We previously reported on the fakery surrounding the claims about small Pacific coral atolls drowning due to rising sea levels (due to global warming, due to greenhouse gases, due to ... you running your air conditioner). Despite years of rhetoric, photoshopped pictures, news stunts (such as the Maldives cabinet holding a meeting underwater to protest climate change) and sloganeering, the islands not only refuse to drown but careful measurement shows many are actually growing. Now we can add experimental evidence to the mix. Researchers built a 50:1 replica of an island near Tuvalu and subjected it to rising water levels. As the sea water went up, so did the island.

This finding would sound odd if you think that such islands are simply fixed structures barely poking up out of the salty sea. But they are not. They are made of coral, that grows, surrounded by silt, sand and sediment, that shifts around with the waves. The rising seas pushed more sand and gravel inland, and the crest of the island rose as a result.

The news item contains this quote:

Co-researcher Dr Murray Ford, also from the University of Auckland, says the study shows islands are more resilient than previously thought, able to change shape or physically adjust to higher sea levels and more severe storms.

“While the effect on particular islands of climate-induced changes will vary, there is plenty of evidence to suggest these islands are more resilient than commonly thought,” he says.

... Previous research by the team, which used aerial photos going back as far as 1943 to track changes to the 101 islands that make up the Tuvalu archipelago, found that overall there was a net gain in land area of 2.9 percent or 73.5ha over the past 40 years.

In other words, it's the opposite of all those studies that conclude "it's worse than we thought". It says that nature is more resilient than we thought, and the problem is smaller and more manageable than we thought. Will it get the same headlines as it would have if it said things are worse than we thought? You know the answer.