2,000 islands

2,000 islands
to disappear

Around 2,000 out of 17,000 islands across Indonesia are at
risk of vanishing by 2030 due to global warming, an environmental
group has warned. Pelangi, a non-governmental organization, said
on Tuesday that changes in the global climate had raised the
temperature here by 0.3 degrees Celsius, and would cause an
increase in sea levels of between 8 and 29 centimeters over the
next 25 years. "Rising sea levels pose a serious threat to an
archipelagic state like Indonesia," the group's managing
director, Moekti Soejachmoen, said. He regretted that the
government was not paying more attention to climate changes,
which were evident from the shorter but more intense rainy
seasons Indonesia was experiencing. -- Antara