tjvagabond004 ([info]tjvagabond004) wrote,
@ 2008-06-05 08:35:00
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“We are all witness to the rape of the world”
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20080605/sc_afp/nzealandkiribaticlimateenvironment_080605041611

This article makes me so sad to read. This was the country I was in for the Peace Corps and I cannot begin to explain how beautiful the land and the people are. In a world of obscene mass consumption and a ‘use once then dispose of’ mentality which extends to people and one night stands, Kiribati is a place that respects and values Quality over Quantity. People have lived on these islands for thousands of years, and now in the next twenty they won’t exist. It’s so pathetic that we care more for convenience then people.

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[info]secretspice
2008-06-05 01:52 pm UTC (link)
whoa, that's intense.

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[info]jachyra
2008-06-05 11:10 pm UTC (link)
It's only sad because you have given into the modern hype that is global warming.
We're not "witnesses to the rape of the world". We're witnesses to the vast, natural climactic changes our planet has gone through, and will go through even if human beings weren't around.

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[info]tjvagabond004
2008-06-09 01:33 pm UTC (link)
There are six trash islands the size of Texas floating in the Pacific Ocean filled with non-biodegradable plastic, roughly 80% of the worlds deep sea fish supply has been exhausted and virtually every species on earth (aside from humans) is in decline. I think it seems kind of silly to continue consuming at our current rate and assume there won’t be any long-term consequence for future generations to inherent. I really don’t want to turn this into a petty internet argument, that wasn’t my intention in writing this entry, just to express my sorrow at the loss of a beautiful country and culture. Give me a call and we can talk more if you want.

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[info]jachyra
2008-06-09 09:08 pm UTC (link)
The whole problem with this is there's no data in the article. There's just anecdotal evidence from a singular mayor from an are heavily dependent on foreign aid. There are no numbers to say how much the water has risen. All we can do is go back to know facts about the Pacific: water levels have been rising 10,000 years, and there seems to be a 22 year cycle where that rise accelerates and decellerate.
We don't even know if rising water is to blame. Maybe increased population is expanding homes into more dangerous locations. Maybe unwise agricultural practices are eroding these tiny atolls away.
We just don't know.
And we don't know because of sloppy, fear-mongering journalism.

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[info]tjvagabond004
2008-06-10 01:29 pm UTC (link)
Steve, I’m using this article as an example of what’s happening to these islands, not as something that needs to be published in a scientific journal, look at it in context. This isn’t a result of a growing population; it’s hovered around 100,000 for the last several decades without significant growth. It’s not the result of poor agricultural choices; aside from wild coconut and the occasional taro pit there are no crops grown in this country. This is a population that lives totally from hand to mouth, roughly 70-80 percent of food consumed comes from what can be locally caught in the ocean (and if other, larger nations with better equipped fishing vessels decide to poach a larger percentage of fish than usual, then the local population suffers greatly. I have a friend who served in a village that went through this). I do respect your concern for journalistic integrity (it’s extremely important to distinguish reality from junk science, especially in these weird times), but that isn’t the purpose of this article. I’ve talked to a number of locals about this and they all agreed, they are living pretty much the same way they have for a very long time, and suddenly within the last few years the water levels are getting higher and higher and submerging what little land they have.

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