The survival of Kiribati depends on the next few hours. Slavery, apartheid, now let’s do something about climate change.
The seas are rising, the rich West is to blame…they must pay trillions to the impoverished island nations, Africa and anyone else who can make enough noise shroud waving to claim a cut of the loot.
Sarah Montague was interviewing (08:38) Anote Tong, president of Kiribati, this morning. I say interview but in fact it was more a charity appeal with little, no, no ‘interview’…oh, she did ask if he felt rage at the wealthy, industrial nations who were to blame for his islands’ plight…because as we know, the BBC tells us, they are sinking fast…or are they?
From National Geographic:
Will Pacific Island Nations Disappear as Seas Rise? Maybe Not
How real is the threat? Are island nations like Tuvalu, where most of the land is barely above sea level, destined to sink beneath the waves, like modern-day Atlantises?
Not necessarily, according to a growing body of evidence amassed by New Zealand coastal geomorphologist Paul Kench, of the University of Auckland’s School of Environment, and colleagues in Australia and Fiji, who have been studying how reef islands in the Pacific and Indian Oceans respond to rising sea levels.
They found that reef islands change shape and move around in response to shifting sediments, and that many of them are growing in size, not shrinking, as sea level inches upward. The implication is that many islands—especially less developed ones with few permanent structures—may cope with rising seas well into the next century.
From The Pacific Institute of Public Policy:
So far, most atolls winning the sea level rise battle
An increasing number of atoll studies are not supporting claims of Pacific island leaders that “islands are sinking.” Scientific studies published this year show, for example, that land area in Tuvalu’s capital atoll of Funafuti grew seven percent over the past century despite significant sea level rise. Another study reported that 23 of 27 atoll islands across Kiribati, Tuvalu and the Federated States of Micronesia either increased in area or remained stable over recent decades.
Speaking about Kiribati, Canadian climatologist Simon Donner commented in the Scientific American: ‘Right now it is clear that no one needs to immediately wall in the islands or evacuate all the inhabitants. What the people of Kiribati and other low-lying countries need instead are well-thought-out, customized adaption plans and consistent international aid — not a breathless rush for a quick fix that makes the rest of the world feel good but obliges the island residents to play the part of helpless victim.’
Nice to have at least a semblance of moderation when talking about this subject rather than the highly politicised narrative that we get from the BBC.
Oh look…from the BBC in 2010…how soon they forget…
Low-lying Pacific islands ‘growing not sinking’
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.
One of the authors of the study, featured in the magazine the New Scientist, predicts that the islands will still be there in 100 years’ time.
this study of 27 islands over the last 60 years suggests that most have remained stable, while some have actually grown.
Using historical photographs and satellite imaging, the geologists found that 80% of the islands had either remained the same or got larger – in some cases, dramatically so.
They say it is due to the build-up of coral debris and sediment, and to land reclamation.
Associate Professor Paul Kench of Auckland University, who took part in the study, published in the journal Global and Planetary Change, says the islands are not in immediate danger of extinction.
“That rather gloomy prognosis for these nations is incorrect,” he said.
“We have now got the evidence to suggest that the physical foundation of these countries will still be there in 100 years, so they perhaps do not need to flee their country.”
Ah but hang on….
But although these islands might not be submerged under the waves in the short-term, it does not mean they will be inhabitable in the long-term, and the scientists believe further rises in sea levels pose a significant danger to the livelihoods of people living in Tuvalu, Kiribati and the Federated States of Micronesia.
One scientist in Kiribati said that people should not be lulled into thinking that inundation and coastal erosion were not a major threat.
Haven`t the Maldives (last months Global Warming gonk that barely covers the need to freshen the air when the flatulent Green goolies get going) just built an-er-like …”airport”?
So it`s Kiribotty boys turn to take the Cresta Polar Bear hostage and blag as long as it takes with the BBC to worry about Gaia.
Heard Colin Firths missus on Womans Hour earlier telling us all of “sustainable fashion”-apparently we`re not to but that burqa or slutwalk sarong unless we`re going to wear it-oh, up to thirty times maybe?
Planet Murray purred on, and little Garvey said she`s tell the kids when she could get them out of Harvey Nix or such.
THESE are issues with Islamic State at the door, and Luton a tinderboz?
Well yes-in Womans World as gleaned from a chocolate fountain bath spa in Highgate maybe?…if only I could ask Tammy Wynette…”WHEN EXACTLY is it hard to be a woman…when Colin Firth blags your couture and you can wonder about outsourcing the tutu industry?”
