Posted on 08/22/2008 2:18:06 PM PDT by Abathar
ACCRA (AFP) - Rising sea levels caused by climate change will brutally redraw a 4,000-kilometre (2500-mile) stretch of west African coastline from Senegal to Cameroon by century's end, experts were told AFP Friday.
"The cost of Guinea will cease to exist by the end of this century," said Stefan Cramer, a marine geologist and head of German green group Heinrich Boll Stiftung's operations in Nigeria.
"The countries most threatened by this looming environmental disaster are Gambia, Nigeria, Burkina Fasso and Ghana," he told AFP on the sidelines of a major UN climate conference in the Ghanaian capital Accra.
Cramer said sea levels were set to rise up to two centimetres (0.8 inches) per year, enough to devastate large swathes of fragile coastline, especially in low-lying and densely populated deltas.
Last year UN climate change experts initially predicted more modest rises of 18 to 59 centimetres (7.2 to 23.2 inches), but in a final version of their report left the upper limit open-ended due to mounting scientific evidence that levels might climb much higher.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) had not taken into account the potential impact of runoff from the 3,000-metre (1.9 mile) thick Greenland ice cap, which covers an areas three times the size of Nigeria.
Recent studies have suggested the continent-sized ice block could be melting far more quickly than once thought.
Among the cities worst hit would be the Gambian capital Banjul and Lagos, Nigeria's economic capital and home to 15 million. Some parts of Lagos lie below sea-level today and it is already subject to frequent flooding.
The solution, he said, is to focus on the source of the problem rather than on how to adapt to its consequences.
"The industrialised countries should take proactive steps in curtailing greenhouse gas emissions," he said.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
"Last year UN climate change experts initially predicted more modest rises of 18 to 59 centimetres (7.2 to 23.2 inches), but in a final version of their report left the upper limit open-ended due to mounting scientific evidence that levels might climb much higher."
All I can do is LOL and pity the people who actually believe this *&^%.
All this “climate change” garbage is really out of control.
It’s like all forms of mass hysteria, 1970’s disco lasted for 3 decades in the down market 3rd world, even became the national music genre in Syria and Lebanon.
Now that the profit margins on global warming hysteria is falling off in the 1st world, the scam artists are moving down market to try to swindle 1st world governments through NGO pressure to give grants to 3rd world kleptocracies.
And, when reparations are awarded, I suppose everyone who voted for him can be held liable for this and all the other catastrophic damages he, Karl Rove an Dick Cheney have perpetrated on the planet in the last 8 years.
Another shot at "15 minutes of fame".
____________________________________________________________ hey let them elect obamaboy, as their prez. Didn't he say once he was elected the seas would begin to recess or something along that line. Anyway let them have obama.
Isn’t it enough that “deniers” are threatening mankind and all the furry animals with extinction and condemning the planet to hellfire? Do they have inflict their racism upon the world as well?
Ive been to W.Africa....trust me this is a good thing. With any luck it will evaporate to E.Africa.
Therefore, I have known since I was a child that borders built on water lines do change. I am just surprised that these esteemed scientist are not aware of that. Instead they are going to make this a global warming problem. I am so tired of this line of c--p.
Guess they are disappointed that the island nation of Vanuatu is still here a decade after it was supposedly swallowed by the sea http://www.vanuatutourism.com/
Among the cities worst hit would be the Gambian capital Banjul and Lagos, Nigeria’s economic capital and home to 15 million. Some parts of Lagos lie below sea-level today and it is already subject to frequent flooding.
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How can we be focusing on this crap when we don’t even know yet who Obama’s VP will be? Good Lord, let’s focus on what’s really important, folks.
Duh, hello... Sea level is higher along the African coast than it is in the South Pacific. Jeesh.
I remember that when I was a kid the climate never changed. It was the same thing day after day after day — same temperature, same amounts of sunshine and precipitation, same amount of wind, daylight and night time were always exactly the same length. We didn’t have weathermen because they were not needed. Nowadays the climate is changing practically every day! What is this world coming to?
Well they are still got 2½ years of hoping that Tuvalu goes under
In ten years time, most of the low-lying atolls surrounding Tuvalu's nine islands in the South Pacific Ocean will be submerged under water as global warming rises sea levels, CNN Mar 29, 2001
And 3 years for Ocean City Maryland
A global warming trend could bring heat waves, dust-dry farmland and disease, the experts said... Under this scenario, the resort town of Ocean City, Md., will lose 39 feet of shoreline by 2000 and a total of 85 feet within the next 25 years - San Jose Mercury News - June 11, 1986
Where’s the BARF Alert?
The watermelon Left would have us shut down civilization to save a few mud huts and hovels. By the time the sea level rises enough to affect these structures (if it even does), they’ll long since have been rebuilt inland.
This article is nothing but garbage scaremongering.
Uhmm, just a little math error in this report.
Sea levels are rising at 2-3 mm per year, not 2 cm per year. That is a factor of 10 off the actual numbers.
So, I’m assuming the coastlines will be fine since this marine scientist can make such a ridiculous error.
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