"Australia discovers ocean current "missing link"

SYDNEY (Reuters) - Australian scientists have discovered a giant underwater current that is one of the last missing links of a system that connects the world's oceans and helps govern global climate.

New research shows that a current sweeping past Australia's southern island of Tasmania toward the South Atlantic is a previously undetected part of the world climate system's engine-room, said scientist Ken Ridgway.

The Southern Ocean, which swirls around Antarctica, has been identified in recent years as the main lung of global climate, absorbing a third of all carbon dioxide taken in by the world's oceans.

"We knew that they (deep ocean pathway currents) could move from the Pacific to the Indian Ocean through Indonesia. Now we can see that they move south of Tasmania as well, another important link," Ridgway, of the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization, told Reuters.

In each ocean, water flows around anticlockwise pathways, or gyres, the size of ocean basins.

The newly discovered Tasman Outflow, which sweeps past Tasmania at an average depth of 800-1,000 meters (2,600 to 3,300 feet), is classed as a "supergyre" that links the Indian, Pacific and Atlantic southern hemisphere ocean basins, the government-backed CSIRO said in a statement on Wednesday.

The CSIRO team analyzed thousands of temperature and salinity data samples collected between 1950 and 2002 by research ships, robotic ocean monitors and satellites between 60 degrees south, just north of the Antarctic Circle, and the Equator.

"They identified linkages between these gyres to form a global-scale 'supergyre' that transfers water to all three ocean basins," the CSIRO said.

Ridgway and co-author Jeff Dunn said identification of the supergyre improves the ability of researchers to more accurately explain how the ocean governs global climate.

"Recognizing the scales and patterns of these subsurface water masses means they can be incorporated into the powerful models used by scientists to project how climate may change," Ridgway said in a statement.

The best known of the global ocean currents is the North Atlantic loop of the Great Ocean Conveyer, which brings warm water from the Equator to waters off northern Europe, ensuring relatively mild weather there. Scientists say if the conveyor collapsed, northern Europe would be plunged into an ice age.

Earlier this year, another CSIRO scientist said global warming was already having an impact on the vast Southern Ocean, posing a threat to myriad ocean currents that distribute heat around the world.

Melting ice-sheets and glaciers in Antarctica are releasing fresh water, interfering with the formation of dense "bottom water," which sinks 4-5 kilometers to the ocean floor and helps drive the world's ocean circulation system.

A slowdown in the system known as "overturning circulation" would affect the way the ocean, which absorbs 85 percent of atmospheric heat, carries heat around the globe, Steve Rintoul, a senior scientist at the CSIRO Division of Marine and Atmospheric Research, said in March.

"Origins Of Life: New Approach Helps Expand Study Of Living Fossils"

The origin of life lies in unique ocean reefs, and scientists from the University of Miami's Rosenstiel School of Marine & Atmospheric Science have developed an approach to help investigate them better. A new article published in the November issue of Geology reveals how Dr. Miriam Andres' stromatolite investigation — the first of its kind — has begun to “fingerprint” ancient microbial pathways, increasing the understanding of how these reef-like structures form and offering a new way to explore the origins of these living records, which are considered to be the core of most living organisms.

Modern marine stromatolites are living examples of one of the earth's oldest and most persistent widespread ecosystems. Although rare today, these layered deposits of calcium carbonate are found in shallow marine seas throughout 3.4 billion-year-old geologic records. Ancient stromatolites represent a mineral record of carbonate chemistry and the evolution of early life. In the Geology paper, Dr. Andres and colleagues point out that incorrect assumptions have been made in interpreting stromatolite data: phototrophs, or oxygen-producers, were actually dominated by heterotrophs, or oxygen-consumers, in their contribution to stromatolite formation.

“The motivation for this study is that in ancient stromatolites, direct evidence of microbial activity is lacking,” Dr. Andres explained. “Stable isotopes have provided a powerful tool to ‘fingerprint’ microbial pathways and better understand the sedimentary structures we see in the geologic record. Surprisingly, no study to date has documented this process for modern marine stromatolites.”

Stromatolites are the oldest known macrofossils, dating back over three billion years. Dominating the fossil record for 80 percent of our planet's history, stromatolites formed massive reefs in this plane's primitive oceans. While stromatolites look much like coral reefs, they are actually formed from living microorganisms, both animal and plant-like. These microorganisms trap and bind sand grains together and/or produce calcium carbonate to form laminated limestone mounds.

