Why is Greenland an island? Seriously, it's huge, and yet they call it an 'island'...and then New Guinea, Madagscar, Honshu, Luzon, Sumatra, Borneo, Baffin Island, Victoria Island, Cuba, UK, Ireland, Sri Lanka, Sicily, New Zealand, Hokkaido, Celebes, Ellesmere Island, Tasmania, Java, Hispaniola, Crete, Cyprus, Newfoundland, Corsica, Iceland, Jamaica...

..why are these islands? For those who have been on any of them, they are not small...compared to continents, yes, but islands are typically your average small little single-palmed island in the sea, yet for those on them, they stretch out for ages, and you cannot safely call them sea-surrounded 'islands'. I live on a huge 'island', New Zealands North Island, and it is huge for me, I've travelled right across and there's HEAPS of land...so what is it like on a CONTINENT, maybe Asia, or North America, where land stretches for ages, like there is no sea...how does such a thing work?

My point is, I have been ruminating and have thought about it, and these are NOT your typical islands! They are huge for a human being! So why do they call them islands? Does "island" have a new meaning all of a sudden? An island can be like Haulashore Island, which is a tiny little bit of land off the coast of Nelson (NZ), or an island could be Kapiti Island, a bigger, but still small, piece of land off the coast of Paekakariki (NZ), but how could you call Madagascar an "island"?

Your thoughts on islands...and who lives on one? I know a few here are from the Phillipines, and some are from Sicily, some from the UK, some from Ireland, some probably from Japan.

So please...ISLANDS?

-Penguin

Only after the last tree has been cut down
Only after the last river has been poisioned
Only after the last fish has been caught

Then you will find that money cannot be eaten.