Mad I tellzya…mad!
‘….just built an-er-like …”airport”?’
How else are they to attract and serve a few guest journos to the island off the one flight a year that brings the Prez here? Apparently.
http://www.kiribatitourism.gov.ki
Seems nice. Bet Matt, Jon, etc are en route as we speak by dugout to ‘report’ for… ‘winter’.
ChrisH, I posted this earlier on another thread but it expands on your first point.
The Maldives, another bunch of islands slipping rapidly beneath the ever-rising seas, appears to like airports. Here is a handy list with links to individual airports:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_airports_in_the_Maldives
To save you having to read it I have selected some highlights.
Gan International Airport (GIA) – ‘To promote tourism and other economic activity in the south a new venture was formed early in 2012 to further develop and expand GIA.’
Hanimaadhoo International Airport – ‘It was upgraded to an international airport on 2 February 2012, with the introduction of direct flights to Trivandrum by Maldivian.’
Ibrahim Nasir International Airport – ‘In 2010, the Nasheed administration appointed IFC to run a bidding process for the privatisation of the airport. The bid was won by a consortium between GMR Group and Malaysia Airports who provided Rufiyaa 1 Billion[7] as upfront fee to the government for the expansion and modernisation of the airport by 2014, and its operation for 25 years.’ Remember the name Nasheed, we will meet him again later.
Villa International Airport Maamigili – ‘The airport opened on October 1, 2011 as a domestic airport. In 2013, it was upgraded to international airport standards.’
So, no concerns about global warming and rising sea levels there then. But wait, remember Nasheed? This Nasheed?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mohamed_Nasheed
Here is the best bit:
‘With regard to the threat posed to the very low-lying islands by changes in sea level caused by global warming, in March 2009 Nasheed pledged to set an example by making the Maldives carbon-neutral within a decade by moving to wind and solar power. As part of a wider campaign by international environmental NGO 350.org’s campaign publicising the threats of climate change and its effects on the Maldives, Nasheed presided over the world’s first underwater cabinet meeting on 17 October 2009, off the island of Girifushi with the meeting participants underwater in scuba diving gear.’
You could not make this hypocritical bullshit up.
Bishop Hill skewering Montague quite royally this morning.
http://www.bishop-hill.net/blog/2015/12/10/the-amazing-sarah-montague.html
Yes….he wasn’t impressed with Montague previously on climate….‘This was a triumph of political activism in the guise of journalism.’
Some of the comments from his readers illustrate the problem with the BBC, Harrabin and the reality behind ‘climate change’…it’s all really about politics and a ‘new world order’…Harrabin’s words..
“Negotiators here are in effect discussing the shape of a new world order”.
“Delegates have 36 hours to start re-shaping the way the world sees itself”
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b06r8sd7#playt=2h05m35s
“We’re trying to change the entire global economy….”
Then swiftly he (Harrabin) corrected himself:
“…or at least the UN’s trying to change the entire global economy.”
One scientist in Kiribati said that people should not be lulled into thinking that inundation and coastal erosion were not a major threat.
Of course, that’s because it’s what
a) your models say
b) Agenda 21 tells you to say
Here’s a copy of my thoughts from the Weekday Blog page;
So BBC R4 Today at 8.30 ran an interview about climate change with Anote Tong president of Kiribati. Mr Tong told us that his tiny Pacific islands would soon disappear underwater because of global warming. “According to the projections of the IPCC” he said, “We will be underwater… and so our future is very much on the line”.
Egged on by Today presenter Sarah Montague who (referring to the COP21 talks in Paris) asked him, “Are we in a positon where we can say the survival of Kiribas depends on the next few hours”? Tong explained how Kiribati had bought land in Fiji so his population could flee there when sea levels rise.
But is everything as the BBC narrative would have us believe? Could it be that Mr Tong is really motivated by the prospect of huge international aid payments? Are there FIFA-esque corruption issues on Kiribati?
A quick Google search throws up some background context which the BBC presumably doesn’t want us to know;
1. Tong’s predecessor as president, Teburoro Tito, says, “The scientists tell us that our reefs are healthy and can grow and rise with the sea level, so there is absolutely no need to buy land in Fiji or anywhere else. How can we ask for foreign aid when we spend our own money on such foolish things?”
2. “We know that the whole reef structure can grow at 10 to 15 mm a year, which is faster than the expected sea-level rise,” confirmed Paul Kench, an atoll geo-morphologist at the University of Auckland.
3. Kiribati, with a per-capita income of 1,600 dollars, receives more foreign aid per capita than any other Pacific nation.