“We knew that the stromatolite ecosystem was dominated by photosynthetic cyanobacteria, and expected to see this reflected in a positive carbon isotopic value. However, we saw the exact opposite.” Andres said.

“We still don't understand how stromatolites calicify,” Dr. Andres said, referring to her research plans. “This information will be key to understanding how organisms form skeletons and when this process — leaving lasting impressions of historical biological data — first began.”

More information on stromatolites can be found at http://stromatolites.info.

"Global Warming: A Real Solution"

I haven't read all of this - by ROBERT F. KENNEDY JR. - but I may want to come back to it (this is page one of 6). It looks like it's about what corportations are doing/can do:

In early May, 100 of the nation's top business leaders gathered for a summit at a private resort nestled on 250 acres in California's Napa Valley. The attendees, gathered at the invitation of Silicon Valley venture capitalists, included CEOs and other top executives from such Fortune 500 corporations as Wal-Mart, Proctor & Gamble and BP. They had been invited to discuss ways to end America's fossil-fuel addiction and save the world from global warming. But in reality they had come to make money for their companies ? and that may turn out to be the thing that saves us.
For three days, the executives listened as their colleagues and business rivals described how they are using new technologies to wean themselves from oil and boost their profits in the process. DuPont has cut its climate-warming pollution by seventy-two percent since 1990, slashing $3 billion from its energy bills while increasing its global production by nearly a third. Wal-Mart has installed new, energy-efficient light bulbs in refrigeration units that save the company $12 million a year, and skylights that cut utility bills by up to $70,000 per store. The company, which operates the nation's second-largest corporate truck fleet, also saved $22 million last year just by installing auxiliary power units that allow drivers to operate electric systems without idling their vehicles. In a move with even more far-reaching potential, Wal-Mart has ordered its truck suppliers to double the gas mileage of the company's entire fleet by 2015. When those trucks become available to other businesses, America will cut its demand for oil by six percent.

The executives gathered at the retreat weren't waiting around for federal subsidies or new regulations to tilt the market in their direction. Business logic, not government intervention, was driving them to cut energy costs and invest in new fuel sources. "We haven't even touched the low-hanging fruit yet," Kim Saylors-Laster, the vice president of energy for Wal-Mart, told the assembled CEOs. "We're still getting the fruit that has already fallen from the trees."

As the discussions at the summit demonstrated, America's top executives know something that the Bush administration has yet to realize: America doesn't need to wait for futuristic, pie-in-the-sky technologies to cut its reckless consumption of oil and coal. Our last, best hope to stop climate change is the free market itself. There is gold in going green, and the same drive to make a buck that created global warming in the first place can now be harnessed to slow the carbon-based pollution that is overheating the planet.

And green investment will not just enrich a few corporations. We know from past experience that it will strengthen America's economy, not to mention our national security, our economic independence and the effectiveness of our world leadership. During the oil crisis sparked by OPEC in the 1970s, American business and government went into overdrive to promote conservation and develop alternatives to Middle Eastern oil....

The Venice Biennale

Their outfits remind me of some of my costume stuff. Snips from a NYT blog:

A city where, at least for a few months, art is everywhere. You cannot escape it if you try. Of course, there is a lot of public art in New York, but during the Biennale, Venice becomes indistinguishable from art. Even the owners of the 287-year-old Caffè Florian in St. Mark’s Square commission contemporary art every two years. This time, one of their gilded rococo middle parlors was turned into what looked like a municipal garage, courtesy of two artists from Turin, Gianfranco Botto and Roberta Bruno. There’s even a table in the parlor for customers, although people tend to stare in, look distressed and search for another place to sit.

"Coral reef loss at unprecedented levels"

By Paul Eccleston / from the UK's telegraph

Pacific coral reefs are dying at an unprecedented rate, scientists have found. Almost 600 square miles of reef have disappeared every year since the late 1960s - twice the rate of rainforest loss.

Coral loss had become a global phenomenon caused mainly by climate change, rising sea temperatures and man-made nutrient pollution.

The study's lead author, John Bruno, said: "We have already lost half of the world's reef-building corals."

The results of the study in the central and western Pacific are published in the open-access journal PLoS ONE. It provides the first regional-scale and long-term analysis of coral loss in the region where relatively little was known about patterns of reef loss.

The Indo-Pacific contains 75 per cent of the world's coral reefs and has the highest coral diversity in the world. High coral cover reefs in the Indo-Pacific ocean were common until a few decades ago, researchers found.

