{"id":20493,"date":"2016-05-07T20:13:02","date_gmt":"2016-05-08T01:13:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=20493"},"modified":"2016-05-07T20:13:31","modified_gmt":"2016-05-08T01:13:31","slug":"solomons-sinking-five-pacific-reef-islands-swallowed-by-rising-sea-levels","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=20493","title":{"rendered":"Solomons sinking: Five Pacific reef islands swallowed by rising sea levels"},"content":{"rendered":"

Solomons sinking: Five Pacific reef islands swallowed by rising sea levels<\/a><\/h3>\n
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\u00a9 Rick Rycroft \/ Reuters<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Five reef islands have disappeared from the Pacific\u2019s Solomon Islands and six more have been severely damaged due to rising sea levels and coastal erosion, according to new research.<\/div>\n
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Studying the relationship between sea level rise and wave exposure in the\u00a0\u201cglobal sea-level rise hotspot,\u201d<\/em>\u00a0a team of Australian researchers found rising waters are taking a significant toll on the islands.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt least 11 islands across the northern Solomon Islands have either totally disappeared over recent decades or are currently experiencing severe erosion,\u201d<\/em>\u00a0according to the study published in\u00a0Environmental Research Letters<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Focusing on two areas with the highest density of exposed reef islands, two researchers, Isabel and Roviana, examined 33 islands using aerial and satellite imagery dating from 1947 to 2014.<\/p>\n

Their findings confirm anecdotal accounts coming from scientists and locals of the islands\u2019 extreme shoreline changes over the past decade.<\/p>\n

\u201cShoreline recession at two sites has destroyed villages that have existed since at least 1935, leading to community relocations,\u201d<\/em>\u00a0the study said.<\/p>\n

The study also warns that Taro, the capital of Choiseul Province, is set to become the first provincial capital in the world to relocate its residents and services due to the threat of rising sea levels.<\/p>\n

Researchers found rates of shoreline recession were significantly higher in areas exposed to high wave energy than more sheltered regions.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis provides a bit of an insight into the future,\u201d<\/em>\u00a0senior research fellow at the University of Queensland and lead author, Simon Albert, told\u00a0AFP<\/a>.\u00a0\u201cThere\u2019s these global trends that are happening but the local responses can be very, very localized.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

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\u00a9 cia.gov<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Solomons sinking: Five Pacific reef islands swallowed by rising sea levels \u00a9 Rick Rycroft \/ Reuters Five reef islands have disappeared from the Pacific\u2019s Solomon Islands and six more have been severely damaged due to rising sea levels and coastal erosion, according to new research. Studying the relationship between sea level rise and wave exposure […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[13758,13757,8114,13756],"class_list":["post-20493","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-environment","tag-coastal-erosion","tag-ocean-level-rise","tag-rt-news","tag-solomon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20493","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=20493"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20493\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20495,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20493\/revisions\/20495"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=20493"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=20493"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=20493"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}