where do they get this nonsense?

This afternoon, the AP is reporting that an island that was the subject of a dispute between India and Bangldesh has sunk beneath the sea as a result of global warming. The article bemoans the fact that this island has disappeared due to rising sea levels. Only after reading half the article does one find that the sea levels in the area have been rising by the alarming rate of about an eighth of an inch each year (or so the AP claims). This means that the island has disappeared over the last decade due to a rise in sea level of slightly more than an inch.

to say the least, this must not have been much of an island. The AP talks about the island's rocky shores that are now submerged. Are we to believe that these rocky shores were a half in high? What about tides? What about storms? If the island was half an inch above sea level, it would have been submerged with each storm -- not just the typhoons, every little storm would have submerged the island.

In short, it seems that an island that appears to be some sort of sand bar is now a quarter inch under water at high tide rather than a quarter inch above water at that time. This is hardly the stuff of legends.