For Kiribati, the threat of submergence because of sea level rise seems
\ndistant when compared to the range of potentially disastrous ecological and
\neconomic problems it is faced with in the short-term.<\/p>\n
There are many staple foods in the Solomon Islands many however prefer yam,
\nor uvi, as it is known in Guadalcanal.<\/p>\n
The cost of treating infertile couples has halved with the launch of a new
\nprogramme expected to become one of the vanguard methods of addressing
\nKenya\u2019s high infertility rates.<\/p>\n
The alarm bells of sea level rise as a result of global warming and climate
\nchange\u2014brought centrestage in no small measure by the 2006 documentary film
\n\u2018An Inconvenient Truth\u2019\u2014 catapulted the world\u2019s low-lying atoll nations to
\nthe front pages of the global media.<\/p>\n
According to the World Bank, tourism is the largest and the fastest
\ndeveloping industry in the world today.<\/p>\n
In the Pacific, Kiribati, Tuvalu and the Marshall Islands have been
\nperceived as the most threatened.<\/p>\n
Yams are a primary agricultural commodity in the Solomon Islands, and have
\nbeen used extensively prior to the colonization of the Islands.<\/p>\n
Nairobi-based Aga Khan University Hospital said it has achieved its first
\ntwo pregnancies using the new treatment and that many more were in the
\npipeline.<\/p>\n
The amount of tourists having visited other countries has become 4.5%
\nhigher and reached 842 million people as compared to 2005.<\/p>\n
Over the past few years, these countries have been the focus of much
\nresearch by the world\u2019s scientists to find definitive answers relating to
\ntheir impending submergence.<\/p>\n
This essentially means that they were brought to the Solomon Islands by our
\nearly ancestors.<\/p>\n
Latest University of Nairobi statistics show that almost a quarter of
\nKenyan men and nearly a fifth of women are infertile with the majority
\nunaware of their condition.<\/p>\n
In Kiribati alone, two small islets have been submerged by rising sea
\nlevels. Everything one has heard and read about Kiribati being a nation
\nthat is supposed to be among the early victims of sea level rise, that may
\nnot even survive the next few decades rings true as the jet approaches the
\nrunway at Bonriki Airport on Tarawa, Kiribati\u2019s capital.<\/p>\n
According to the information given by Washington Profile, the largest
\ntourist inflow has been marked in Southern Asia and become 10% higher as
\ncompared to 2005.<\/p>\n
It is used for important ceremonial events such as reconciliation, weddings
\nor feasts to show ones status.<\/p>\n
Until recently, there was almost nothing that could be done to help them.<\/p>\n
India is the most attractive country for foreign travellers. A remarkable
\ngrowth – 8.1% has been noted in Africa.<\/p>\n
The extreme vulnerability of this ribbon-like string of atolls in the
\nmiddle of the world\u2019s largest ocean becomes apparent as their fraying edges
\nconstantly battered by the tides come into view.<\/p>\n
A simple Google search show that yams were first cultivated in Africa and
\nAsia about 8000 B.C.<\/p>\n
Hospitals have since last year been racing to introduce wider and cheaper
\nIn-Vitro Fertilisation (IVF) programmes, in a bid to open a route to
\nchild-bearing for the infertile.<\/p>\n
The retaining walls at the far end of the runway have been reduced to
\nrubble because of the relentless onslaught of the waves.<\/p>\n
A remarkable growth – 8.1% has been noted in Africa. Most foreign tourists
\nhave visited SAR, Kenya and Morocco. In countries of Asian-Pacific area the
