Trinidad and Tobago slowly sinking (or not so slowly)

[donsu]

the following came from an email alert from RSOE Emergency and Disaster Information Service


Just mere decades away villages will have to be relocated in Southern Trinidad because of loss of property and vegetation that will be underwater. The cause: inundation and erosion due to sea level rise as a result of climate change. According to Prof Bhawan Singh, a climatologist with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, climate change is already taking place in Trinidad. He made the comment at Petrotrin's World Environment Day ceremony which took place at the organisation's staff club at Pointe-a-Pierre. Trinidad-born, Singh, who is also a Professor at the University of Montreal, is working with Petrotrin on a number of scientific studies on the potential impacts of climate change in Trinidad. He said about 187 hectares of land from Vessigny, La Brea to Cap de Ville, Point Fortin which is just over the size of the Queen's Park Savannah, Port of Spain will be lost due to sea level rise by the year 2031. "By the year 2051 the figure will be 202.7 hectares and the year 2071, 211.7 hectares of land will be lost," added Singh. A vulnerability assessment study of the Pointe-a-Pierre foreshore was also conducted. "The study showed that by the year 2031 approximately 13 hectares of land will be lost because of sea level rise which will cause inundation and erosion on the banks of the Guaracara River. There will also be an increase in sedimentation which can cause a decrease in drainage capacity," said Singh.

The impact was the same in the third vulnerability assessment study, which dealt with Oropouche Field. It showed that 55 hectares of land would be lost by the year 2031. "By the year 2031 sea level rise will cause inundation and erosion for the Oropouche Field of Petrotrin," explained Singh. The vulnerability assessment studies concluded: The study areas (Vessingy to Cap-de-Ville, Oropouche and Pointe-a-Pierre Foreshore along the Gulf of Paria will be subject to the impacts of climate change and seal level rise and storm surges in the future. Surface and subsurface hydrology, ecosystems/biodiversity, agriculture, forestry, marine ecosystems/fisheries, soils/land resources, human settlements, human health and socio-economic development within the study areas. These impacts will directly influence Petrotrin's Guapo Field and Pointe-a-Pierre Foreshore as well as Trinmar's Point Fortin Base and Offshore Platforms infrastructure and operations. Recently chairman of the Environmental Management Authority, Dr John Agard said sea level was rising about 1.3 mm a year in the North Coast and on average about 1.6 mm in the South West Coast.
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since the melting is going faster then they keep predicting, the above estimates will be low.

[kestrel91316]

1. T&T aren't sinking. The ocean levels are rising. But we already knew that.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

2. Those durn environmentalists are probably sticking their hoses in the ocean.

Just to stir up trouble and undermine our economy.