Tuvalu Turns To the Metaverse as Rising Seas Threaten Existence (reuters.com) 78
Tuvalu says it plans to build a digital version of itself, replicating islands and landmarks and preserving its history and culture as rising sea levels threaten to submerge the tiny Pacific island nation. From a report: Tuvalu's Foreign Minister Simon Kofe told the COP27 climate summit it was time to look at alternative solutions for his country's survival and this included Tuvalu becoming the first digitised nation in the metaverse -- an online realm that uses augmented and virtual reality (VR) to help users interact.
"Our land, our ocean, our culture are the most precious assets of our people and to keep them safe from harm, no matter what happens in the physical world, we will move them to the cloud," he said in the video that sees him standing on a digital replica of an islet threatened by rising sea levels. Kofe grabbed global attention at last year's COP26 when he addressed the conference standing knee-deep in the sea to illustrate how Tuvalu is on the front line of climate change. Tuvalu was having to act because countries globally were not doing enough to prevent climate change, he said.
"Our land, our ocean, our culture are the most precious assets of our people and to keep them safe from harm, no matter what happens in the physical world, we will move them to the cloud," he said in the video that sees him standing on a digital replica of an islet threatened by rising sea levels. Kofe grabbed global attention at last year's COP26 when he addressed the conference standing knee-deep in the sea to illustrate how Tuvalu is on the front line of climate change. Tuvalu was having to act because countries globally were not doing enough to prevent climate change, he said.
frist post (Score:2, Funny)
Sounds like they might be better served... (Score:1)
I mean, who knows if metaverse will be around much in any form in the near future? I don't see a rush to it yet...and if it happens, I doubt very much it will look like it does now, nor would I bet that the current players will be in charge of
Re:Sounds like they might be better served... (Score:4, Funny)
It sounds like the citizens and govt. of Tuvalu might be better served in finding new land/islands to move to an inhabit that are a bit higher than sea level, rather than waste time buying and constructing in the "metaverse"...something unproven and so far, unpopular.
I mean, who knows if metaverse will be around much in any form in the near future? I don't see a rush to it yet...and if it happens, I doubt very much it will look like it does now, nor would I bet that the current players will be in charge of it.
Make entries in wikipedia or something....and start looking for a REAL physical place to move!!
In other words, if the metaverse ends up sinking faster than Tuvalu, why did they bother?
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Metaverse doesn't answer the "where to live?" question, they'll be asylum seekers with no easy path to the southern US border.
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Metaverse doesn't answer the "where to live?" question, they'll be asylum seekers with no easy path to the southern US border.
Unless someone solve the problem of how to transfer consciousness to the metaverse. Though I don't think I'd ever want my consciousness sitting somewhere Zuckerberg has control of the off switch.
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Make entries in wikipedia or something....and start looking for a REAL physical place to move!!
Yes, after all, nations such as the US are so happy to take in refugees.
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Wow, modded down within minutes of posting with an "overrated". Looks like someone has some sockpuppet accounts for abusing the moderation system.
Re: Sounds like they might be better served... (Score:2)
Welcome to reality! (Score:5, Informative)
Welcome to reality! Immigrants, both legal and illegal, commit less crime than American born citizens (outside of the crime of crossing our border in the case of illegals)
https://www.cato.org/blog/new-... [cato.org]
https://www.scientificamerican... [scientificamerican.com]
https://www.themarshallproject... [themarshallproject.org]
I imagine you'll keep believing they're all rapists though as you clearly chose to believe what you've said without checking the facts to begin with.
Re:Welcome to reality! (Score:5, Insightful)
"economic cockroaches and the cartel gangsters, rapists, molesters and murderers that need to be turned back. " https://slashdot.org/comments.... [slashdot.org]
immigrants are none of those things in any meaningful amount was the point of this conversation. Clearly you've got a bone to pick with immigrants though. Have fun with that, my point is done.
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Re: Sounds like they might be better served... (Score:1)
>>It's the swarms of economic cockroaches and the cartel gangsters, rapists, molesters and murderers that need to be turned back.
Congratulations, you have just described America's politicians.
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We've taken our share....more than our share these past few years.
We can afford to spread the wealth....let other countries take in the refugees.
Hell, why aren't all the refuge seekers from South America stopping in Mexico for asylum? I mean, according to the asylum rules, aren't the refugees supposed to stop at the first country they come to?
But hell....we've had millions come across in past few years and it seems to be increasing
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We've taken our share....more than our share these past few years.
Not even remotely close. The number of refugees the US takes in has been trending down on average over the last 30 years. 132K in '92, 25K in 2022 (which is twice as high as the previous two years). The world has 32.5 million refugees. That's actually pretty pitiful given the size of the US.
So, don't give the US shit about taking in refugees.....we've been taking TONs of them, and the numbers seem to be increasing.
Self-delusion.
