In India, it was known as New Moore Island; in Bangladesh, South Talpatti Island. But the name game can find its eternal resting place now...
The tiny island is off the map.
The subject of territorial dispute between both nations for decades, the small mass of land has disappeared into the Bay of Bengal — the result of global warming and erosion.
India staked a flag on the landmass in the early 1980s, but no official settlement was ever established... and in the last few weeks, the island has disappeared from satellite images of the area.
Fishermen and sea patrols confirmed what scientists feared: the landmass submerged in the Bay.
So while a decades-long dispute over border lines have been solved between India and Bangladesh, the larger issue at hand is what scientists predict for this region of the world.
Bangladesh, a low-lying country, is one of the worst-affected nations by climate change. Some predictions pinpoint 20 million people will be displaced by continually rising sea levels in a mere 40 years from now.
Local scientists point out this is not the first time a landmass has fallen victim to rising sea level and rising temperatures (the temperature in the region has been increasing at a rate of .8°F each year).
The speed of rising water has also increased at an alarming level during the past ten years. One local oceanographer said sea levels measured ~0.12 inches a year until 2000, but have risen to 0.2 inches over the last decade.
The island of Lohachara disappeared in the Bay of Bengal in 1996. The island's inhabitants fled the island before it was lost to the Bay and were forced to settle on the mainland.
The disappearing island was small (only about 2 miles long and 2 miles wide) and uninhibited, with no permanent structures ever built. It was never much more than 6 feet above sea level and therefore an obvious victim to rising sea levels.
New Moore/South Talpatti Island is just one of ten islands in the area considered "threatened" by rising sea levels as the result of climate change by local scientists.
The great philosopher Plato's account of Atlantis tells us the island sank into the ocean "in a single day and night of misfortune."
At the rate climate change is going now... is it an exaggeration to think "misfortune" might claim the fate of other islands in a similar time frame in the future?
Brigid
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