The study, which analysed a database of 6,000 quantitative surveys performed between 1968 and 2004 of more than 2,600 Indo-Pacific coral reefs revealed that reefs are disappearing at a rate of one per cent a year, a decline that began decades earlier than expected.

Historically, coral cover, a measure of reef health, hovered around 50 per cent. Today, only about two per cent of reefs in the Indo-Pacific have coral cover close to the historical baseline.

"Pollution Prompts Record Number of Beach Closings Nationwide"

The water at American beaches was unsafe for swimming a record number of days last year, according to the 17th annual beach water quality report released today by the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC). Using data just collected from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the report, “Testing the Waters: A Guide to Water Quality at Vacation Beaches,” tallied more than 25,000 closing and health advisory days at ocean, bay and Great Lakes beaches in 2006. The number of no-swim days caused by stormwater more than doubled from the year before.

“Vacations are being ruined. Families can’t use the beaches in their own communities because they are polluted. Kids are getting sick – all because of sewage and contaminated runoff from outdated, under-funded treatment systems,” said Nancy Stoner, director of NRDC’s water program.

In addition to compiling data on 3,500 U.S. beaches, the report this year takes an especially close look at the nation’s highest risk beaches – those that are either very popular, very close to pollution sources, or both. Of those highest risk beaches, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Rhode Island, and Minnesota ranked the worst for failing to meet national health standards. This new area of focus is the result of a peer review process NRDC undertook with five professionals from local and state health agencies, academia, and the research community. Click here for the full report.

Aging and poorly-designed sewage and storm water systems hold much of the blame for beach water pollution. The problem was compounded by record rainfall, which added to the strain on already overloaded infrastructure. The authors also say that careless urban sprawl in coastal areas is devouring wetlands and other natural buffers such as dunes and beach grass that would otherwise help filter out dangerous pollution.

“A summer rainstorm should not have to mean that endless amounts of pollution are washed down to the beach, or that sewers will overflow. We can fix leaky pipes; we can require costal developers to maintain vegetation to absorb rain. The solutions are out there,” Stoner said.

The Denial Machine

Article in Newsweek

Sen. Barbara Boxer had been chair of the Senate's Environment Committee for less than a month when the verdict landed last February. "Warming of the climate system is unequivocal," concluded a report by 600 scientists from governments, academia, green groups and businesses in 40 countries. Worse, there was now at least a 90 percent likelihood that the release of greenhouse gases from the burning of fossil fuels is causing longer droughts, more flood-causing downpours and worse heat waves, way up from earlier studies. Those who doubt the reality of human-caused climate change have spent decades disputing that. But Boxer figured that with "the overwhelming science out there, the deniers' days were numbered." As she left a meeting with the head of the international climate panel, however, a staffer had some news for her. A conservative think tank long funded by ExxonMobil, she told Boxer, had offered scientists $10,000 to write articles undercutting the new report and the computer-based climate models it is based on. "I realized," says Boxer, "there was a movement behind this that just wasn't giving up."

...outside Hollywood, Manhattan and other habitats of the chattering classes, the denial machine is running at full throttle—and continuing to shape both government policy and public opinion.

Since the late 1980s, this well-coordinated, well-funded campaign by contrarian scientists, free-market think tanks and industry has created a paralyzing fog of doubt around climate change. Through advertisements, op-eds, lobbying and media attention, greenhouse doubters (they hate being called deniers) argued first that the world is not warming; measurements indicating otherwise are flawed, they said. Then they claimed that any warming is natural, not caused by human activities. Now they contend that the looming warming will be minuscule and harmless. "They patterned what they did after the tobacco industry," says former senator Tim Wirth, who spearheaded environmental issues as an under secretary of State in the Clinton administration. "Both figured, sow enough doubt, call the science uncertain and in dispute. That's had a huge impact on both the public and Congress."

Just last year, polls found that 64 percent of Americans thought there was "a lot" of scientific disagreement on climate change; only one third thought planetary warming was "mainly caused by things people do." In contrast, majorities in Europe and Japan recognize a broad consensus among climate experts that greenhouse gases—mostly from the burning of coal, oil and natural gas to power the world's economies—are altering climate. A new NEWSWEEK Poll finds that the influence of the denial machine remains strong. Although the figure is less than in earlier polls, 39 percent of those asked say there is "a lot of disagreement among climate scientists" on the basic question of whether the planet is warming; 42 percent say there is a lot of disagreement that human activities are a major cause of global warming. Only 46 percent say the greenhouse effect is being felt today.

