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Last updated on August 8th, 2017 at 02:54 pm
A letter to the Independent:
Sir: Your environment editor, Geoffrey Lean, recently informed us that the Indian island of Lohachara had been washed off the face of the earth by global warming. According to Mr. Lean, Lohachara’s vanishing “marks the moment when one of the most apocalyptic predictions of environmentalists and climate scientists has started coming true.”
When did this event occur, exactly? And why wasn’t that date included in Mr. Lean’s article?
Yours,
Tim Blair
Any response will be published in full.
- No “Yours in Science” signoff? Science damn you to hell, Blair.Posted by Some0Seppo on 2006 12 26 at 10:54 AM • permalink
- Hey, global warmers, how about more scientific facts and less drama queen scare tactics?
Smith Island, in the Chesapeake Bay, has been eroding atleast since colonial times as observed by the inhabitants. Why should we believe that the effect of tides suddenly stopped in recent years and global warming became the prime force?
- Dear Mr. Blair:
We have received yours of December 26th and feel obliged to point out that Mr. Geoffrey Lean has worked very hard to create a pretty little word picture in support of the near-unanimous conclusion of legitimate scientists that the effects of climate change are far more extensive and pernicious than previously suspected, either by scientists or by laymen such as yourself. Not only was Lohachara washed away, but, as will be addressed in a future article, Lilliput and Blefuscu, as well, the latter catastrophe destroying the great promise held out by a nascent metalworking industry specializing in the manufacture of eyes for shoelaces (“The Great Lilliput and Blefuscu Hoopworks”).
The fact that it took two decades to report on the destruction of Lohachara is a condemnation of the Anglo-centric focus of our society, a short-coming which Mr. Lean is helping to correct through his articles on the effects of climate change in out-of-the-way places around the world.
Sincerely yours,
Percival Pooter-Grimsby
Senior Editor
The Independent
- What I think is funny is how homocentric (?, focused on man) these environmental scares are. The world has been around presumably for 4 billion years. Man has been around (depending on how you measure) for 100,000 years. During all that time, just as one example, asteroids and comets have been whizzing by the planet. But suddenly, through scientific advancement, we discover the possibility exists of being hit and people are convinced it’s going to happen in the next two years, or ten, or twenty and wipe people off the face of the earth. Then there’s the ozone layer. No sooner have we discovered it than suddenly it’s in danger of disappearing forever in our lifetime (or much sooner). Now we discover the earth may be heating up. Ten seconds later we’ve decided it’s all our fault, we’re all doomed, and humanity is going to perish in our lifetime.
I guess my question is what are the odds that we would discover a new problem and then another new problem and then another new problem ad infinitum at the exact point where that problem is going to doom us forever unless we do something about it right that second? That is, considering the world has been here 4 billion years and man for 100,000?
It seems awful lucky to me. What I think it indicates is that the tail is wagging the dog and (as I mentioned in a previous post) some people have an inherent psychological need to feel like they’re living on the edge of doom. Environmental drama queens, as it were.
- Tides rise, Islands sink
Global warming do-ya think?
Fanning fears is fun!
Blaming capitalistic oil burning western white folks –
Ignoring Mr Sun.
Where are the factories on Venus?
Where are the SUVs on Mars?
Tell me what is the common factor?
Shit-for-brains, you know it isn’t cars!
Sun set sun rise
Climate change, no surprise
This is nothing new
Go have a chat with a geologist
He will explain it all to you.Hey Grimmy we could make them forget Lerner & Lowe!
- Maybe we could use this technique to justify the war on terror.
“In an unprecedented attack on US soil, Islamist terrorists have felled the Twin Towers in New York city, killing thousands.” Run that every few weeks until the Greenies (ever associated with the pacifists, at least in my mind) are convinced that the war is worth fighting.
- #23 paco
And don’t you forget it! There’s only one person around here qualified to have “Evil” appended to his name, and it ain’t the boiler-room chief.
Who? Wronright?
Posted by Spiny Norman on 2006 12 26 at 01:35 PM • permalink
- With water levels shooting upwards at several millimeters a year it’s a wonder nobody was killed.
