We often hear the likelihood of increased frequency of Category 5 hurricanes. We see images of coastal metropolitan areas being immersed in tsunami-like waves from rising sea levels. We see projections of unpredictable and extreme global weather patterns and changing seasons disrupting global agricultural production.
When we think of Climate Change, we have come to envision most or all of the 1,200 islands comprising the Maldives archipelago (1.5 metres/4.9 feet ABOVE sea level) disappearing under the rising levels of the Pacific Ocean.
- CNN.com/asia: From Underwater, Maldives Sends Warning on Climate Change
- The Guardian: Maldives Seeks to Buy a New Homeland
- NewJerseyNewsroom: Islands Like Maldives Await Disaster from Climate Change
For the Maldives, there is simply not enough latitude between remaining a coral island or becoming a coral reef.
Hurricane Katrina is such an example of the confluence of events that pushed aside man-made levees to allow the already endangered city (5 feet/1.5 metres BELOW sea level to 17 feet/5.1 metres ABOVE) of New Orleans become a partial Atlantis.
Yet, apparently, there is another barrier island of 400 Inupiat Eskimo residents - above the Arctic Circle in Kivalina, Alaska - that is proceeding with a very big lawsuit against two dozen fuel and utility companies of helping to cause climate change which is accelerating the erosion of its island.
The details appear in today's New York Times by John Schwartz (01/2010): Courts As Battlefields in Climate Fights.
Like the residents of the Maldives, these Eskimos will need to be relocated to a new home. As one report from Swiss Re (a major global insurance giant) stated: "climate-change liabilities could become significant issues within the next couple of years."
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