As a result of the undermining of the science, all the recent talk about addressing climate change has produced little in the way of actual action. Yes, last September Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed a landmark law committing California to reduce statewide emissions of carbon dioxide to 1990 levels by 2020 and 80 percent more by 2050. And this year both Minnesota and New Jersey passed laws requiring their states to reduce greenhouse emissions 80 percent below recent levels by 2050. In January, nine leading corporations—including Alcoa, Caterpillar, Duke Energy, Du Pont and General Electric—called on Congress to "enact strong national legislation" to reduce greenhouse gases. But although at least eight bills to require reductions in greenhouse gases have been introduced in Congress, their fate is decidedly murky. The Democratic leadership in the House of Representatives decided last week not even to bring to a vote a requirement that automakers improve vehicle mileage, an obvious step toward reducing greenhouse emissions.......

"UN climate chief calls on rich nations to cut emissions "

PARIS -- The UN's top official on climate change on Friday called on wealthy countries to emulate the European Union (EU) and Japan by offering to slash their carbon emissions at a conference to be hosted by the US next month.

Yvo de Boer, executive secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), said the talks for long-term emissions reductions in Washington on September 27-28, announced by the White House earlier, offered an exceptional chance to break the deadlock for tackling greenhouse gases.

"I view it with a lot of hope and expectation. This is the next step in the process and I am very keen to see where it takes us," de Boer said in an interview from Bonn with AFP.

"I would like to see a serious commitment from industrialized countries that they will go much further [in offering to cut greenhouse-gas pollution] than what they have already proposed."

De Boer singled out as a model the EU, which has committed itself to cutting its own emissions by 20 percent by 2020 and promised to deepen this to 30 percent if other big polluters follow suit, and Japan which wants the world to halve emissions by 2050.

The Washington conference, gathering major emitters in the rich and developing world as well as representatives from other big emerging economies, will be hosted by US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and be addressed by President George W. Bush.

The goal is to agree on "a detailed contribution for a new global framework by the end of 2008" and this in turn would feed into a global deal under the UNFCCC, Bush said in his invitation, announced on Friday.

Under Bush, the United States has refused to ratify the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, which requires rich countries to curb greenhouse gases blamed for global warming.

The absence of the world's No. 1 polluter has nearly crippled the treaty, and its future beyond 2012, when its present commitment period runs out, is also uncertain.

Negotiations on the post-2012 treaty take place in Bali, Indonesia, in December under the UNFCCC, which is Kyoto's parent.

The process has been dogged by two problems -- how far big developing countries, such as China, India and Brazil, will pledge to tackle their own pollution, and the unwillingness of the United States to embrace the Kyoto principle of mandatory cuts.

Bush unveiled his initiative ahead of the Group of Eight (G8) summit in Heiligendamm, Germany, in June.

His scheme stirred anxieties among Kyoto's European champions that he sought to subvert the UNFCCC and exclude poor countries by limiting the deal to rich countries.

De Boer said he did not feel any concern on that score, as the G8 summit made clear that the multilateral process was paramount.

"I would describe President Bush as taking climate change by the horns, but I want to see where he and the bull go," he admitted, however.

Bush has always opposed the Kyoto Protocol, arguing its binding caps on emissions would be too costly for the oil-dependent US economy.

He also said it was unfair, as its present format only requires industrial countries, and not fast-growing emerging economies such as China and India, to make such pledges.

These countries reply that they will tackle their pollution as much as they can, provided it does not hurt their rise out of poverty and rich countries, which are historically to blame for global warming, shoulder the main burden.

Urban Photographer Michael Wolf

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I saw one of Wolf's images on the Reclusive Leftist's blog. Mostly straight on details of buildings.

Some photos show a building where there is no evidence of people - it may appear more pristene, new. In others the residents and/or their belongings are more and less obvious. The sense of those is people trying to cope in a small space without air conditioning, perhaps. A building in decline.

"Russians Plant Flag on the Arctic Seabed"

By C. J. CHIVERS / from The New York Times

MOSCOW — A Russian expedition descended in a pair of submersible vessels more than two miles under the ice cap on Thursday and deposited a Russian flag on the seabed at the North Pole. The dive was a symbolic move to enhance the government’s disputed claim to nearly half of the floor of the Arctic Ocean and potential oil or other resources there.

The expedition, covered intensely by Russian news organizations and state-controlled television, mixed high-seas adventure with the long Russian tradition of polar exploration. But it was also an openly choreographed publicity stunt.

