Thursday, June 03, 2010

Not drowning but waving

"Pacific islands 'growing not shrinking' due to climate change," headlines The Daily Telegraph, one of several media outlets to carry the story of a new study that has revealed significant growth in coral island chains.

Some islands, it appears, have grown by almost one-third over the past 60 years. Among the island chains to have increased in land area are Tuvalu and neighbouring Kiribati, both of which attracted attention at last year's Copenhagen climate summit.



These have been very much the "poster child" for the warmists, and the subject of numerous stunts, not least the holding of an underwater cabinet meeting last year (see video above) to highlight the threat from rising sea levels as a result of global warming.

Much to the discomfort of Maldives president Mohamed Nasheed, seven islands in Tuvalu actually grew, one by 30 percent. In Kiribati, the three of the most densely populated islands, Betio, Bairiki and Nanikai, also grew by between 12.5 and 30 percent.

Professor Paul Kench, of Auckland University, co-author of the study with Dr Arthur Webb, a Fiji-based expert on coastal processes, said the study challenged the view that the islands were sinking as a result of global warming. "Eighty per cent of the islands we've looked at have either remained about the same or, in fact, got larger. Some have got dramatically larger," he says.

If there was any justice, the Nasheeds of this world, who have been making a living out of milking concern for global warming, are now going to have find something else to bring in the cash. All that crap about "drowning" was, it seems, only waving. But then, we already knew that.

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