THE HINDU (India)
News Update Service
Tuesday, January 30, 2007 : 0230 Hrs
Official: Indonesia could lose 2,000 islands to global warming by 2030
Jakarta, Jan 30. (AP): Rising sea levels could inundate about 2,000
Indonesian islands by 2030, and rice shortages are expected next year
due to wild weather blamed on climate change, the Environment
Minister said on Monday.
The assessment by Rachmat Witoelar was the Government's bleakest yet
of global warming's potential effects on the mostly poor Southeast
Asian nation of about 18,000 islands, most of them unpopulated.
``It is very, very serious, Witoelar said at a news conference
attended by Yvo de Boer, executive secretary of the U.N. climate
treaty secretariat.
Witoelar said respected scientific studies showed about 2,000 islands
would be swallowed by rising waters by 2030. He did not say whether
the threatened islands were inhabited or not.
Delayed rains this year, followed by a hot spell, also hurt farmers.
``It is feared there will be a lack of rice production next year
because of the changes in the weather and because the farmers are not
used to this,
Witoelar said.
De Boer was in Jakarta to discuss a major U.N. climate change meeting
later this year on the Indonesian resort island of Bali. Environment
Ministers from 80 countries will meet there to begin talks on what
actions the world must take after the first commitment period of the
Kyoto protocol expires in 2012.
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