Frisian Island Of Sylt Loses 800K Cubic Meters Of Sand In Two Months To Storms, Flooding - IPS

[hatrack]

BERLIN, Feb 17 (Tierramérica) - Sylt, the largest of Germany's Frisian islands, in the North Sea, lost at least 800,000 cubic metres of sand from its beaches in the last two months, because of heavy storms and flooding that have marked the northern hemisphere autumn and winter seasons.

On the other side of the planet, in the south-western Pacific Ocean, Tuvalu, a tiny archipelago of nine atolls and reefs, with the highest point just five metres above sea level, is suffering a similar loss of land, and for the same reasons. "Tuvalu is drowning!" is the alarm that the island's officials have been sounding for years.

Sylt, Tuvalu and dozens of other islands, like those of the Caribbean, are the most vulnerable to the continued rise in the Earth's average temperatures, which according to the Fourth Assessment report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), presented Feb. 2 in Paris, could reach a 4-degree Celsius increase by 2100.

EDIT

The 800,000 cubic metres of sand washed out to sea in recent weeks reversed part of a beach recovery carried out on Sylt last year. Similar rehabilitation efforts have taken place regularly for years. Jensen warns that the disappearance of Sylt, which covers 90 square km and whose highest point is 52 metres above sea level, would constitute a serious threat to the continental coastline. "Sylt is a natural wave break. If it disappears, the waves will directly hit the continent."

EDIT

http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=36618

[XemaSab]

1. And how much silt did they lose?

:shrug:
















































:evilgrin:

[kestrel91316]

2. BAD XemaSab!

[kestrel91316]

3. Those useless islands are just in the way of progress. If they

can't survive without socialist governments stealing our money and spending it on some boondoggle, they don't deserve to survive.

I'm gonna go count my money now. Taxes are for the Little People.