Sea’s Rise in India Buries Islands and a Way of Life

[YankeyMCC]

Source: NY Times

(snip)
GHORAMARA ISLAND, India — Shyamal Mandal lives at the edge of ruin.

In front of his small mud house lies the wreckage of what was once his village on this fragile delta island near the Bay of Bengal. Half of it has sunk into the river.

Only a handful of families still hang on so close to the water, and those that do are surrounded by reminders of inexorable destruction: an abandoned half-broken canoe, a coconut palm teetering on a cliff, the gouged-out remnants of a family’s fish pond.
(snip)

(snip)
The sinking of Ghoramara can be attributed to a confluence of disasters, natural and human, not least the rising sea. The rivers that pour down from the Himalayas and empty into the bay have swelled and shifted in recent decades, placing this and the rest of the delicate islands known as the Sundarbans in the mouth of daily danger.

Certainly nature would have forced these islands to shift size and shape, drowning some, giving rise to others. But there is little doubt, scientists say, that human-induced climate change has made them particularly vulnerable.
(snip)

(snip)
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change predicts that global warming, spurred by the buildup of heat-trapping gases in the atmosphere, could raise the ocean’s surface as much as 23 inches by 2100.

It hardly seems to matter that Mr. Mandal and his neighbors — farmers and fishermen — are far too poor to produce much in the way of carbon emissions. They feel the assault already.
(snip)



Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/11/world/asia/11india.html?pagewanted=1&hp

[truthisfreedom]

1. Ahem... 18 feet in 10 years, and another 20 feet when Greenland slips into the ocean after that.

Who produced these ridiculously low numbers?

[DRoseDARs]

2. Uh, the IPCC is the group reporting 23 inches by 2100. What are you talking about?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IPCC_Third_Assessment_Report
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sea_level_rise
There's also a table from the IPCC's numbers that by 2100, the range is from 9cm to 88cm.

To get a rise of 10 feet in 10 years, something like a super-volcano erupting under the Antarctic Ice Cap or a large asteroid smacking into the continent would have to be involved in order to move the volume of water on a global scale you're suggesting. Who produced your ridiculously high numbers? :shrug: :P

[Marrah_G]

4. I think most don't realize how devastating a 2 foot rise will be

[AngryAmish]

5. I think even under your scenarios there would not be a rise

If anything there would be a fall. When giant volcanos erupt they put a lot of particulate matter into the atmosphere causing a cooling effect - Krakatoa cooled temps by 1.2 or so degrees or so wikipedia says. A giant meteorite would also throw up lots of dust.

Not calling you out - I agree with you.

[DRoseDARs]

7. Super-volcano or Asteroid Impact + Ice Cap = Instant liquification of brazillions of gallons of H2O

Just clarifying some things for ya' :)

A super-volcano is much, much larger than Krakatoa. Think Yellowstone National Park, the entire basin is a caldera ... 1477 square miles of caldera. If the United States and Canada are still around, they are both TOTALLY, ROYALTY SCREWN!!1 when she blows again ... and she will blow again, it's just a matter of when.

There'll be an initial sea level rise within the first couple of HOURS of anywhere from a few inches to a few hundred feet (depending on which scenario, where exactly ground zero is and the area affected, and how thick the ice is there) which would be the tsunami (a super-volcano somewhere inland under the ice could create a few inches/feet worth, asteroids could create the ginormous continent-consuming Waves-o-Death). Then in the immediate aftermath there'll be several feet worth of sea level rise that for all intents and purposes will be permanent (re:won't refreeze/be deposited on the ice cap for millenia).

In either scenario, a HUGHMUNGUS!!1 amount of water will be instantly turned into liquid water which will in turn affect the entire planet within just a few hours. But short of that, yeah 18 feet in 10 years takes a MAJOR disaster the likes of which we've never seen or are capable of producing even if we turned our entire industrial capabilities as a species towards the aim of totally fucking ourselves but good. Our current problem is a slight annoyance by comparison.

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

3. Feet? or inches?

The ocean is rising 18 feet in 10 years? It's rising, but probably not nearly that much that fast.

[lovuian]

6. Some videos I have made we are looking at losing

islands under the sea like within months of each other

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fipPFH8RFRQ

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IQLf19TXnW4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dWJqnX4SDhM

Its quite a Global disaster taking place right now in our time
we are witnessing the changing of Mother Earth