\nnumber of tourists has become 7.6% higher, and in Europe – 4% higher.<\/p>\n
The drive down the one single road that runs through the 30-odd kilometre
\nlength of the atolls that form Tarawa \u2014 never more than a couple of hundred
\nmetres at their widest and strung together by a series of two-lane
\ncauseways \u2014 is marked with sights of crumbling sea walls and mounds of
\nrefuse lining the coastline in several places.<\/p>\n
In the Solomon Islands, where refrigerators are not yet a common household
\nitem, yams are very important since they can be stored for up to six months
\nwithout refrigeration.<\/p>\n
However, in Kenya, the first IVF baby was born just 18 months ago, under a
\npioneer treatment priced at Sh300,000.<\/p>\n
Along the lagoon to the west, acres of coconut trees shorn of both frond
\nand fruit stand mute testimony to the encroaching salt water and
\nlengthening periods of drought that the atolls have faced in recent years.<\/p>\n
In countries of Asian-Pacific area the number of tourists has become 7.6%
\nhigher, and in Europe – 4% higher<\/p>\n
Further down at Betio, the southernmost point on Tarawa, one sees
\novercrowding that is so unusual for Pacific islands \u2014 and of course
\npoverty.<\/p>\n
“We usually cook them very early in the morning, we store some for later in
\nthe day and some for the kids to take to school,” said Lilly Vale, a mother
\nof two young kids who resides near the Poha area in West Guadalcanal.<\/p>\n
Sea level rise not the only problem Increased global awareness of climate
\nchange and sea level rise and the rash of alarmism that has predicted their
\nimpending submergence have tended to portray these as the biggest problem
\nfaced by the 33-island nation straddling the equator across three time
\nzones.<\/p>\n
The huge need for better access to the treatment has seen two hospitals,
\nNairobi and now Aga Khan, as well as two clinics introduce the procedure.<\/p>\n
Despite the intense scrutiny of the scientific establishment, the interest
\nof ecologists and aid agencies as well as the glare of the global media,
\nislanders\u2019 opinion on the submergence issue is sharply divided \u2014 and for
\nall sorts of reasons ranging from anecdotal and experiential evidence on
\nboth sides of the argument, through religious beliefs, to downright
\ncynicism.<\/p>\n
Most foreign tourists have visited SAR, Kenya and Morocco. In countries of
\nAsian-Pacific area the number of tourists has become 7.6% higher, and in
\nEurope – 4% higher.<\/p>\n
President Anote Tong, the London School of economics-educated head of
\nstate, is understandably cautious: \u201cI am not suggesting and have never
\nsuggested that the islands are sinking because of the rise in sea levels,\u201d
\nhe says. \u201cBut there is no doubt we are increasingly facing the effects of
\nclimate change in many ways.\u201d<\/p>\n
“We cook them over hot stones… we keep the stones hot throughout the day
\njust to keep the yam hot.”<\/p>\n
We have only started this year and so far we\u2019ve handled two patients, one
\nin April and one in August both of whom are pregnant,\u201d said Dr Praful S.
\nPatel, a senior lecturer at the hospital and an expert in IVF.<\/p>\n
Germany which was the site of World Cup has become a leader here. Tourism
\nindustry in the Near East has obtained the same result.<\/p>\n
In fact, recent sea level data analyses suggest that the danger of
\nsubmergence for Kiribati\u2019s atolls\u2014unlike the neighbouring atoll nation of
\nTuvalu \u2014 is no longer as immediate as was estimated earlier (estimates of
\n20 to 50 years have now been stretched to more like 80 to 100 years).