Inside the first of the mini-submarines to reach the sea floor were two members of Russia’s lower house of Parliament. One of them, Artur N. Chilingarov, led the expedition to seek evidence reinforcing Russia’s claim over the largely uncharted domain. That claim, which has no current legal standing, rests on a Russian assertion that the seabed under the pole, called the Lomonosov Ridge, is an extension of Russia’s continental shelf and thus Russian territory.

At least one country with a stake in the issue registered its immediate disapproval of the expedition. “This isn’t the 15th century,” Peter MacKay, Canada’s foreign minister, said on CTV television. “You can’t go around the world and just plant flags and say, ‘We’re claiming this territory.’ ”

Russia submitted its claim in 2001 to an international commission, which has ruled that the available data is not sufficient to support it. But Russia has pressed on.

“We must determine the border, the most northerly of the Russian shelf,” Mr. Chilingarov said on national television before the dive, which was billed as the first of its sort — a descent into the inky darkness far beneath a large window cut into the ice sheet by a nuclear-powered ice breaker.

After resurfacing more than eight hours later, Mr. Chilingarov spoke as if he had been the first to the moon. “If a hundred or a thousand years from now someone goes down to where we were, they will see the Russian flag,” he said. The flag is reproduced in titanium. He later added, “Our task is to remind the world that Russia is a great Arctic and scientific power.”

The day’s events underscored both Russia’s restored sense of confidence and the international competition for access, influence and extraction rights in the far north, which has intensified as oil and gas prices have surged and as trends in global warming have encouraged speculation that the region could become more navigable...

Five countries — Canada, Denmark, Norway, Russia and the United States — have territory in the Arctic Circle and under international convention have rights to economic zones within 200 miles of their borders. Denmark has sent its own scientific expeditions to study the opposite end of the ocean-spanning ridge and to seek proof that it is torn from the continental shelf north of Greenland, which is a Danish territory.

Several other countries seek to extend their influence in the circle, seeing the mostly unpopulated region’s potential for providing a hydrocarbon and mineral rush. The ultimate demarcation, if geologists’ estimates of its deposits prove true, could be a key to future national wealth and power...

"Monsanto Goes GMO-Free - in its Cafeteria"

UNITED KINGDOM. From now on, staff at the British headquarters of biotech giant Monsanto will be eating only non-genetically modified products on their lunch breaks. Foods containing genetically modified soy and corn are no longer available in the company cafeteria. Granada Food Services, which manages the canteen, is said to be concerned about health risks. Monsanto's press department contends the action was not the result of a boycott initiated by worried employees of theU.S. multinational.

"Scientists issue warning about chemical in plastic"

By Marla Cone / From The LA Times

In an unusual effort targeting a single chemical, several dozen scientists on Thursday issued a strongly worded consensus statement warning that an estrogen-like compound in plastic is likely to be causing an array of serious reproductive disorders in people.

The compound, bisphenol A or BPA, is one of the highest-volume chemicals in the world and has found its way into the bodies of most human beings.

Used to make hard plastic, BPA can seep from beverage containers and other materials. It is used in all polycarbonate plastic baby bottles, as well as other rigid plastic items, including large water cooler containers, sports bottles and microwave oven dishes, along with canned food liners and some dental sealants for children.

The scientists -- including four from federal health agencies -- reviewed about 700 studies before concluding that people are exposed to levels of the chemical exceeding those that harm lab animals. Infants and fetuses are most vulnerable, they said.

The statement, published online by the journal Reproductive Toxicology, was accompanied by a new study by researchers from the National Institutes of Health finding uterine damage in newborn animals exposed to BPA. That damage is a possible predictor of reproductive diseases in women, including fibroids, endometriosis, cystic ovaries and cancers. It is the first time BPA has been linked to female reproductive tract disorders, although earlier studies have found early-stage prostate and breast cancer and decreased sperm counts in animals exposed to low doses.

The scientists' statement and new study -- along with five accompanying scientific reviews that summarize the 700 studies -- intensify a highly contentious debate over whether the plastic compound poses a public threat. So far no governmental agency here or abroad has restricted its use.

"India monsoon floods toll tops 1,000"

Update: 19+ million displaced

NEW DELHI The death toll caused by monsoon rains in India topped the 1,000 mark on Friday with new victims reported from northern Uttar Pradesh state, officials said.

Twenty-one deaths occurred overnight in three eastern Uttar Pradesh districts hardest hit by the heavy flooding, relief commissioner Umesh Sinha told AFP.

The figures brought to 1,028 the number of people reported killed nationwide in the annual torrential rains that begin in June and last until September, according to figures from officials and media reports.