They have a true case for applying for asylum, other than most of the people coming into the US illegally through our southern border as that "bettering your life financially" is not grounds for asylum.
Aw, aren't you just a saint.
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Canada will take them. Canada is upping the number of immigrants per year to 500,000.
If they want to move from an island paradise to a country that is a deep freeze half the year is a whole other question. Apparently some refugee from Kiev is going viral with a complaint about the tough winters in Saskatchewan. When a refugee from Ukraine complains about the weather, you know it's bad.
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Tuvalu was the 189th country to join the UN, all the way back in 2000, has about 12K citizens, and occupies an area of approximately 10 sq miles, per Wikipedia.
Apparently the islands are so uninhabitable that they rely heavily on imported food, since they lack adequate farmable land to approach self-sufficiency. Tuvalu, being situated midway between Hawaii and Australia is literally near nothing.
The only thing I know about Tuvalu is that Richard Feynman was a big fan and ardent practitioner of the Tuvaluan
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The only thing I knew about Tuvalu is they have the .tv TLD, which was a moderately hot namespace for video streaming services. I wonder if that had anything to do with giving them the idea of turning their country into a metaverse theme park.
Tuvalu is not Tuva [Re: Sounds like they might...] (Score:3)
The only thing I know about Tuvalu is that Richard Feynman was a big fan and ardent practitioner of the Tuvaluan tradition of "throat singing". https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]
I believe you are confusing Tuvalu [wikipedia.org] with Tuva [wikipedia.org].
Tuva is famous for "throat singing [wikipedia.org]", not Tuvalu.
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Richard Feyman was a fan of "Tuva" a small country near Mongolia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
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Tuva is not a country, it's part of Russia. It was briefly a country last century.
Re: Sounds like they might be better served... (Score:2)
The only thing I know about Tuvalu is that Richard Feynman was a big fan and ardent practitioner of the Tuvaluan tradition of "throat singing".
I believe you may find you actually know something about Tuva, not Tuvalu.
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China (Score:5, Interesting)
I'm sure the Chinese would be more than delighted to help them with their problem by dredging up sand and creating some separation between Tuvalu and the Pacific. And all they'll want is a naval base and the ability to install some SAM and anti-ship missile batteries.
Coming soon to a theater near you.
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Generally in countries who want them there (Cuba excepted) and who can ask them to leave anytime. That doesn't apply to Chinas usurping of disputed islands.
Re: China (Score:2)
You mean like the phillipines?
Re: China (Score:1)
Why not both? While only China has been turning atolls into island military basis to extend their EEZ, both nations spend a lot of money to buy influence (in both hard power and soft power terms) around the globe.
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Tuvalu has been putting a lot of money and effort into mitigation [wikipedia.org]. They've been building sea walls, filling in sea with land, etc.
100m of natural sea level rise in last 10k years (Score:5, Informative)
Places like Tuvalu cannot survive even small sea-level changes, no matter the cause. Sea level rises due to climate change, which human pollution is certainly aggravating, will hit places like Tuvalu hard. But currently these are small changes compared the 100m or so of sea level rise in the last 10,000 years, all of which was "natural".
That is not to say that we shouldn't do what we can to reverse human impact on the environment, but it's not *just* man-man climate change that will drown places like Tuvalu.
Sea level rose by 6 cm during the 19th century and 19 cm in the 20th century. Based on tide gauge data, the rate of global average sea level rise during the 20th century lies in the range 0.8 to 3.3 mm/yr, with an average rate of 1.8 mm/yr.
Solid geological evidence, based largely upon analysis of deep cores of coral reefs, exists only for 3 major periods of accelerated sea level rise, called meltwater pulses, during the last deglaciation. They are Meltwater pulse 1A between circa 14,600 and 14,300 years ago; Meltwater pulse 1B between circa 11,400 and 11,100 years ago; and Meltwater pulse 1C between 8,200 and 7,600 years ago.
Meltwater pulse 1A was a 13.5 m rise over about 290 years centered at 14,200 years ago and Meltwater pulse 1B was a 7.5 m rise over about 160 years centered at 11,000 years ago.
In sharp contrast, the period between 14,300 and 11,100 years ago, which includes the Younger Dryas interval, was an interval of reduced sea level rise at about 6.0–9.9 mm/yr.
Meltwater pulse 1C was centered at 8,000 years ago and produced a rise of 6.5 m in less than 140 years, such that sea levels 5000 years ago were around 3m lower than present day, as evidenced in many locations by fossil beaches. Such rapid rates of sea level rising during meltwater events clearly implicate major ice-loss events related to ice sheet collapse. The primary source may have been meltwater from the Antarctic ice sheet. Other studies suggest a Northern Hemisphere source for the meltwater in the Laurentide Ice Sheet (The last major shift in drainage occurred around 8,200 years ago. The melting of remaining Hudson Bay ice caused Lake Agassiz to drain nearly completely. This final drainage of Lake Agassiz has been associated with an estimated 0.8 to 2.8 m (2.6 to 9.2 ft) rise in global sea levels.)
