Vanishing Islands

An island nation in the Pacific is in danger of vanishing due to rising levels of salt in their wells. The ocean waves threaten to split this tiny island into two separate islands.

The rising ocean levels is raising many questions: What will happen to the 61,000 Marshallese and their homes? Will they still be a nation? Are they still part of the U.N? This is scary for the natives since this is their lives. However, they live on an island. It's bound to happen at some point. No island will fully survive the wrath of the ocean forever. It's a shame that these people may be out of homes and their fisheries, but they should also have known the risks of living on an island.


All information gathered from:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20101206/ap_on_sc/climate_disappearing_nations

Lost Civilization

There was a recent finding of a "once fertile landmass" that once may have inhabited some of the earliest humans beneath the Persian Gulf. This landmass, at its peak, would have been the size of Great Britain. However, as it flooded, it also shrank in size until it ultimately vanished. Until now.

This amazing discovery has scientists debating when it was that humans left Africa. At the current time, the dates range from between 125,000 and 60,000 years ago. This article also touches on the idea that modern humans may be part caveman, due to recent evidence sequencing on the Neanderthal genome.

This is some crazy stuff. But it will definitely give more insight to where we came from and the history of the world and its geography. I am looking forward to reading more on these discoveries.

All information gathered from: 
http://news.yahoo.com/s/livescience/20101210/sc_livescience/lostcivilizationmayhaveexistedbeneaththepersiangulf

Ukraine to open Chernobyl in 2011

The Ukraine plans to open up the sealed area around the Chernobyl reactor to visitors in 2011.

The Number 4 reactor exploded on April 26, 1986 spewing radiation over a large portion of Northern Europe. The "Exclusion Zone," an incredibly contaminated area within a 30 mile radius of the exploded reactor was evacuated and sealed off in the aftermath of the explosion.  This area is/was closed off to visitors.

The Emergency Situations Ministry spokeswoman Yulia Yershova said that there are experts trying to devise travel routes that are both medically safe as well as informative. She states that there are plenty of things to see as long as the individual follows the designated route.

I can't imagine anybody actually wanting to visit this site, knowing full well the dangers (Medically speaking) associated with this area. I know some of the people who lived there when the explosion occurred have since moved back into their homes regardless of the government's ban or the high risk of radiation poisoning. In my opinion, this is a terrible idea.


All information was gathered from: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20101213/ap_on_sc/eu_ukraine_chernobyl_tourism

Extinction Date for Tigers.

It looks as though Russia is putting forth a lot of effort in saving the Tiger. There was a meeting in St. Petersburg, Russia where officials from the 13 countries where tigers still live agreed to a program to help save this gorgeous animal. Leonardo DiCaprio also flew in and donated one million dollars of his own money to the World Wildlife Fund.

The  officials are trying to start a program to put an end to the poaching of tigers and to protect their habitat. This is going to be some feat since some countries that  these big cats inhabit are impoverished, such as Laos and Bangladesh. These nations will need some outside donations to assist with their efforts in the preservation of the tigers.

The 13 countries, including Russia, have agreed to double the tiger population by the year 2022. I hope that this will happen, and hopefully more than double. I love big cats, and I don't want to see these beautiful animals become extinct.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/eu_russia_saving_tigers

Mr. O'Reilly

So, I think by now we have all heard about Mr. O'Reilly visiting 'The View.' This is not his usual set as he is a Conservative political commentator, and most of the ladies on 'The View,' are, well not on the Conservative side. He was invited to join the set for the episode that aired on October 14, 2010.

They were discussing the building of the mosque near (2 blocks away)  Ground Zero. Mr. O'Reilly stated basically that that particular mosque has no business being built near the World Trade Center site because "Muslims killed us on September 11." Whoopi and Joy apparently didn't like the fact that he had  logical reasoning for opposing the building of this mosque. The two women went off stage in a fit of anger acting very unprofessional.


 The point I am trying to make is this: that is an inappropriate place to build  a mosque. Yes, it was the "radical" Muslims who killed us on Sept.11, but that to me is just a big smack in the face to all the innocent American lives that were lost that day by a senseless act of HATE! There should absolutely not be a mosque built anywhere near the site of the Terror attacks on America Sept.11.

I have provided the site where I got my information, as well as a video snippet of the events.

http://www.tmz.com/2010/10/14/the-view-bill-oreilly-whoopi-goldberg-joy-behar-barbara-walters/

Melting sea ice forces walruses ashore in Alaska

In early September, walruses came ashore in Alaska due to their normal  sea ice resting place has melted. This is an unusual occurrence here in the United States. This has happened at least twice before, 2007 and 2009 when the Arctic sea levels were at record low levels.
This caught my attention because I think it is very sad that these animals are losing their resting places. I don't really believe in Global Warming, but rather that we are coming out of the Ice Age and melting ice is just part of the process. I love all kinds of animals and I hate to see a species become "Endangered," but this is all just part of the natural process of the changes in the world.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_sci_walruses_ashore