The oceanographer quotes in the piece says: "...we are losing land to the sea."
Well, which is it? A rising sea of land giving way and crumbling into the sea? Again, if it is a rising sea, would it not have to rise along with "sea level" and all the oceans of the world would be rising simultaneously? --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "do.rflex" <do.rf...@...> wrote: > > > India's Sacred Sagar Island is Shrinking Away > > by Philip Reeves > <http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=2101062> - > February 15, 2010 > > [Pilgrims take a holy dip at a lagoon on Sagar Island] Pilgrims take a > holy dip at a lagoon on the occasion of Makar Sankranti at Gangasagar on > Sagar Island, the confluence of the Ganges River and Bay of Bengal, on > Jan. 14. A scientist says the sacred island has shrunk by nearly 10 > square miles in the past 40 years, displacing thousands of people. > > > Varun Pyke has come to the edge of the Indian island where he has > spent all 50 years of his life, to recount the story of the riches that > he has now lost. > > He gloomily jabs a finger out toward the water, pointing well beyond the > gray waves lapping on the shores of the long, wide beach on which he is > standing. > A mile or two out, there lies what used to be his farm, explains Pyke, a > wiry man in a vest and wraparound "lunghi." > He says he had 5 acres, all now part of the seabed. > > Rising water levels compelled Pyke to move inland; now he has only 2 > acres to farm, barely enough to survive. > > Pyke lives on Sagar Island, off the east coast of India. It is part of > the Sundarbans, a giant low-lying archipelago that straddles India and > Bangladesh, fanning out into the Bay of Bengal. > > More than 4 million people live on the Indian side. The delta is wrapped > in the world's largest block of mangrove forest and is the habitat of > the endangered royal Bengal tiger, which also is threatened by the > rising waters. > > Standing next to Pyke is a neighbor from his village, a small, brightly > clad, middle-aged woman called Durga Pal. She says the water has also > swallowed up most of her family's land. Like Pyke, she is struggling to > get by on a small patch of land, near the beach. > > "Our grandparents and our parents all used to stay here," she said. "We > had a lot of wealth and a lot of land before this. But now we are left > with very little land and very little money to survive on." > > She is surrounded by the rubble of a giant brick wall. Large broken > lumps of brickwork are scattered along the beach in a straight line, as > far as the eye can see. > > This is the remains of a barrier built by the authorities. Villagers say > a cyclone ripped down the wall five years ago. > > Pal and Pyke believe that if the wall is not replaced, they will both > soon lose all of their remaining land. Pyke does not sound optimistic. > Saltwater has flooded his home several times recently. > > "This year, all my land will be gone because the barrier is gone," Pyke > said. He will likely be forced to turn to low-paid laboring. > [In this file photo from Jan. 14, 2008, Hindu devotees wade on Sagar > Island.] Enlarge Bikas Das/AP > In this file photo from Jan. 14, 2008, Hindu devotees wade on Sagar > Island, site of annual religious festivals that draw hundreds of > thousands of visitors. The 20-mile-long island is shrinking at an > accelerating pace. > [In this file photo from Jan. 14, 2008, Hindu devotees wade on Sagar > Island.] Bikas Das/AP > In this file photo from Jan. 14, 2008, Hindu devotees wade on Sagar > Island, site of annual religious festivals that draw hundreds of > thousands of visitors. The 20-mile-long island is shrinking at an > accelerating pace. > > The perimeter of the giant scattering of islands, mudflats and swampy > jungle that make up the Sunderbans have been shifting around for > centuries, partly because of silt and subsidence. > > But scientists and locals say the rise in water levels began > accelerating a few years ago. > > "Since 2000, the trend is actually steeper, upwards, steeper," said > Pranabes Sanyal of India's Coastal Zone Management Authority. "Day by > day, the deterioration is going on. Day by day, more salinization is > going on." > > Sagar Island is less than 20 miles long. Sanyal estimates that in the > past 40 years, its size has shrunk by nearly 10 square miles. Thousands > of people have been displaced. > > Oceanography professor Sugata Hazra agrees: "For the last 20 to 30 > years, we are getting more cyclones and we are losing land to the sea. > This is the reality." > > Hazra is worried by a recent surge in skepticism about climate change, > fueled by widely publicized mistakes made by the U.N.'s climate change > panel, including the prediction that the Himalayan glaciers could be > gone in 25 years. > > Hazra concedes that climate change scientists make mistakes and should > correct them. > > But he adds: "If they lose the battle to this lobby who are trying to > discredit the science of climate change, who are trying to defame the > scientists, the world loses the battle." > > Hazra says sea levels in the Sundarbans are rising at a rate well above > the global average. Several small inhabited islands have been completely > submerged in the past few decades. > > He stresses that the causes are many and complex. But he has no doubt > that human beings are playing a part. > > "Look, it is definitely a factor. It is not that it is just a > possibility. One of the most important factors is man-made climate > change." > > The islanders themselves are less specific. Sagar Island is a > particularly sacred place for Hindus. > > It stands in the giant estuary where the Ganges, Hinduism's holiest > river, meets the sea. Once a year, hundreds of thousands of pilgrims > gather there for religious festivals. > > Amid the island's banana groves and palms, there are hundreds of temples > and thousands of small shrines. > > So the world should perhaps not be surprised at the answer given by Pyke > and his neighbors on the beach, when asked why they think the sea is > swallowing up their land. > > They have not heard of man-made global warming. > > "God is responsible," they all agreed. > > http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=123733017&ft=1&f=10\ > 04 >
