Atoll

Latest news on atoll

Maldives seek to buy a new homeland

The Maldives will begin to divert a portion of the country's billion-dollar annual tourist revenue into buying a new homeland - as an insurance policy against climate change that threatens to turn the 300,000 islanders into environmental refugees, the country's first democratically elected president has told the Guardian.Mohamed Nasheed, who takes power officially tomorrow in the island's capital, Male, said the chain of 1,200 island and coral atolls dotted 500 miles from the tip of India is likely to disappear under the waves if the current pace of climate change continues to raise sea levels.The UN forecasts that the seas are likely to rise by up to 59cm by 2100, due to global warming. Most parts of the Maldives are just 1.5m above water. The president said even a "small rise" in sea levels would inundate large parts of the archipelago."We can do nothing to stop climate change on our own and so we have to buy land elsewhere. It's an insurance policy for the worst possible outcome. After all, the Israelis [began by buying] land in Palestine," said Nasheed, also known as Anni.The president, a human rights activist who swept to power in elections last month after ousting Maumoon Abdul Gayoom, the man who once imprisoned him, said he had already broached the idea with a number of countries and found them to be "receptive". He said Sri Lanka and India were targets because they had similar cultures, cuisines and climates. Australia was also being considered because of the amount of unoccupied land available."We do not want to leave the Maldives, but we also do not want to be climate refugees living in tents for decades," he said.Environmentalists say the issue raises the question of what rights citizens have if their homeland no longer exists. "It's an unprecedented wake-up call," said Tom Picken, head of international climate change at Friends of the Earth. "The Maldives is left to fend for itself. It is a victim of climate change caused by rich countries."Nasheed said he intended to create a "sovereign wealth fund" from the dollars generated by "importing tourists", in the way that Arab states have done by "exporting oil". "Kuwait might invest in companies; we will invest in land."The 41-year-old is a rising star in Asia, where he has been compared to Nelson Mandela. Before taking office the new president asked Maldivians to move forward without rancour or retribution - an astonishing call, given that Nasheed had gone to jail 23 times, been tortured and spent 18 months in solitary confinement."We have the latitude to remove anyone from government and prosecute them. But I have forgiven my jailers, the torturers. They were following orders ... I ask people to follow my example and leave Gayoom to grow old here," he said.The Maldives is one of the few Muslim nations to make a relatively peaceful transition from autocracy to democracy. The Gayoom "sultanate" was an iron-fisted regime that ran the police, army and courts, and which banned rival parties.Public flogging, banishment to island gulags and torture were routinely used to suppress dissent and the fledging pro-democracy movement. Gayoom was "elected" president six times in 30 years - but never faced an opponent. However, public pressure grew and last year he conceded that democracy was inevitable.Upmarket tourism had become a prop for the dictatorial regime. Gayoom's Maldives became the richest country in South Asia, with average incomes reaching $4,600 a year. But the wealth created was skimmed off by cronies - leaving a yawning gap between rich and poor. Speedboats and yachts of local multimillionaires bob in the lagoon of the capital's harbour, while official figures show almost half of Maldivians earn less than a dollar a day.Male is the world's most densely populated town: 100,000 people cram into two square kilometres. "We have unemployment at 20%. Heroin has become a serious social issue, with crime rising," Nasheed said, adding that the extra social spending he pledged would cost an immediate $243m. He said that without an emergency bailout from the international community, the future of the Maldives as a democracy would be in doubt.To raise cash, his government will sell off state assets, reduce the cabinet and turn the presidential palace into the country's first university."It's desperate. We are a 100% Islamic country and democracy came from within. Do you want to lose that because we were denied the money to deal with the poverty created by the dictatorship?" he said.At a glance? The highest land point in the Maldives is 2.4 metres above sea level, on Wilingili island in the Addu Atoll ? The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change predicts that sea levels could rise by 25-58cm by 2100? The country comprises 1,192 islands grouped around 26 Indian Ocean atolls. Only 250 islands are inhabited. The population is 380,000? The main income is from tourism, with 467,154 people visiting in 2006Climate changeCarbon emissionsEndangered habitatsguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2008 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

Elon Musk's Falcon 1 launches successfully

Fourth time's the charm Multimillionaire tech visionary Elon Musk has finally achieved a long-sought goal on the fourth attempt, as his privately-funded SpaceX Falcon 1 is now circling the Earth. The rocket, launched from Kwajalein Atoll in the Pacific, reached orbital velocity at 00:26 UK time.?

Eye to beak with a red-footed boobie!

For kids: Researchers 'rough it' in the wilderness to learn more about the wildlife on tiny Palmyra Atoll in the Pacific Ocean.

