The Pacific nation of Kiribati… is disappearing underwater. Tarawa, the atoll where nearly half the country’s population lives, could soon disappear.
There is no evidence at all for that ABC claim.
Even former Kiribati President Anote Tong, flogging the warming scare on the ABC, could not pretend the ABC claim was true the last time it was trotted out:
Fran Kelly: What is the situation now, how perilous is it?
Tong: …I’ve always been very frank and honest to say I don’t see the sea level rising…
Kelly: Your successor … has been quoted saying climate change is indeed a serious problem, but we don’t believe that Kiribati will sink like the Titanic ship. Our beautiful lands are created by the hands of God. Does it make it difficult for you to criticise governments abroad and campaign on this when you’re own government appears to be questioning the impacts of climate change?
So there is zero evidence for the ABC’s claim that Kiribati is sinking, but there is plenty of evidence for the opposite – that such low-lying atoll islands are not sinking, but growing.
From a new paper by Virginie K. E. Duvat, of the Institut du Littoral et de l’Environnement, University of la Rochelle, France:
A reanalysis of available data, which cover 30 Pacific and Indian Ocean atolls including 709 islands, reveals that no atoll lost land area and that 88.6% of islands were either stable or increased in area, while only 11.4% contracted…
Over the recent past, 29 atolls exhibited a stable land area, while one (South Tarawa, Kiribati) increased in size
This confirms earlier studies:
Professor Paul Kench and Dr Arthur Webb studied 27 atoll islands in the central Pacific over a period of up to 60 years. They said: “Results show that 86% of islands remained stable (43%) or increased in area (43%) over the timeframe of analysis.”
So why does the ABC keep making false claims about sinking Pacific islands when the science is so clear? Ignorance or deceit?