The island was “obliterated” like the super-continent of Pangaea was obliterated when it “exploded” into the various continents that exist today.
I guess these people are now homeless because no more dry land exists to inhabit.
- #28: No, Spines, yours truly. We’re talking Paco Enterprises, here, not RoveWorld. In the latter, they hand out “evil” appelations like Halloween candy.
Appropriately enough, I just received a Christmas gift from a client. When I opened the box, it looked like the crime lab had mistakenly sent me some forensic evidence in a three-year old murder case; the object resembled a malformed skull. On closer examination, the thing turns out to be some kind of seashell with barnacles on it. Last year, he sent me turkey feathers. Of course, he does live in California . . .
We’re talking Paco Enterprises, here, not RoveWorld. In the latter, they hand out “evil” appelations like Halloween candy.
…Halloween candy…. :^D
Posted by Spiny Norman on 2006 12 26 at 01:56 PM • permalink
- #11 kcom
The global warmists are positively pre-Copernican, aren’t they? Convinced that the world revolves around their very own cars, their very own lifestyle, etc., when in fact the world is so vastly much larger and indifferent.
One can only presume that the belief that one is living on the edge of world destruction—and that one is a prophet of that destruction—is flattering to their sense of self-importance.
Posted by cobalt blue on 2006 12 26 at 02:00 PM • permalink
The global warmists are positively pre-Copernican, aren’t they?
Pre-Copernican Glowball Warmeningists. Rousseau would be so proud…
Posted by Spiny Norman on 2006 12 26 at 02:45 PM • permalink
- There’s a letter in this morning’s SMH (‘Meat the Culprit’):
… livestock production is at the heart of almost every other environmental catastrophe confronting the planet – rainforest destruction, the growth of deserts, loss of fresh water, air and water pollution, acid rain and soil erosion …
Humans aren’t destroying the world; it’s Mother Nature herself!
- I blame the Romans (Roveans??)
http://www.underwaterdiscovery.org/Sitemap/Project/Alexandria/Default.aspx
Posted by thefrollickingmole on 2006 12 26 at 05:26 PM • permalink
- I know this will come as a shock but riverine islands dissapear and appear all the time with all kinds of consequences for static thinking.
I recall China and Russia had a real shooting war in the 1970s over a river island that was shown on maps but no longer existed (in the Amur river).
Global warming may cause you to get (slightly) wet feet, but riverine action could have wiped all humanity had the peace-loving communist nuclear powers decided to escalate.
- on the positive side, its always possible that wizened old mystics are even now heading this way to share the fruits of their ancient wisdom with usPosted by eeniemeenie on 2006 12 26 at 05:52 PM • permalink
- Well, I’m back from my Christmas sojurn to visit releatives! The drive west was wet until I hit the Cascades, and then it was snow. But decent weather, overall.
The drive back, though, was miserable. One section of the interstate was slick as could be, with lotsa snow. The rest of the way, rain rain rain.
Glerbal Worming, where are you? :-/
Posted by The_Real_JeffS on 2006 12 26 at 05:57 PM • permalink
- BTW, I expect the envirotards to blame glahbel werming for this lost island any day now. That sort of logic is about the level of their discourse right now, with Mr. Lean leading the pack.Posted by The_Real_JeffS on 2006 12 26 at 06:00 PM • permalink
- More gerbil worming, pre-industrial revolution.
http://www.abc.se/~pa/uwa/sunkcity.htm
http://www.atlantisrising.com/issue13/ar13japanunder.html
http://www.andrewcollins.com/page/articles/lostcity.htmAn Indian one.
http://www.hermetics.org/cambay.htmlThats from 5 minutes using Google. Does that make me a better journo than the Independent have the internet yet?
Posted by thefrollickingmole on 2006 12 26 at 06:15 PM • permalink
- #52: Enough of all this. A bit of maturity please.
Hey! Speaking on behalf of the typical commenter here, I resent that!
