Dear Banjo,

I have been taking an interest in this subject for more than 30 years and in that time have been subjected to rants and raves by people claiming that the world is in fact cooling etc. Each time when I have tracked down the source of the denialist 'science' it has been paid for by those who stand to benefit by the 'steady as she goes' continuing of polluting behaviours.

As for 'self-help' you obviously have not visited any of these islands. To build them up enough to counteract the rising sea waters would require the importation of millions of cubic tonnes of materials, something most of these nations are to poor to contemplate...and the ex-colonial masters who profiteered from the sweat and labour of these people are not interested in helping.

Re- Sydney harbour...deritus accumulates as wealthy societies keep building ever upwards...you'd be surprised if you went to find several prominant landmarks of a century ago to find that they are under water.

Feel free to be skeptical..its very fashionable at the moment. But 30+ years of study and observation has only convinced me that climate warming is actually happening faster than expected. Oh...about the last 10 years? They have gone on record by reliable scientists involved in climatology as the warmest ever experienced...and how about that new polar sea route that has opened up north of Canada?

well I am aware of far worse evils in the world even though my daintree donga [it's a house to me Stan] is 2 feet above high tide level.

Yesterday my brother sent me a DVD for Xmas by some Dutch twit called Andre Rieu [or something]. He said he is very popular with "older folk".

I made the mistake of playing it and getting "taken in" by the charisma of this prat [which is still lingering in the donga like a sickly green slime].

I have had 3 Valliums and a bottle of scotch but still feeling quite "queer", so anything the Pacific Ocean might do to me by way of drowning etc might be sweet relief

>>Start demanding that the Australian Government take action to REALLY help mitigate against global warming by acting to reduce atmospheric carbon to less than 350ppm instead of pissing around the edges of the fire.<<

Let's be realistic if not politically correct. In the context of the Pacific Islands, demanding that the Government does something about global warming is about as futile as demanding the atmosphere stops obeying the laws of physics. In fact, of those two things, the only one that REALLY matters now is how the physical systems behave.

Firstly, there are the political aspects which Copenhagen is showing to be very complicated and difficult. Secondly, even if the world does agree to completely stop pumping greenhouse gases into the atmosphere tomorrow, being a physical system, the atmosphere has so much momentum in it that it would take decades to change. It's like smoking: quitting the habit after a lifetime of puffing away doesn't stop the carcinogens from having a long-term effect on your health.

There may be a certain inevitability in what happens to the Pacific Islands no matter what anyone now does. Pacific Islanders could well be better to wean themselves off a dependence on living on their islands. Many of them have already come to countries like Australia and have made a new life for themselves as labourers etc.

IMO, this is where they would be better off putting their energies. Employ the precautionary principle and prepare to get off the sinking ship before it goes under: ie, leave while Tuvalu still is known by that name rather than Toodooloo. And countries like Australia should take their fair share of Pacific Island refugees if and when things get sufficiently bad on the islands.

This is the most realistic way of handling the situation that I can see. Banging the drum at Copenhagen is, at best, only solving another problem.

Well written, Banjo. You are 100% right.
Prepare yourself for the ad hominem attacks and labels that the 'believers' will now throw at you.

dIBBSY1000, just because someone dares to hold the opposite view from you doesn't make it ranting and raving. Then again, for a new poster you have joined the majority that make silly attacks on the opposition instead of debating the subject.
Welcome to OLO - you'll fit in nicely with the rest of your kind.

Banjo, Austin powerless

Wrong, wrong again, clearly you live in a cloistered world of denial, conspiracy theories and refusal to read/understand the science.

If you are going to make pronouncements like this, prove it with 'science', not some hasbeen's dubious readings of out of date data, or some unqualified journalist who wrote an argument based on opinion.

Both of you are entitled not to believe,(an opinion) but there is a big gap between that and provable scientific fact,(not opinion).
You come across like paranoid anti intellectualists. Banjo, I know that's not true of you.
Now how about addressing the topic.

dIBBSY1000 and Examinator,
It is you that have to prove that the sea is rising and AGW is to blame. I have not seen any evidence of that although i have seen reports that some islands are in fact sinking. I recall an ocean measuring station in Tasmania reporting no appreciable rise in sea levels. As i said earlier, AGW is not proven. There are more doubts now than ever.

I have read reports that the temp has leveled and fallen in the last 9-10 years. Even Tim Flannery agreed with this recently. One CRU email stated 'it was a travesty' that they could not show warming. Another stated that we must 'hide the decline'.

The teary speaker for the island of Tuvalu was Ian Fry, who ended his speech with "The fate of my country rests in your hands" Fry is a former greenpeace official who resides in Queanbeyan,NSW. According to the Aus, when his wife was asked if he had lived in Tuvalu, she would not comment.

If AGW was real and as obvious as the warmists reckon, there would not be any need for deceit, the fudging of data, non disclosure to other scientists or exageration of matters.

We have seen extradordinary claims of large sea level rises and pola bears drowning, to name just a couple. In fact i have been waiting for some warmist to claim Tiger Woods infidelity was a result of global warming.