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Given how much of Tuvalu is built up with phosphate rock from bird guano deposits, it seems likely that it could cope with slow sea level rise in the past. The islands basically grew upwards thanks to the birds. The current extremely rapid sea level rise, however, is going to be much more than that mechanism can cope with.
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It would not matter if they did. The rock can't form that fast.
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Won't work. Have you looked at bird feet? They narrow greatly, then splay out. To get into boots like that you need complicated lacing arrangements or zippers and the birds just can't operate those with their beaks.
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I'm not sure what you mean by clogs since that seems to have been redefined. Do you mean Dutch wooden shoes or some other type of shoe? Either way, the birds will have a very hard time walking around in them.
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Ok. That was a very impressive video. I think the roller would work better than the clogs or skates. Of course, none of those methods would actually work since the guano would not dry out fast enough and compaction is not the problem.
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Nothing. It's a hopeless case. Sea level is rising too fast. This is an amusing diversion and all, but sea level really is rising faster than any natural island building process other than tectonic uplift to keep up.
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Your guess is as good as mine. Glue magnets to them? Send them to one of those wizard schools that are apparently all over the place so they can learn magic?
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Not likely. There would be no way for the sky above the island to support the sheer number of birds required. I'm not aware that any of the native birds can hover. Also, while flight is not exactly reliant on downward thrust, I am pretty sure that the aggregate aerodynamic effects of pretty much any arrangement of birds that could accomplish anything remotely like this would be counterproductive.
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Obviously that would depend on the superpowers. But sure, with the right superpowers. Then you have the problem of where to get the radioactive spiders.
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Re: 100m of natural sea level rise in last 10k yea (Score:1)
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Recently, certainly. If you clip out the modern age, sea level has been pretty stable for the last 6000 years or so.
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Places like Tuvalu cannot survive even small sea-level changes
Nonsense. Islands like Tuvalu have been doing just fine with rising sea levels. It may seem counterintuitive, but there have been numerous scientific articles on the topic, as well as actual measurements to verify it.
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let's ignore orders of magnitude! [Re:100m of ...] (Score:2)
Places like Tuvalu cannot survive even small sea-level changes, no matter the cause. Sea level rises due to climate change, which human pollution is certainly aggravating, will hit places like Tuvalu hard. But currently these are small changes compared the 100m or so of sea level rise in the last 10,000 years, all of which was "natural".
We're talking about sea level rise on the time scale of decades, and you reply that this is small compared to sea level rise that happens on the time scale of ten thousand years???
You are aware that these are different by orders of magnitude?
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Just comparing...
"Meltwater pulse 1B was a 7.5 m rise over about 160 years."
"Sea level rose by 6 cm during the 19th century and 19 cm in the 20th century"
7.5m in 160 years just seems like a bit more than 0.25m in 200 years. And 3.3 mm/yr is 3m per decade or 0.33m per century, so the current rate of sea-level increase seems like a lot less than 7.5m in 160 years.
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Places like Tuvalu cannot survive even small sea-level changes, no matter the cause.
Sea levels rise, but Tuvalu wasn't a 100m tall island 10,000 years ago. As the sea levels rise, the island grows (as a coral reef). Charles Darwin did early work on this topic.
It's like seasteading, but virtual. (Score:2)
Valarian (Score:2)
That's literally the main plot point of the Besson scifi movie "Valarian". The Pearls build a VR version of their lost homeworld inside a spaceship.
How much land has .TV lost so far?
Yep, that'll work as well as for Facemetabook (Score:2)
Think the Metaverse will "keep them safe from harm, no matter what happens in the physical world" ?
It won't.
Interesting choice. (Score:2)
Which will sink first?
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Facebook is shrinking. Tuvalu is growing [archive.org].
Yikes (Score:2)
but why... (Score:2)
Why the Metaverse? Which sane person puts something important into the proprietary database of a fickle company that's currently on a fast downward path?
Create an open dataset in any open format and convince or bribe the various companies running virtual realities to import it. But don't tie yourself to one.
Go to Greenland (Score:2)
Yeah is a completely different environment but you adjust in just one generation (30 years) maybe get some Eskimo tutors
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Tuvalu is growing, not shrinking, in real world (Score:2)
https://www.abc.net.au/news/20... [abc.net.au]
Even the ABC agrees
Tuvalu and phone scams (Score:2)
Seem to me that at least a couple decades ago, Tuvalu was known as having its primary source of income as phone and Internet scams? I remember lots of phone PBXs being configured to block all calls coming from Tuvalu since it was nearly certain they weren't anything legitimate.
Maybe that allows going into the Metaverse and continuing on with their efforts? :P
Right.... totally believable. (Score:1)
Tuvin' 2: Electric Tuvalu (Score:2)