- Anyone remember Surtsey? I recall watching zillions (or so it seemed at the time) of documentaries about that island rising from the sea… and since the early seventies or so, it’s been eroding away again.
Probably an early experiment by Halliburton. Or Rove, if there’s any difference. Or even Paco.
Posted by Steve Skubinna on 2006 12 26 at 08:46 PM • permalink
- From the Independent:
“It has been officially recorded in a six-year study of the Sunderbans by researchers at Calcutta’s Jadavpur University. So remote is the island that the researchers first learned of its submergence, and that of an uninhabited neighbouring island, Suparibhanga, when they saw they had vanished from satellite pictures.”It’s now official because some crackpot with a grant looking at a satellite images on his computer screen in his office at Jadavpur University noticed these islands were there anymore? So remote were these islands, that 10,000 people lived on them, they were in the middle of the same Hooghly River that serves as a vital sea link for the upstream port city of Calcutta with hundreds of thousands living along its banks in one of the most densely populated areas of the world and is a mere 35 miles as the crow flies from the Jadavpu University, home of these same researchers.
Methinks Lean is applying remoteness to the wrong subjects.
But if these researchers actually did what normal people call research, they would have seen that the Hooghly moved in the last 60 odd years, the islands got in the River’s way and the Hooghly decided it was time for them to move on. But the Hooghly is nothing if not merciful, and has replaced the Lohachara, Suparibhanga (also known as Bedford) with two other islands on the opposite side of the Hooghly navigational channel—one as large as the three old ones combined—which is a testament to the fact the rising ocean has little to do with it.
Here’s the map overlay, Tim, which I mentioned in the comments of your post about Fox News being scammed before realizing you’ve updated here.
- #56 – yes, I was in Iceland for a year in 74/75 and saw it then. As I mentioned in a previous thread, it is still going although its land mass has halved. Its neighbour Jolnir disappeared in 1966.Posted by Whale Spinor on 2006 12 26 at 10:14 PM • permalink
- Two days ago I emailed the following letter to the Independent:
“The only rational response to the article by your Environment Editor reporting on islands allegedly disappearing because of global warming and rising seas is to sack the editor in question. Simply put, he is a scientific ignoramus.
Islands in the Sundarbans, as elsewhere in the Ganges delta, form, change and vanish naturally because the entire area is a notably dynamic river delta. Sea level rise has nothing to do with the process.
The Carteret Islands of Papua New Guinea are sinking because of their unfortunate location on the cusp of a tectonic plate collision, not because of any rising sea levels.
And those islands in Kiribati which allegedly vanished beneath the waves eight years ago are an environmental myth. I lived in Tarawa for the first three years of this century, and made it my business to enquire into the fate of the islands in question. I have news for Mr Lean: the islands still exist. They are in fact coral sand cays in the Tarawa lagoon – and yes, they have been dynamically eroded by waves and currents, but such changes resulted from the construction of a 3.4 km causeway between the islets of Betio and Bairiki (where I lived). This causeway altered the pattern of waves and currents in nearby parts of the lagoon, thereby altering the size and shape of the cays. But they are still above the water, and Bikeman at least can still be visited by small boats.
The propagation of such environmental myths can only damage the environmental cause.
Sincerely, etc”
[Kurmudgeon]Bet they don’t publish it.
Posted by Kurmudgeon on 2006 12 26 at 11:19 PM • permalink
- The Earth is much cooler now compared to 4.6 billion years ago.Posted by flying pigs over mecca on 2006 12 27 at 12:52 AM • permalink
- #40 Ian Deans
Humans aren’t destroying the world; it’s Mother Nature herself!
Even if it is Humans, shouldn’t Mother Nature be able to control her children in public?
Posted by flying pigs over mecca on 2006 12 27 at 12:58 AM • permalink
- Was it 22 years ago?
http://cities.expressindia.com/fullstory.php?newsid=207343Close to Jana’s hut is another witness to the misery after the rising sea submerged the islands of Lohachara and Bedford 22 years ago.
Close to Jana’s hut is another witness to the misery after the rising sea submerged the islands of Lohachara and Bedford 22 years ago.