4. Corruption is a widespread problem in Kiribati. Political corruption and nepotism seem to be the main corruption issues in Kiribati, and the economic importance of the fishing industry and fishery management increasingly makes it a corruption-prone area.
5. In 2014 about 1.7 million US dollars given by Taiwan for Kiribati to buy a boat to service the Phoenix and Line Islands went missing. Reports said the money had been wired to a Philippines company, but had disappeared. But Mr Tong says not all the money has been lost and the remainder is with the government.
6. Teburoro Tito, Tong’s predecessor as president and a member of parliament accused Tong of seeking to “promote his own personal image to the outside world”. He recalled firing Tong as fisheries minister because he allegedly lied about tax improprieties.
7. The Kiribati Government purchased a 2,210 hectare property at Natoavatu Estate on Vanua Levu (Fiji) in a bid to enhance its economic resilience. Anote Tong says Kiribati lost hundreds of millions of dollars during the financial market crash of 2008 and the purchase of land is to provide financial stability. “Given the financial markets are just playing a lot of uncertainties, investing in real estate like that is not a bad idea. There is no doubt in my mind the value will go up in a time, in a very short time, with stability, political stability in Fiji, everything will improve.”
9. The Kiribati government said the purchase marked “a new milestone” in its “development plans, which include exploring options of commercial, industrial and agricultural undertakings such as fish canning, beef/poultry farming, fruit and vegetable farming.”
10. Environmental activists have nominated Tong for a Nobel Prize because he is among the most prominent world leaders advocating for greater global action on climate change.
“begging-bowls”
I have made this point before, I hope it bears repetition.
Beginning in December 2010 the Australian state of Queensland suffered the worst series of floods ever recorded there. In early 2011 some of the worst forest fires ever recorded occurred in Western Australia.
On 2011-02-22 New Zealand experienced a severe earthquake whose epicentre was near the major city of Christchurch.
On 2011-04-11 April 2011 Japan suffered a severe earthquake and a concomitant tsunami; damage included the destruction of the Fukushima nuclear power station.
What was the reaction in these three Western, or Westernised states, to the large scale damage and the loss of life?
The reaction was the same in all three countries, they buried their dead, rolled up their sleeves and started re-building what had been destroyed. Not a begging bowl in sight.
Every time there is some natural or man-made disaster in a former colony what happens? Correct, they come begging.
When they come begging they should, in my view, be politely told to piss off and stand on their own two feet.
They clamoured for independence, and got it. It turns out however that they did want independence, they wanted
independence accompanied by an oversize chequebook on which they could withdraw arbitrarily large amounts on demand from UK PLC, France PLC etc.
This and our Overseas Aid has to stop, we must look after real British people first, second and third. If other states, incompetently run by the sort of dim dregs gathered in Calais, have famines and epidemics, tough, natural selection must occur.
The ‘sinking island’ meme is as discredited as the ‘disappearing Polar Bear’ meme. There is no evidence to support either claim – quite the contrary, in both cases. Eco-zealots ignore these inconvenient facts, naturally, because they know as well as Governments, IPCC-funded scientists and unelected NGOs (all of whom are creating public policy at the Paris climate change jamboree) that any such admittance would undermine their efforts to push the liberal left fascist agenda of CAGW.
Science? Facts? Give me a break.
How about the 2007 declaration that the Himalayan glaciers would melt completely in 25 years. How is that going? Have the BBC [as part of their public education remit] sought to verify that prediction – you know in their “science” programmes?
Even if it were true that these islands were going to swallowed up by rising oceans (and it isn’t), it still would not make sense to spend trillions of dollars and destroy western industrial society in a vain attempt to stop it happening (which it isn’t). The relatively small populations of these islands could easily be given asylum and compensation on any of the continental land masses which are not going to be swallowed by the non-existent rising sea levels if the worst ever happened (it won’t).
The age-band of true believers in all this stuff appears to be moving inexorably upwards. My contacts among the under-30’s, although limited, are 100% sceptics, to the point of dismissing it out of hand. Interestingly, this does not appear to be on the basis of rational evidence, but simply out of contempt for the middle-aged and their pathetic lives..
