1. Reading Task 1

For nearly 30 years, India and Bangladesh have argued over control of a tiny rock island in the Bay of Bengal. Now rising sea levels have resolved the dispute for them: the island is gone. Disappearance of New Moore Island in the Sunderbans has been confirmed by satellite imagery and sea patrols, said oceanographer Sugata Hazra, a professor at Jadavpur University in Calcutta. India and Bangladesh both claimed the empty New Moore Island, which is about 3.5 km long and 3 km wide. Bangladesh called the island South Talpatti.

 

There were no permanent structures on New Moore, but India sent some soldiers to its rocky shores in 1981 to put up its national flag.

“What these two countries could not achieve from years of talking, has been resolved by global warming,” said Hazra.

Scientists at the School of Oceanographic Studies at the university have noted an alarming increase in the rate at which sea levels have risen over the past ten years in the Bay of Bengal. Until 2000, the sea levels rose about three millimetres a year, but after year 2000 they have been rising about five millimetres every year, he said.
 

Another nearby island, Lohachara, disappeared in 1996, making its inhabitants move to the mainland, he said. At least ten other islands in the area were at risk as well, Hazra said. “We will have ever larger numbers of people displaced from the Sunderbans as more island areas come under water,” he said.
 

Bangladesh, a nation of one-hundred-fifty million people living close to the sea, is one of the countries which is worst-affected by global warming. Officials estimate one fifth of Bangladesh’s coastal area will be underwater and twenty million people will be displaced if sea level rises one metre by 2050 as projected by some climate models.

 

 

1. Time when India claimed the island  198119801983

2. Number of countries arguing about the island  4 countries2 countries3 countries

3. Length of time with significant changes in the speed of the rising sea level  13 years10 years15 years

4. Speed at which the sea level rose in the previous century  4 millimetres a year3 millimetres a year5 millimetres a year

5. Speed at which the sea level rises now  5 millimetres a year3 millimetres a year4 millimetres a year

6. Number of other endangered places  15 islands10 islands5 islands

7. Population of Bangladesh  150 million200 million250 million

8. Size of endangered coastline of Bangladesh  one fifthone thirdone fourth

9. Number of people who will possibly have to look for a new place to live in  25 million20 million12 million
10. Possible rise of the level of the sea  1 metre2 metres1.5 metres