Rising anxiety
Global sea levels are rising and the world’s land ice is disappearing. The Environmental Protection Agency notes that sea levels have risen 6 to 8 inches in the past 100 years, while NASA points out that Antarctica has been losing more than 100 cubic kilometres (24 cubic miles) of ice per year since 2002. By the year 2100, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change estimates that sea levels will rise as much as 20 inches.
While rising sea levels ultimately influence the entire planet, they pose the greatest threat to the various island nations currently residing at sea level. Here are six nations likely to face this crisis first. (Text: Katherine Butler)
1. Republic of Kiribati
The Pacific Ocean holds the nation of Kiribati, a 266-square-mile republic on 32 atolls and one island. With a population of 102,697, this archipelago of coral atolls covers an oceanic expanse equal to the size of the United States. Most of the island nation does not lie more than 3 meters above sea level. For this reason, its residents are greatly concerned about the impact of warming seas. Recently, President Anote Tong revealed that his Cabinet had endorsed a plan to buy nearly 6,000 acres on Viti Levu, Fiji’s main island. The plan is to potentially move the entire population off of Kiribati. “It wouldn't be for me, personally, but would apply more to a younger generation,” Tong said in March. “For them, moving won't be a matter of choice. It’s basically going to be a matter of survival.”
Related Link: Child deaths soar in Kiribati due to lack of water
2. Republic of Maldives
The Maldives are a picturesque chain comprising over 1,100 islands and atolls in the Indian Ocean. However, this paradise may soon be lost to rising sea levels. The highest parts of the Maldives rise to no more than 8 feet. This leaves its nearly 400,000 residents at great risk of storm surges and rising seas. The island received considerable damage in the December 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, which decimated fresh water supplies and damaged homes. Further, extreme mining of the protective sand and coral around the islands has made them even more vulnerable to rising waters. In 2009, then-President Mohamed Nasheed emerged during the Copenhagen Summit as the face of this issue on a planetary scale. As Salon noted, “if his country cannot be saved from rising sea levels, then there may be no saving Tokyo or Mumbai or New Orleans or New York.”
Related Link: Destination of the week: The Maldives
3. Republic of Fiji
The people of Kiribati may want to rethink their plans to relocate to Fiji, as this 7,056-square-mile island nation in the South Pacific is pondering its own ways to face the challenges of climate change. While its larger islands contain mountains as high as 4,000 feet above sea level, Fiji is still concerned about the effects of climate change. As the World Health Organization reports, climate change is expected to influence extremes of too little and too much water in the form of severe storms and droughts. Further, such extreme weather is expected to make the island’s population of 851,745 more sensitive to climate-sensitive diseases, such as water-borne illnesses.
Related Link: Rising Pacific seas linked to climate change
4. Republic of Palau
Photo: NOAA
Palau and other island nations recently formed an expert advisory committee to bring the issue of rising sea levels to the United Nations. While others see climate change as an economic problem, “For us, it’s about survival,” President Johnson Toribiong said at a U.N. news conference. He also noted that waters had risen two or three times higher in Palau's region than anywhere else in the world. The 190-square-mile chain of eight main islands and more than 250 islets sits around 500 miles southeast of the Philippines. Geographically, it ranges from mountains to low-lying coral islands. Hopes are that the United Nations would be able to determine the legal ramifications of climate change via international law. Palau, which has roughly 20,000 citizens, is already active in other eco-arenas and is home to the world’s first national shark sanctuary.
5. Federated States of Micronesia
Micronesia consists of 607 islands containing both mountains and low-lying coral atolls in the Pacific. It lies 1,800 miles east of the Philippines. This 270-square-mile nation holds a population of 102,624. “The threat is to our existence, survival, not only as a people - as a culture. ...We now have just flat beaches - the wash comes in and hits the roots of coconut trees,” Masao Nakayama, permanent representative of the Federated States of Micronesia to the United Nations, said in 2009. Experts say sea levels will rise more than 3 feet in the next 90 years, and Nakayama contends that “even a small rise of 1 meter” will be devastating to the nation.
Related Link: Melting ice on Arctic islands boosts sea levels
6. Republic of Cape Verde
The Cape Verde Islands are located some 300 miles off the west coast of Africa. An archipelago of 10 islands and five islets, it holds a population of 516,100. In 2011, diplomats, legal scholars and other experts met at Columbia University Law School in New York City to discuss the fate of the Republic of Cape Verde and other island nations. One of the main issues discussed was the responsibility of the greatest greenhouse emitters - such as the United States and China - to the nations that may soon disappear into the seas. Ambassador Antonio Lima of the Cape Verde Islands pointed out that the largest nations will condemn themselves to the same fate if they continue to ignore this crisis. “We are sentinels of the world,” he told reporters. “What is happening to us will happen to all of us tomorrow.”
Related Link: Destination of the week: Cape Verde Islands
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