This is odd, because, through the media’s eye, I am seeing all the time many young people dressed in polar bear suits and other greenery, marching and shouting to persuade everyone of the case for anti-Climate Change measures . How do I reconcile these scenes with my own anecdotal but first-hand evidence? It’s a real puzzle – it reminds me of the old days, seeing reports of revivalist rallies with thousands thronging the streets to see the latest charismatic preacher tell them how wicked the world was. There undoubtedly were many people who went to these things, but I never, ever, encountered anyone personally who fell for all that guff, or ever considered it at all. And in the end, those enthusiastic people melted away like snow in June. I guess you might now come across someone for whom it had marked their life deeply, but probably in terms of a feeling of belonging, and a sense of purpose. The fiery, inspiring preachers eventually returned home, and everyone else just got on with life. And mostly, didn’t bother to tell their kids what they did before they grew up.
I have never seen the term “Calibration of Carbon Dioxide warming” outside of the scientific community. Nor have I seen any article about carbon dioxide warming on Mars or Venus. Even the formula in all those Computer Models can be done with pen and paper and a calculator. Black body temperature, surface temperature, a curve for doubling of CO2 four times from 400ppm for the Earth, to 6400ppm for Mars, then account for distance from the Sun. But then Venus has a quarter of a million times more CO2 than the Earth, so you get a nonsense figure for Venus.
What to do, well that proves that the Arrhenius method of calculating the Greenhouse effect must be bullshit, but most scientists still stick with it because they are unaware of an alternative.
Then comes along the Unified Theory of Climate by Ned Nikolov & Karl Zeller, which shows that the average surface temperature divided by the grey body temperature gives you the magnitude of the Thermal inertia which resembles the response of the temperature/potential temperature ratio to the altitudinal changes of pressure described by the Poisson formula, with predictions matching the evidence. So Piers Corbyn was correct after all, but in Britain, Piers still seems to be relatively alone amongst scientists, and the only one I feel I could learn anything new from. For instance, I have just found out that air pressure has dropped in the last hundred years, confirming Piers insistence that the Greenhouse effect has actually produced an undetectable cooling during the Solar induced warming period.
“confirming Piers insistence that the Greenhouse effect has actually produced an undetectable cooling during the Solar induced warming period.”
Oh God, this means that once the UN is forced to accept that the cycle has changed and it’s getting cooler, they can’t pretend that CO2 is making it hotter so they’ll claim that CO2 is making it cooler and we’ll have to reduce CO2 emissions or we’ll all DIE.
The age-band of true believers in all this stuff appears to be moving inexorably upwards. My contacts among the under-30’s, although limited, are 100% sceptics, to the point of dismissing it out of hand. Interestingly, this does not appear to be on the basis of rational evidence, but simply out of contempt for the middle-aged and their pathetic lives.
Probably why the BBC is desperate to get the COP done and dusted. Another five year will be too late, not only because the believers wont be there, but the facts will become abundantly clear.
Re the rolling thunder tour of Kiribatis finest round the green rooms of our lefty telly stations.
Can only imagine he`s been getting an open top rickshaw round them all, certainly the Mall has not been sealed off so he can travel between Jon and Jim for the benefit of all.
I say this because the Kofi Annan tribute act-the Dalai Lama of Green dreamings-was on Channel 4 tonight as Krishnan wiped his hush puppies.
Jon Snow was inveigling himself around old folks homes in the search of the original taboo-buster…some old bat whose book happens to be getting a free read every day on the BBCs “Book of An Epoch” slot.
Very cosy isn`t it…Pryce was my fisrt serial trawler who managed to get BBC and Channel 4 berths on the same day-since then this prestigious gig has only been offered to Charlotte Proudman, Kiri Bottyman and now Diane Anthill.
When we bin the Beeb, can we scuttle Channel 4 as well…two cheeks of the same fat arse.
Diane Athill is a leftist atheist, and I just can’t imagine what the BBC sees in her writing which excites them so, but for some odd reason they have serialized every volume of her memoirs.
PS-noted Jon Snow was sniffing round our care homes to interview some old serial Labour bat who bonked in many beds, and wrote stuff.
Hope he had DBS clearance-would hate the Muslims to think that our old women were worth a punt, seeing as the kiddies homes aren`t as welcoming as they used to be.
Wherever the left goes-Islam come after-and both are happy to express their manifold sexual needs as a liberating spectrum that sticks it to “The Man”.
I`d ban Snow from OAP homes-and for that matter I`d ban the BBC from them too.
Population of Tuvalu – around 10,000.
Real Cost of Climate Change policies to the West – $1000bn. Assume $100bn per year.
We can thus give each Tuvalian $100,000 per year for life. Initially, we can offer $50,000 tax free per year to each Tuvalian. Before subjecting the whole world to the Mother of all Frauds, has such a proposition been made?