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Everyone is talking about global warming but you figure that it is really nothing. You have heard all those gloom and doom stories about it, but you have yet to see any difference in anything, maybe you even feel that this is just a bunch of nonsense? The subject does seem very removed from us and we are a people that need to see proof. It has been a couple of years now that we have been hearing that the Polar ice is melting and that the oceans will rise and temperatures will change and even that this will bring on a cold spell that will increase global warming. The cold spell coming before the warm spell is particularly hard for most of us to understand. Oh there may be little signs that we have all seen like the better weather in the northern part of the U.S. or all those hurricanes appearing down south but for the most part it is business as usual.

We are fooling ourselves folks, there are changes going on and they are happening to little places and that is why we haven't noticed them yet. Some islands in the Pacific Ocean are beginning to go under water. These are not just unpopulated islands but they are populated with people and animals. These people are about to lose their life long homes and their way of life. Not only that, but at least one of them is about to sue the U.S. and Australia for creating global warming which is causing them to lose their homes. This island nation is Tuvalu. They want the rest of the Caribbean and Indian Ocean nations to join them in this suit. Tuvalu is a chain of islands, 9 coral atolls to be exact and their highest point is only 9 feet above sea level. They claim that their call for support in their suit is succeeding with many nations. The basis for the suit, they claim, is the the U.S. and Australia are the world's biggest polluters. Here is the strange thing, the nation claims that the water hasn't risen yet but the storms have become more fierce and they are spraying salt water all over the island ruining the farm land and that it is just a matter of time before the ocean rises and engulfs the island chain.

The Kyoto Agreement that many nations said they would accept has set levels for pollution and Tuvalu is not suing any nation that accepted the accord. It seems that they have never considered the fact that many nations who accepted have only give the accord lip service and have never met the requirements of the agreement. The U.S. could have very easily said it would accept and just not ever reached the accord's goals as many other countries have done. It is very easy to say yes and just not comply.

Some island nations that are facing drowning have asked Australia to accept their populations. It is felt that within one decade some of these islands will be uninhabitable because they will be under water. Ironic as it is, the nation that is suing Australia, Tuvalu, has asked Australia to accept it's people twice and twice Australia has said no. Maybe if they would not talk about suing, they would get a more favorable response from Australia. All is not darkest for Tuvalu however, since New Zealand has agreed to accept all their people. Canada has also agreed to fund the relocation of residents of parts of Vanuatu. Can you imagine if any of the people from those Pacific Islands moved to Canada. I think they wouldn't be too happy there. It is not that the Canadians would not be friendly, it is merely the fact of temperature, they would freeze since they are so used to warm weather.

It seems that Australia is experiencing hotter and hotter temperatures. Experts say that this is a sure sign of global warming. The people that lived on the Carteret Islands in PNG have already been moved to Bougainville. Pacific Rim nations are trying to work out some sort of plan to accept island populations so that these people will have somewhere to go. This is just not a question of moving, but a questing of maintaining one's culture. Will Australia want to take in people that are not willing to adopt the Australian culture and want to maintain their own?

How much will the water rise, according to the experts? The stated amount of rise in the Pacific Ocean is 32 centimeters by 2050. This is high enough to sink a number of Pacific Islands. What does this mean in the English system of measuring things? 32 centimeters is about 12.6 inches.

It is a very scary though that entire island countries are going to disappear and disappear with the next ten years. The world as we know it is going to change. We also have to remember that there are islands in the Atlantic Ocean and some of them have millions of people on them. One has just to look at Long Island, New York, U.S.A. to see what I am talking about. Can you imagine the heartbreak and financial loss when global warming begins to affect it. If global warming is to be taken seriously then we must make plans to protect our low lying lands and we must help those who have been forced to move. We have to remember that this country is also on the Pacific Ocean and we should also do our part in helping these poor people.