Saturday, July 11, 2009

Tuvalu

Tuvalu could be one of the most interesting islands in our walk amongst island, and island groups of the south Pacific. First and foremost, Tuvalu is a mere speck in the sense of land mass. The total land mass added together amongst the nine real island chains that make up the country is a mere 25 square kilometers which exist in a zone of over 900,000 kilometers…not exactly a place to be ship wrecked and lost at sea in hopes of finding dry land. Other than that Tuvalu is generally the same as any other island in the South Pacific zone. It has beautiful beaches, an international airport on its main island, Funafuti, and enjoys making most of its income off of tourism from Europe and the United States of America. The one thing that makes Tuvalu so interesting and so different from the other island nations is that it is labeled and considered internationally to be an endangered country. There is a lot of speculation about this, but in the past decade it is generally agreed that the island is indeed beginning to feel the true effects of a receding shore line as the ocean seems to be retaking the land mass back into its depths. This happens to be a large argument for those who believe and support the whole global warming movement which is supposedly causing the sea levels to be rising. Tuvalu has even recently joined the United Nations to attempt to gain more support and publicity in order to mitigate this problem. The highest point above sea level on the island is only about sixteen feet!

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