U.S. Drowning Pacific Islands . . . ?

U.S. Drowning Pacific Islands?

"We are fighting a giant."
-- Tuvalu Finance Minister Bikenibeu Paeniu

Wednesday, August 28, 2002
Reuters

"Just before coming here to South Africa was the first time I was scared. I saw waves coming right over the land. People in some areas were wading up to their thighs."

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa -- Reuters
The Pacific island state of Tuvalu wants to enlist Caribbean and Indian Ocean nations in a planned lawsuit blaming the United States and Australia for global warming that could sink them beneath the waves.

Finance Minister Bikenibeu Paeniu said Wednesday that Tuvalu, a chain of nine coral atolls whose highest point is just 13 feet above sea level, expects to be ready to launch formal legal action against both within a year.

"We are fighting a giant," he told Reuters during the Earth Summit in Johannesburg of a plan to take on the United States, the outline of which was unveiled in March.

"It is one of the few options we have."

He said he was lobbying other low-lying nations at the World Summit on Sustainable Development join it in lawsuits.

"In the corridors in this conference there are a number of people who have indicated support," he said. "Apart from Pacific islands there are some from the Indian Ocean and the Caribbean."
(More: CBSNews.com News Source)
2002 © Reuters, Ltd.

with all the global warming posts we've all gone through at the Zone, there is very nearly a direct-line connection between melting polar caps and Asia's production of El Niño ala Indian Ocean Cloud of Death, but -- that can't be right...

Dan