Gallery: Nuclear Blasts Show Terrifying Power

: Courtesy National Nuclear Security Administration/Nevada Site OfficeIt was 63 years ago today that the United States detonated the very first atomic bomb. Three weeks later, the only two A-bombs dropped in warfare destroyed Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan. Many nuclear -- and thermonuclear -- bombs have been tested since. Here are some images. Left: Operation Upshot-Knothole, conducted at the Nevada Proving Ground between March 17 and June 4, 1953, consisted of 11 atmospheric tests: three airdrops, seven tower tests and one airburst. Upshot-Knothole involved the testing of new theories, using both fission and fusion devices. House No. 1, located 3,500 feet from ground zero, was completely destroyed on the first day of testing. The elapsed time from the first picture to the last was 2? seconds. The camera was completely enclosed in a 2-inch lead sheath as a protection against radiation. The only source of light was that from the detonation. Frame No. 1 (upper left) shows the house lighted by the blast. Frame No. 2 (upper right) shows the house on fire. : Courtesy National Nuclear Security Administration/Nevada Site Office"The island of Elugelab is missing!" President Truman heard this short report from Gordon Dean, chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission, following the "Mike shot," conducted as part of Operation Ivy. Mike, which delivered 10.4 megatons, was the first full-fledged hydrogen bomb to be detonated. It vaporized the small islet of Elugelab in the Eniwetok Atoll.: Courtesy National Nuclear Security Administration/Nevada Site OfficeOfficial observers view the Wasp Prime air drop at the Nevada Test Site on March 29, 1955. It was the second detonation of the day. Apple-1 came five hours earlier, marking the first time two nuclear devices were set off on the same day. Operation Teapot consisted of 14 shots, or detonations, conducted during the first half of 1955. Teapot's objective was to evaluate the tactical applications of a variety of devices for possible inclusion in the nuclear-weapons stockpile, as well as to study civil-defense requirements. : Courtesy National Nuclear Security Administration/Nevada Site OfficeThis base camp near Los Alamos, New Mexico, supported Project Trinity. The first atomic bomb in history was successfully tested nearby in July 1945. Trinity represented the culmination of the Manhattan Project, the U.S. effort to build and detonate an atomic device. Within 24 days of this test, the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were laid waste by atomic bombs. : Photo: CorbisThe first atomic bomb is readied for testing near Alamogordo, New Mexico, in July 1945.: Photo: CorbisJ. Robert Oppenheimer, in white hat, and Gen. Leslie Groves, military commander of the Manhattan Project, examine the twisted wreckage that is all that remains of a 100-foot tower, winch and shack that held the first nuclear weapon before its July 16, 1945, detonation. On the far right is Victor Weisskopf of the Manhattan Project's Theoretical Division.: Photo: Nagasaki Atomic Bomb Museum/CorbisThe exact moment of detonation at Nagasaki is captured in this remarkable photograph. Notice the three people in the foreground, as yet unaware that anything has happened. The destruction of Nagasaki followed that of Hiroshima by three days and compelled Japan to surrender, ending World War II. : Photo: AP/Kyodo News/Hirofumi KimataAsa Takii, 114, Japan's oldest woman, seen in this June 1998 picture, was a survivor of the Hiroshima bombing. The blast killed her husband and family, but Takii survived despite being trapped in the rubble of her home for days before rescue came. She died at a nursing home at Kurahashi Island near Hiroshima on July 31, 1998.: Photo: CorbisJuly 1, 1946, in the Marshall Islands: A mushroom cloud erupts in the North Pacific Ocean over the Bikini Lagoon during the first of the two detonations of Operation Crossroads. The series studied the effects of nuclear radiation on large ships, and the United States assembled a fleet of 90 obsolete naval vessels, including a few captured German and Japanese warships, for the test. Several ships can be seen here, silhouetted against the blast.