Deaths were also reported in the states of Bihar, West Bengal and Assam.

"The situation is under control now," Sinha said after announcing 1,650 paramilitary and army personnel had been deployed along with civilian rescue teams to help 1.4 million flood-hit people.

Many rivers were in spate, breaching embankments and dykes, Sinha said.

The weather office in Lucknow, capital of Uttar Pradesh state, forecast more rain for the region with "heavy to very heavy rains expected in the next 24 hours."

The monsoon regularly brings flooding to India but this year has seen some of the worst in recent times with the north and east of the country particularly hard hit.

In neighbouring Bihar state, chief minister Nitish Kumar described the flood situation as "grim" with more than seven million people cut off by overflowing rivers.

"It's not possible to reach all the people by boat. The only alternative is airdropping relief material," Kumar said of the state's worst-hit Darbhanga district.

"Sixteen of the state's 38 districts are under water. That means some 3,614 villages are affected," A.K Chowdhury, Bihar chief secretary told AFP by phone.

Flooding has destroyed crops planted over 630,000 hectares (1.6 million acres) and early estimates suggest losses of 450 million rupees (11 million dollars) in the state, he said.

"The flood situation is very very serious, the situation we have now is unprecedented in the past 30 years," Chowdhury said.

Worst July on record for Europe forest fires: EU

With the European forest fire season barely underway, EU figures show that last month was the worst July on record and one of the worst months ever recorded for outbreaks.
The news came as Spain confirmed that a a 44-year-old female firefighter had become the first victim of the forest fires sweeping Spain.

Spain's Canary Islands are meanwhile continuing to battle two major fires which have ravaged some 350 square kilometres (135 square miles) of land in recent days and forced the evacuation of thousands of people.

The situation in southwest Europe, which had relatively moderate conditions in July, "has changed dramatically, particularly in the south of the Iberian Peninsula and the Canary Islands" in recent days, the European Commission said in a statement.

Experts have warned that the fires on Spain's Canary islands are an environmental catastrophe with some 20 percent of forests on the islands of Tenerife and Gran Canaria burned. Reforestation is expected to take years.

The Gran Canaria fire is the largest in the history of the archipelago.

Provisional figures from the European Forest Fire Information System show that 3,376 square kilometres of land has already been burned in Europe this year, compared to a total of 3,585 square kilometres in 2006, with July 2007 one of the worst-ever months on record, said European Commission spokeswoman Antonia Mochan.

Bulgaria, Croatia, Greece and Italy were also badly hit by the forest fires, accounting for over 2,200 square kilometres of the devastation.

The most recent Spanish fires were not included in the EU figures released Thursday.

"In order to seek help with fighting its forest fires, Spain has invoked the International Charter on major disasters" that aims to proved a unified system of satellite imagery to help those affected by natural or man-made disasters, Mochan told reporters.

EFFIS, which monitors forest fires in 19 EU and non-EU countries, forecasts continued risk from forest fires for the days ahead. Its record goes back over 20 years for some EU nations with other countries including Finland providing information for only the past few years.

Rising sea levels threaten Torres Strait islands

By Peter Michael / from news.com.au

GLOBAL warming is not just a theory in Torres Strait – it is lapping at people's doorsteps.

The phenomenon is a visible reality as rising sea levels threaten to erase centuries-old island communities.

Roads have been swallowed whole, buildings washed out, graveyards swamped and houses flooded in six of the most vulnerable low-lying island communities.

Authorities have ordered evacuation and relocation plans for more than 2000 people who face losing their land and livelihood from the invading sea.

"These islands are sinking," Torres Shire Mayor Pedro Stephen said yesterday.

"People are looking at options of building on stilts or even floating pontoons because of the rising sea levels.

"And this is the heartbreaking thing, this generation or the next may have to leave behind all they have ever known, all because of global warming."

Scientists predict warmer sea temperatures (thermal expansion) and the meting of the ice caps will contribute to a sea-level rise of between 9cm and 88cm in the next 50 years.

Some parts of the most vulnerable islands – Masig (Yorke), Poruma (Coconut), Warraber, Yam, Saibai and Boigu – are today less than 1m above sea level.

Mother-of-two Helen Mosby, 21, of Yorke Island, yesterday showed Brisbane's The Courier-Mail newspaper the dramatic impact of global warming on her island home.

"You can see where the ocean has eaten up the road," said Ms Mosby walking with son Josiah, 5.

"It is a big change, and it seems to be getting worse in the past two years or so."