\nThough increased erosion, a greater frequency of higher tides and longer
\nperiods of drought may be a direct result of climate change (just as
\nsimilar phenomena have affected other parts of the world, including the
\nfrequent hurricanes in the United States), submergence is no longer the
\nimmediate, central issue.<\/p>\n
Lilly says that leftovers are often wrapped in banana leaves and stored in
\nthe kitchen, normally a leaf hut separate from the main house.<\/p>\n
These first pregnancies have put Aga Khan Hospital ahead of its peers in
\nsuccess rates.<\/p>\n
The amount of tourists having visited Southern and Northern American
\ncountries became just 2% higher in 2006.<\/p>\n
Yet, in actual fact, the country may be faced with a wide range of far
\nworse and far more urgent potential disasters than sea level rise \u2014 though
\nclimate change may well be playing the role of a catalyst in many of these
\nlooming problems.<\/p>\n
Lilly says that her family will continue to consume yam even though many in
\nthe village seem to prefer rice nowadays.<\/p>\n
But from there, only about a third of IVF fertilised embryos lead to a
\nconfirmed pregnancy.<\/p>\n
Such low rates are connected with reducing of tourists visiting Canada and
\nMexico.<\/p>\n
“I just think that it is healthier, I have noticed many of the villagers
\ngetting sick when they switch to rice and tinned food… our grandparents
\nlived healthy lives until they were very old, most depended only on yam and
\nsea food.”<\/p>\n
The success rate in Kenya has so far been higher than that.<\/p>\n
According to the information provided by the World Tourism And Travel
\nCouncil, 8.3% of world\u2019s working places, 9.3% of international investments,
\n12% of exports and 3.6% of world internal gross product account for a share
\nof tourism and its branches.<\/p>\n
Over the past decade or so, Tarawa has faced fiercer and more frequent
\nstorms, higher tides and longer droughts. Several residents pointed out
\nthat the westerly winds that ushered in the wet season around December had
\nvirtually disappeared in the past seven years, resulting in longer dry
\nperiods and erratic and far less frequent wet spells.<\/p>\n
Dietitians would agree with Lilly since Yams are high in Vitamin C and
\nVitamin B6.<\/p>\n
The real obstacle for couples, however, has been cost. In Kenya, this
\ntreatment has been pioneered by the likes of Dr Praful S Patel and Dr
\nJoshua Noreh of the Nairobi IVF clinic, who delivered Kenya\u2019s first test
\ntube baby just over one-and-a-half years ago.<\/p>\n
Tourists spend 10.2% of all means expended by world consumers. An average
\ntourist having visited Europe has made an income at amount of $790 (for
\nEastern Europe and European Republics of the Former USSR this rate is
\n$370).<\/p>\n
This has resulted in large-scale migration from the smaller outer islands
\nto Tarawa, particularly to Betio, where the population density at about 111
\nper square kilometre compares with that of Hong Kong, making it the densest
\nurban agglomeration in the Pacific islands. In the past five years alone,
\nthe population is thought to have grown by as much as 20,000 on that narrow
\nstrip of land. With almost no sewerage system, not just groundwater but
\neven the surrounding lagoon is contaminated and travel advisories warn
\nstrongly against swimming in the lagoon or drinking well water.<\/p>\n
This means that yams are high in potassium and low in sodium which is
\nlikely to produce a good potassium-sodium balance in the human body, and so
\nprotect against osteoporosis and heart diseases.<\/p>\n
In its first two years of availability in Kenya, IVF has been priced at
\nmore than Sh300,000 per treatment. Aga Khan is now offering IVF for an
\naverage Sh150,000, opening the cheapest route yet for childless couples.<\/p>\n
For the USA and Canada the income from a tourist is $1190, for Asia – $890,
\nfor Africa – $590, for The Near East – $710.<\/p>\n
The local hospital (manned mostly by Cuban doctors) has been registering
\nincreasing cases of enteric disorders. Housing in Betio resembles
\nshantytowns in other parts of the world\u2014and without adequate garbage
\ndisposal systems, waste accumulates on the shoreline. In some places around
\nTarawa, this is simply burnt, compacted and used as a base for reclaiming
\nland.<\/p>\n
Almost 80% of foreign tourists come from European and Southern American
\ncountries. Eastern Asia, Australia and New Zealand supply approximately 15%
\nof tourists.<\/p>\n
The only source of freshwater on these remote atolls is rainwater and
\nbecause of the unfortunate combination of a fast growing population and low
\nrainfall, groundwater reserves have been depleting faster than in previous
\nyears. Also, newly sunk bore wells pump out water faster than the rate at
\nwhich it percolates, leaving the population facing serious freshwater
\nshortages \u2014 which is expected to only get worse in time to come.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
For Kiribati, the threat of submergence because of sea level rise seems distant when compared to the range of potentially disastrous ecological and economic problems it is faced with in the short-term. There are many staple foods in the Solomon Islands many however prefer yam, or uvi, as it is known in Guadalcanal. The cost […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_s2mail":"","spay_email":""},"categories":[8,10,19,20,35,41,43,46],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bbrace.net\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1176"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bbrace.net\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bbrace.net\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bbrace.net\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bbrace.net\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1176"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bbrace.net\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1176\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bbrace.net\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1176"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bbrace.net\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1176"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bbrace.net\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1176"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}