How to See 93 Million Miles: Plan a Trip to a Total Solar Eclipse

A total solar eclipse will cut a swath of shadow through Greenland, the Arctic, Russia, Mongolia and China on August 1. And thousands of people will travel to remote locations just to stand in the dark for three minutes -- and maybe perceive the vast size of the solar system. Locations are rarely convenient, and planning a successful eclipse trip involves specialized maps, astronomical charts, statistical weather data, GPS and optical gear, backcountry camping equipment (perhaps), and a good working relationship with uncertainty. The reward, though, can be like a short trip into space. The corona itself is a big freakish thing: a feathery halo of streaming particles along magnetic field lines, which look not like nice summer rays but kill-you-dead radiation. It's also so big and far away as to bend one's sense of scale. At least three planets are usually visible, and this August there will be four: Mercury, Venus, Saturn and Mars. On my second eclipse the sight of the sun and grouping of planets overtook me: I knew I was looking at the Middle. The absence of the blinding photosphere provides depth perception, with the corona serving as a reference point relative to the planets in front of and beyond the sun. It allows you to see the big mechanical picture, like a life-sized version of the classroom model, minus a few parts. With some mental effort, it's possible to actually grasp a sense of the size of the solar system. It can crack your brain a bit. I've seen three solar eclipses, venturing to Eastern Europe, South America and Africa. The plan this time is to trek into the Gobi Desert from Mongolia, where transport options are restricted to Jeep and camel, to an area in the center of the shadow's path in China. That's the plan, at least. There are border and government permission issues to deal with, and plans may not survive first contact. There's the part about actually getting there. In my eclipse travels I've canoed down the Zambezi River under a cloud of migrating bees, helped push a jackknifed tractor trailer over a cliff to clear a mountain road, hitchhiked with a Catholic priest who offered to sell me diamonds, and found myself atop crests of dunes with nomadic, eclipse-chasing ravers with black circles and orange halos painted on their foreheads. Every trip is jammed with this stuff. Information The place to start is the NASA eclipse page, administered by the godfather of eclipse chasing, astronomer Fred Espenak, with help from Canadian meteorologist Jay Anderson. The repeating orbital geometries of the sun, Earth and moon, called the Saros cycles, result in total solar eclipses (when the moon completely blocks the sun) every year or two somewhere in the world. This site posts maps of the umbral paths as well as a trove of other resources, including photography guides. Shadow Time This year's eclipse traverses thousands of miles between Canada and China, so how do you pick a spot? Factor No. 1 is duration; You want as much time as possible. The point of greatest eclipse, where the shadow hits the surface of the Earth most head-on and lasts the longest, is near the Russian city of Nadym, with 2 minutes, 27 seconds, of totality beginning at 3:27:07 p.m. local time. An important note: A partial eclipse is not worth traveling to. Even 99 percent coverage results in 100 percent disappointment. Good Weather Factor No. 2, probability of clear skies, often trumps factor No. 1. Statistical weather data indicates an average August cloud amount of 60 percent in Nadym -- not a good bet. Weather prospects are terrible for most of the path except for one area showing under 30 percent, marked on a meteorological map by a tiny beige blob between the Chinese towns of Yiwu and Nom. It would be easiest to begin in China and travel to this area, but the rest of my trip is focused in Mongolia, which makes planning more difficult. In any case, this brings us to the fun part: local circumstances and conditions. Travel Maybe your spot's in a war zone, or an atoll in the Pacific, or some other back-of-beyond. Can you take a train? A bus? A donkey cart? Keep in mind that forests and buildings obscure sightlines, and nearby mountains usually create convective clouds in otherwise-clear areas. Also, a dramatic natural event loses a bit of charm when viewed from the shoulder of a busy highway, or overlooking a sewage-treatment plant. Research transport and site choice details by all available means (Lonely Planet, Rough Guides, Google Earth, embassies, friends), scout your location as early as possible upon arrival, and be prepared to move. Gear As for gear, one essential item is eclipse-viewing shades. Aluminized Mylar or No. 14 welder's glass works well, and disposable cardboard glasses with protective filters can be ordered online. Even a bare cuticle of sunlight can fry your retinas when you stare at it, but the only way to experience totality is with your own eyes, and it's even better with magnification if you're willing to lug some gear. Astrophotographers come equipped with big lenses and solar filters designed (and required) especially for this purpose. A look through a properly equipped telescope will blow your mind with views of huge arcs of flame, called prominences, erupting off the sun's limb, as well as sunspots and close-ups of the corona, millions of kelvins hot. Shadow Protocol Timing here is critical, as the second-contact phenomena, when totality is beginning, are spectacular. Over a few short seconds the sun narrows to a sliver, and everything around you shimmers as though the air itself is polarized. Planets and a few bright stars appear. People begin to shout and applaud at the last hot gleam of the sun, set atop the crescent like an oozing orange-white gem -- the "diamond ring effect." This immediately breaks apart into a fiery arc of beads, known as "Bailey's beads," as the profile of the mountains on the moon obscures all but a few rays shining through the valleys. Then it's lights out, leaving only the glow of a pearlescent, feathery halo around a black, unnatural anti-sun. Unfamiliar constellations appear as your eyes adjust, and the corona begins to stretch outward. The temperature drops by almost 10 degrees, and depending on where you are, crickets may begin to chirp and mosquitoes bite, as confused animals begin their evening routines. Now's the time to get your imagination working -- and stop fooling with the photographic gear! The continuous blast of stuff from that thing 93 million miles away -- yes, you can see what 93 million miles away looks like -- is what warms your face, lights up the poles with washes of color, makes plants grow, triggers vitamin-D synthesis in our bodies and drives all of our weather. That thing all the way out there is responsible for ? everything. Wow. Then after a period lasting anywhere from several seconds to a theoretical maximum of about 7½ minutes, a blast of light wipes the sky clean of space. The temperature rises, roosters crow, and the whole thing seems like it never happened. The World Atlas of Solar Eclipse Maps on the NASA page illustrates eclipse locations for the next 90 years. You could find yourself anywhere from a monastery in Bhutan to a farm in the Ozarks, with a view of a sky hardly anyone gets to see. Links: General NASA Solar Eclipse 2008 Eclipse Chasers' Webring Photography Astronomer Fred Espenak's MrEclipse.com website Eclipse Chaser (photo and other links) Specialty tour operators Ring of Fire Expeditions Tropical Sails Winco Eclipse Tours

Kiribati likely doomed by climate change: president

The president of the low-lying Pacific atoll nation of Kiribati said Thursday his country may already be doomed because of climate change.