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