Shhhhh! He was saving Bedford for the next alarmist article!
Posted by AlburyShifton on 2006 12 27 at 02:26 AM • permalink
- #61 Kurmudgeon
Ouch! That’s gonna leave a bruise!
Posted by Spiny Norman on 2006 12 27 at 02:41 AM • permalink
- #33 Cobalt Blue
“One can only presume that the belief that one is living on the edge of world destruction—and that one is a prophet of that destruction—is flattering to their sense of self-importance.”
I agree with you there. It seems to be the only semi-rational explanation. Not that it makes much sense, but there’s no better explanation I can come up with. However, as I also said in another thread, I’m just plain tired of their yapping. Ooh, there’s a new theory… (think little dog syndrome)
- A long, long time ago
I can still remember
How “earth in balance” used to make me smile.
And I knew with but fewer cars
We could heal those strip-mine scars
And maybe save the dodos
For awhileBut carbon emissions compounded my sorrow
Would the oceans freeze like “The Day After Tomorrow?”
Would we play hockey in Bangalore?
Or worse, endure a visit from Al Gore?I can’t recall a shriller whine
Than I read in Sunday’s Independent Online
The predicted rise! Eco-disaster sublime!
Pity it happened
In Reagan’s
TimeSo bye-bye
Lohachara sweet isle
Took your chances with the Ganges
In the Bay of Bengal
But water washed away foundations of sand
It’s Nature, not the doings of man
Nature, not the doings of manPosted by Mr. Bingley on 2006 12 27 at 08:48 AM • permalink
- #74 Thank you, kind sir (or madam!)!
(makes note to paco to send you backstage passes)
Posted by Mr. Bingley on 2006 12 27 at 02:17 PM • permalink
- #11, #36, #55
To clear up the homo/homo confusion:
homo in Greek means ‘same.’ Hence ‘homosexual’ (same sex) and ‘homogenous’ (same nature).
homo in Latin means ‘man.’ Hence ‘homo sapiens’ (thinking man) and ‘homicide’ (man killing).
English borrows (heh) from both roots, which can make matters quite confusing at times.
- The Courier-Mail in Brisbane, date 28 December 2006, carries a letter (I can’t find a link) saying:
I have not seen any reports of the first inhabited island to be lost to global warming on Christmas Eve. Lochara Island in India was once home to 10,000 people. We live in sad times.
I am looking forward immensely to reading tomorrow’s letters page.
- MuzzieZapper wrote:
The Earth is much cooler now compared to 4.6 billion years ago.
Probably much warmer now compared to, oh, about 6 or 7 billion years ago. If only Halliburton’s mismanagement hadn’t caused some supernovae here and there…
Posted by Patrick Chester on 2006 12 28 at 02:19 AM • permalink
MuzzieZapper wrote:
The Earth is much cooler now compared to 4.6 billion years ago.
Probably much warmer now compared to, oh, about 6 or 7 billion years ago. If only Halliburton’s mismanagement hadn’t caused some supernovae here and there…Actually, the chaos of weather instability seems to be accelerating. In many places across the globe, it is much colder than it was as recently as six months ago. In other places it is much warmer.
Current computer models tend to indicate that such huge fluctuations on semi-annual scale, will be the new “normal”.
There is no way that humanity can adapt in time to such varied temprature swings, year in and year out. Civilization is doomed, unless we retreat into domes.
- Gee, here I was thinking that rivers changed their course and banks every so often. If they didn’t, the US Army Corps of Engineers wouldn’t have to spend so much time and money and effort on levies and dredging etc on the Missisippi to keep it on the straight and narrow.
Closer to home, a billabong is formed when a river changes course and part of the old river bed is cut off. Billabongs appear and disappear, sand bars form and move (hence the need in the old days for a bit of depth sounding and ‘mark twain’) and islands come and go.
It’s as normal as the tide going in and out.
(Hell – the tide came in. The water came up the beach. I saw it with my own eyes. Must be evidence of global warming!)
Posted by mr creosote on 2006 12 28 at 06:33 AM • permalink
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You sound skeptical.