Have you heard about the island that disappeared under the sea off of the Indian coast? An article on Wikipedia reports that In 1974, U.S. satellites picked up this tiny island and estimated its size at 27,000 square feet. It grew to about 110,000 square feet in size at low tide and its elevation above sea level was never more than about 2 miters at low tide.
The BBC, Associated Press, LA Times and many others are reporting that this island disappearance has been caused by global warming (oops, I mean climate change). But it is very interesting that this island did not exist until after the Bhola cyclone in 1970. The claim is that the ocean has been rising at a rate of 5mm per year since around the year 2000 and 3mm per year before that.
Now I have a few questions to ask. If it is "global warming" that has caused the ocean to rise and submerge this island, was it not "global cooling" that caused the ocean to lower and therefore expose this island"? This island is located at the mouth of the river Hariabhanga that is the border between India and Bangladesh. This whole region is nothing but deltas and mangroves. Could this possibly be just another delta island, like many around the world, that comes and goes according to the flow of the river and the tides?
What about the math? Reportedly, this island was only 2 miters high at low tide. One miter equals 1000 millimeters, therefore, at most this island was 2000mm high at low tide. It became an island sometime after 1970 and by 1974 could be seen by satellite. The Daily Star reported that in 1981 the Indian government sent a navy ship and raised the Indian flag to claim the island for India. Now, let's just say that the island has been sinking ever since 1981. From 1981 until 2010 would be 29 years. Let's also say that the rate of ocean rise has been 5mm per year since 1981; 29 years times 5mm per year would equal 145mm rise on the island since 1981. If the island was 2000mm at low tide and the ocean has risen 145mm in the 29 years, is it really global warming that has sunk this island?
The problem here is not whether islands are disappearing or not, but that the press is biased in its reporting of the global warming/climate change debate. The media are doing a disservice to the people who read their articles and watch their programs, when they just blindly report these claims of global warming as fact without any investigation into the validity of the science behind these claims. The recent scandals in the meteorological science world should put the media on notice that the information being passed on to them from the scientists needs to be confirmed by independent sources. The very least that the media should do is to provide opposing views of these events and allow the public to make an informed decision.
