Is there a name for all those little islands(and some not so little) in the south Pacific? It may or may not include Australia. I've heard the term Oceania, but could someone clarify this for me?
There are a bunch of them.. Micronesia..others i guess. Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! i'm not sure sorry
It will be a moot point once the ice caps disappear. Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! They will all be seamounts by then.
case in point The tiny Pacific island nation of Tuvalu may sue the Australian government and corporations over the issue of climate change. Tuvalu, which has a population of about 12,000 people, is sinking because of rising sea levels believed to be caused by global warming. Tuvalu foreign secretary Tine Leuleu said at the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting on Queensland's Sunshine Coast that Australia could be sued because it was a major polluter. Tuvalu appealed on Sunday to regional power Australia to take a tougher stance against global warming that threatens to sink the low-lying island nation. Prime Minister Koloa Talake said Australia's government, which has expressed sympathy with Washington's rejection of the 1997 Kyoto Treaty on climate change, should consider the danger posed by pollution and rising sea levels. "It's very sad, disappointing to see Australia...tearing away and leaning more (towards) the United States," Talake told a news conference at a Commonwealth leaders summit here on Australia's Pacific coast. "I would like to see that Australia considers its position towards the situation... of island countries." Tuvalu, a string of nine islands and atolls, barely reaches more than five metres above sea level. It says it will disappear under the waves within 50 years unless there are sharp reductions in emissions of gases blamed for global warming and rising waters. Talake said some islets in his homeland in the South Pacific have already vanished. "These islands used to be my playgrounds when I was 10 years old but where are they? They are gone, disappeared, vanished," the 60-year-old premier said. But Australian Prime Minister John Howard stood by his position on Kyoto, which his government has signed but not ratified, arguing it is not in Australia's interest to abide by a deal spurned by the world's biggest polluter. "Our view remains very strongly that unless you have the Americans and the developing countries in you will not have an effective arrangement," Howard said. A United Nations report last year said losses linked to climate change could cost low lying states more than 10% of their gross domestic product (GDP) by 2050. Talake said Tuvalu was taking advice on whether it could take legal action against polluter states or big corporations responsible for greenhouse gas emissions. "It is the industrialists in the industrial countries that are the culprits," he said. New Zealand was setting up an immigration scheme later this year to absorb people leaving the islands, home to just 10,000 inhabitants, Talake said. But not everyone would be rushing to take up the offer. "I was born, brought up, lived there and will die there," he said. "Our first aim will be to remain there rather than to be environmental refugees." http://onenews.nzoom.com/onenews_detail/0,1227,84632-1-9,00.html
Imagine in fifty years you just see sky scrapers sticking out from the waves but still be inhabited. The new venice.
