'Sinking' Pacific Nation Tuvalu Is Actually Getting Bigger (phys.org)

mi shares a report from Phys.Org: The Pacific nation of Tuvalu -- long seen as a prime candidate to disappear as climate change forces up sea levels -- is actually growing in size, new research shows. A University of Auckland study examined changes in the geography of Tuvalu's nine atolls and 101 reef islands between 1971 and 2014, using aerial photographs and satellite imagery. It found eight of the atolls and almost three-quarters of the islands grew during the study period, lifting Tuvalu's total land area by 2.9 percent, even though sea levels in the country rose at twice the global average. Co-author Paul Kench said the research, published Friday in the journal Nature Communications, challenged the assumption that low-lying island nations would be swamped as the sea rose. It found factors such as wave patterns and sediment dumped by storms could offset the erosion caused by rising water levels.

Comments

Re:oh good

[Hal_Porter]

I thought it was funny when Gaddafi fell and a load of millennials found out what the .ly in vb.ly stood for.

https://www.theguardian.com/te...

That follows the abrupt enforced shutdown of vb.ly, a "link shortening" site run by Ben Metcalfe and Violet Blue, after it was declared that the content of the site was "against Sharia law".

An image of Violet with bare arms, drinking from a bottle of lager, was emblazoned across the front page of the site when the government-owned Libya Telecom & Technology got in touch earlier this month. "Pornography and adult material aren't allowed under Libyan law, therefore we removed the domain," the letter said, adding: "The issue of offensive imagery is quite subjective, as what I may deem as offensive you might not, but I think you'll agree that a picture of a scantily clad lady with some bottle in her hand isn't exactly what most would consider decent or family friendly at the least."

But other moves made by the ministry could threaten the business of another web startup, bit.ly, which has had millions of dollars of investors' money poured into it - including funding of $10m (£6.3m) received earlier this week - following the announcement in June by the Tripoli regulator for domain registry that domain registrations with fewer than four characters were restricted for use by registrars "having presence" in Libya - that is, based in the country - where they would be under local Sharia jurisdictions.

I.e. it turns out that 'respecting' cultures on the other side of the world that you know nothing about by denying that they are in any way different from yours is not a good idea. Who'd have thought it?

Tuvalu

[Kevin108]

Rye aye, and we can sing just like our fathers. Come on, Eileen.