 million years, CO2 has been decreasing linearly (roughly), such that it would hit the zero point in about 50 million years. Zero, all taken up by limestone deposits on the ocean floor. If humans had not arrived and started burning fossil fuels, life on earth would have been doomed. Currently, when calcium carbonate settles on the ocean floor at depths lower than the lysocline and CCD, it is dissolved. The high CO2 content on the ocean floor at great depth dissolves CaCO3, and releases CO2 back into the atmosphere. When atmospheric CO2 gets lower, the depth of the CCD decreases, and when it gets low enough, the CCD reaches the bottom of the ocean, and limestone would start collecting there. When the lysocline reaches the bottom of ocean, CO2 levels there would be too low to dissolve calcium carbonate at all, and limestone would collect there in large amounts. This would cause more CO2 to be taken out of the air, and the jig is up for CO2 in the atmosphere. Sooner or later, around 50 million years from now, CO2 drops to zero and all life ends. The CO2 has been decreasing for 250 million years, but once the lysocline is gone, the rate at which it decreases would rise quickly until it reaches zero, and all life on earth would end forever. The best thing humans have ever done is put CO2 back in the air where it belongs.