Perfect Climate Change Reading As California Sizzles

I noticed my SoCal ocean blogging colleague, Miriam of The Oyster's Garter, posted some "cool" reading as diversions to the fact that her surroundings are spontaneously igniting. From San Diego to San Francisco, California is in the grip of it's first heat wave. We don't usually start heating up in the Bay Area until about June, and then we have the midday fog to keep temperatures reasonable. But the past few days have seen the mercury soar.

I decided to jump ship and leave Manuel in the sweatbox of our loft in Oakland to escape to the slightly cooler sweatbox of my office in San Francisco. Temperatures here in The City reached mid 80's today. Which probably sounds mild to you, but keep in mind this is a rather amazing (and sudden) jump in temperature considering we were in turtlenecks and burning the furniture to keep warm just last Tuesday.

It all makes a news report from last week's Miami Herald all the more poignant. The article focuses on how Micronesian island nations--that have depended on tourism for their economic base--are now considering the ramifications of climate change-induced sea level rise. Many of the tropical islands across the Pacific depend heavily on island-hopping tourism. Scuba diving and snorkeling are the main draws, along with sportfishing. But now, islanders across Micronesia are considering the very real possibility that their island homes will either disappear or nor longer be suitable for habitation.

Tuvalu, for example, has an average elevation only about six feet above sea level. Numerous other island tourism destinations such as Palau, Yap, and Pohnpei are in the same predicament. As I reported here last year, Papua New Guinea's Carteret Islands have already begun the planning process of evacuating the first climate change refugees. But not so fast, commented the always perspicacious Anonymous in last year's post. It's not climate change... it's that the islands are tectonically sinking, stupid.

Denial is not just a river in Egypt. Oh, and incidentally, millions of Egyptians could be forced permanently from their homes and the country's ability to feed itself devastated with sea level rise as well.