News Feature: GLOBAL WARMING THREATENS NTB SMALL ISLANDS By Otniel Tamindael

Jakarta, July 28 (ANTARA) - Every time we turn on the television, read or listen to other media, we see stories about global warming, the big environmental issue of today.

Global warming perhaps does not appear or sound as something as terrifying or serious as terrorism or the outbreak of deadly diseases but it is in reality and potentially a much greater threat, one with more catastrophic consequences.

Although considerable uncertainty still surrounds the possible impact of global warming, the perfect estimate is that the sea level will rise by about half a meter over the next century.

Environmentalists have said that global temperatures have already risen much more rapidly during the industrial age than they did before that and they would continue to rise.

Consequently, a number of small islands in the Indonesian province of West Nusa Tenggara (NTB) are feared to have disappeared by 2050.

According to Mulyadi, head of National Unity, Politics, and Public Protection Agency (Kesbangpol Linmas), global warming as a result of climate change would cause the sea level to rise and engulf some of small islands in West Nusa Tenggara.

"By 2050, the sea level is predicted to have risen 0.56 meters, and it will cause a number of small islands in Indonesia and in the world to disappear," Mulyadi said at a national seminar, organized by
Foreign Affairs Ministry's Marine Research and Assessment Body (BP2K) recently at the Sentosa Hotel in NTB provincial city Mataram.

At the seminar, climate expert Prof Hasyim Djalal and 17 other marine experts from various universities in Indonesia discussed the susceptibility of Indonesia's position as an archipelagic country to the impact of global warming.

The greenhouse effect and highly polluting gas emissions had destroyed the Ozone layers in the atmosphere and caused the ice at North Pole and on the Himalaya mountains to melt and raise the sea level.

"As a result, some small islands in the world, including in Indonesia will disappear," said the environmental experts at the seminar.

They said worldwide emissions of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide are largely to blame for this situation; and that the resulting changes in weather, climate, sea level, and so forth will sooner or later be utterly devastating in one or more of several ways.

No wonder Indonesian Forum for Environment (Walhi) spokesman Ali Akbar has said a number of small islands in the world, including in Indonesia were feared to disappear sooner or later.

"If we fail to deal with the impact of global warming, a number of small islands in the world and in Indonesia will disappear sooner or later," Ali Akbar said at a discussion on "Carbon Trading" in Jakarta recently.

As climate change raises sea level to new heights, two South Pacific islands of Tebua Tarawa and Abanuea in the island state of Kiribati were reported to have disappeared under sea water.

Neither island was inhabited, though Tebua Tarawa was used by fishermen.

According to The South Pacific Regional Environment Programme, other islands both in Kiribati and in nearby Tuvalu are also at risk as a result of global warming.

Ali Akbar said one of the causes of global warming was the insurmountable green house gas emission into the earth's atmosphere which contributed to the rise in the earth's temperature.

Pointing at data from Second National Communication 2009, he said
the greatest green house gas emission came from "Land Use Change Forest" (LUCF) at the capacity of 1,060,766 giga gram carbon.

"Consequently, the earth's temperature at present has risen from 0.6 degrees Celsius to 1 degrees Celsius," Ali Akbar said.

He pointed out that without an amicable measure to deal with such a condition, then by about 2020 there would be 2.95 tons of gas emission.

"If it happens, the earth temperature will rise to 2 Celsius degrees and raises the sea level to cover the small islands in the world," he said.

At a function to open the international conference of the Association for Tropical Biology and Conservation (ATBC) 2010 in Sanur resort, Bali, on Wednesday, July 21, 2010, Vice President Boediono said the government had a commitment to reducing carbon dioxide emission by 26 percent in 2020.

"Various efforts have been made in environmental and forest conservation to realize the commitment," the vice president said, adding that the government policy was also focused on food and energy resilience in a bid to face climate change.

Therefore he added that environmental sustainability, including conservation and exploitation should be maintained.

"We have made environmental cooperation agreement with Norway in terms of forest conservation and its habitat," the vice president said at the meeting.

The annual meeting at Sanur resort brought together 900 participants from 60 countries.

A great number of global scientists, activists and observers particularly those dealing with biodiversity conservation were among the participants of the three-day meeting.

Association for Tropical Biology and Conservation is the world's largest and oldest professional organization dealing with tropical biology and conservation.

Themed "Tropical Biodiversity: Surviving the Food, Energy, and Climate Crisis", the conference featured a number of noted speakers, including Charlie Veron, former chief scientist of the Australian Institute of Marine Sciences.

Veron is the author of 100 scientific articles, including 14 books and monographs, on subjects ranging from climate change, molecular biology, paleontology, coral identification, bio-geography, coral reefs, conservation, marine science policy, marine science history, cell biology, reptilian physiology and biography.

The other speakers were Michael Donoghue, a professor of ecology and evolution biology at Yale University in the United States and Kathy MacKinnon, former lead biodiversity specialist in the Environment Department of the World Bank.