Rising Sea Levels May Force Residents Of Kiribati To Relocate

By Meera Dolasia on 03/12/2012 

On the island of Kiribati rising sea level could be life-threatening. It could sink their tiny islands forever. That probably won’t be happening soon their president already has a back-up plan in case. It is to relocate his people to a different country!

Even thought that might seem very hard, Kiribati, which lies across the equator close to the International Date Line, is in big danger of disappearing even if water levels ascend a little bit. That's because many of its islands are just a few feet above sea level. Not only that, the weather, tidal and storm patterns have changed dramatically and are beginning to cause a serious threat to the 100,000+ people.

When the nation's president, Anote Tong heard about a church group that was trying to sell about 6,000 acres of fertile land on the nearby Fijian island of Viti Levy for 9.6 million USD, he decided to propose for it.

The sale still has be accepted by the Fijian authorities who may not be thrilled at the outlook of having Kiribati's 103,000 people showing up on their islands and settling there someday in the future.

Rising sea levels create a real threat to not just Kiribati, but also, a number of islands in the Pacific ocean and other low lying areas around the world. Even though the water is currently rising by only about 2 millimeters a year, scientists believe that the pace will speed up quickly in the near future

I choose this artical mainly to show that people can die due to rising of sea level. However there is always help on the way. Even though this nation is one of the poorest nations in the world, that doesn't mean they should just be left on that island stranded. I also choose this artical because it is part of our unit. It is about how too high tides can destroy lives, even if to some of you, that doesnt mean anything. 

Citation: 

Dolasia, Meera. "Rising Sea Levels May Force Residents Of Kiribati To Relocate ." Dogo News. N.p., 

n.d. Web. 14 Mar. 2012. 
rising-sea-levels-may-force-residents-of-kiribati-to-relocate>. 

Earth's Close Encounter With A Giant Asteroid!

If you didn’t know, there is a giant asteroid coming right at us. The good news is that it is positive that the huge rock won’t hit Earth. However, the asteroid is traveling at 29,000mph will get very close. Maybe 201,000 miles away from us at 6.28pm today.  That is closer than the moon, the moon is 238,000 miles away from Earth.
The very last time an asteroid came this close to earth was in 1976, when a smaller asteroid alse didn’t hit Earth. Unfortunately, all the experts including US Space Agency NASA, missed it. The fact that the next time we come across this is not estimated to happen until 2028, this makes today's “flyby” very special.
NASA was tracking the asteroid with the prevailing “antennas at the Deep Space Network in Goldstone, California and the Arecibo Planetary Radar Facility in Puerto Rico.” While it is getting closer, they will send radio waves from the space rock, to try t get photographs that are clear enough to know the asteroid's surface features, shape, dimensions etc.
Let's hope it doesn’t get closer next time.

I think that this is amazing. It got so close, but then flew right next yo us. It didn't even hit a little part of Earth. Even though this happened about 2 months ago, I still thought it should have been said. It was a very special day when the asteroid flew by Earth. The next time this happens, I will be ready to see the asteroid coming toward us.

Citation:

Dolasia, Meera. "Earth's Close Encounter With A Giant Asteroid Happens Tonight!" Dogo News. N.p., 

n.d. Web. 14 Mar. 2012. 
earths-close-encounter-with-a-giant-asteroid-happens-tonight>.