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Climate Change to Force 75 Million Pacific Islanders From Their Homes
More than 75 million people living on Pacific islands will have to relocate by 2050 because of the effects of climate change, Oxfam has warned.
A report by the charity said Pacific Islanders were already feeling the effects of global warming, including food and water shortages, rising cases of malaria and more frequent flooding and storms. Some had already been forced from their homes and the number of displaced people was rising, it warned.
Fishermen paddle off Kennedy Island in the remote Western Province of the Solomon Islands (Photo: AFP) "The Future is Here: Climate Change in the Pacific" predicted that many Pacific Islanders would not be able to relocate within their own countries and would become international refugees.
It urged neighbouring wealthy countries to take urgent action to curb their carbon emissions to prevent a large-scale crisis.
Half of the population of the Pacific live less than 1.5km from the coast and are incredibly vulnerable to sea-level rise and extreme weather. But as well as moving out, the report found that some countries had started adapting to the changing climate.
Fiji is attempting to "climate-proof" its villages by testing salt-resistant varieties of staple foods, planting mangroves and native grasses to halt coastal erosion in order to protect wells from salt water intrusion, and moving homes and community buildings away from vulnerable coastlines.
In the Solomon Islands officials are looking for land to resettle people from low-lying outer atolls, and those living in the outer atolls of the Federated States of Micronesia were also moving to higher ground. The tiny nation of Tuvalu also recently pledged to become carbon neutral by 2020.
Andrew Hewett, Oxfam Australia Executive Director, said it was vital that Australia started working with Pacific governments to plan for the impact of climate change.
As the wealthiest country in the region and the highest per capita polluter, Australia "must prevent further climate damage to the Pacific by urgently adopting higher targets" - reducing emissions by at least 40 per cent on 1990 levels by 2020 - and urging other developed countries to do the same, the report said.
The Australian government's commitment of $150 million (£75m) to help Pacific Islanders adapt to climate change needed to at least double, it said.
"It would be in Australia's interests to act now because, as the situation worsened, it would be called on to respond to more emergencies in the region," Mr Hewett told the Sydney Morning Herald.
With only months to go until the crucial UN negotiations in Copenhagen in December, Australia needed to show Pacific leaders it was willing to do its fair share to address one of the most pressing challenges in the region, he said.
"People are already leaving their homes because of climate change, with projections that 75 million people in the Asia-Pacific region will be forced to relocate by 2050 if climate change continues unabated. Not all will have the option of relocating within their own country, so it's vital that the Australian Government starts working with Pacific governments to plan for this now."
Pacific leaders will raise the issue of climate change with Kevin Rudd, the Australian prime minister, at the Pacific Islands Forum on Aug 4.
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19 Comments so far
Show AllOkay 75 million from Pacific Islands, millions more from places like Bangladesh, the Indonesian archepelago, the Philipines, and coastal South Asia.
What fun to contemplate Australia, Japan, Korea and other developed nations trying to absorb that many people. I wonder, will the Statue of LIberty "lift her lamp besides the golden door" or slam it shut and let them just die.
Poet
let them die, under whatever euphemism....
I suppose we shall let them die. Just think of the money it will save the almighty Amerikkkan tax payers. We will no longer have to spend trillions of dollars to send or troops all over the friggin' place to kill those unworthy sons of bitches (General Patton's words).
Hell this global climate change thing might be just the thing Americans need. With no wars to pay for, we just might have enough money left to pay for our 'socialist' health care. What the hell, socialism bailed out the capitalist banks and insurance companys, didn't it?
US policy in the Middle East appears designed to hasten the process: buy more and burn more to control more. To give it back? I think not.
Another 5' of water would sink good parts of NYC and Los Angeles, not to speak of Miami and New Orleans. Galveston, well . . . you can't have everything. I can't see the States worrying about the people they're sinking elsewhere.
Nope. The elites buy inland and pay police protection.
We can't leave this decision with the people now in power. The lead problem (among many) is the US: it's persistent military aggression creates a bottom line that other countries must match to defend themselves.
Can't they move to Siberia and northern Canada? As the world warms up, those areas should be a lot more habitable.
Miami is sucking so much fresh water out of the ground that they have salt water intrusion problems.
--------
The Ocean is rising! These islands are going under, there is NO WAY to stop it now. Planting mangroves is probably the best thing they could do.
What I notice is how beautiful the water is under the boat in the picture. What a paradise!
Having sailed amongst some of the Pacific islands and atolls, met their people and shared their way of life, I find it sad that they are being expunged, largely by our greed. The people I met were the nicest, most outgoing and natural people I'd ever come in contact with. Their lifestyle (if they resisted the 40' American container loads of Budweiser, candy, and processed, canned food) promoted health and vigor. Except in the American controlled areas, there was little crime. The children were cherished and the elders respected and cared for. No one went hungry or was without shelter. Someone would always take in the less fortunate. All in all, a most beautiful and loving people and culture, diverse from atoll to atoll, but with the same basic values. Where there is heavy dependence upon America, or outright rule, it is a different story, the Club Meds are a disaster to the people, but I speak of those who have avoided America, or kept it at arms length.
Vale, Micronesia, Polynesia, Melanesia and so many more. When your islands and cultures have vanished beneath the warming sea, you will be missed.
SSSSSSSSSSSSSHSHHHHHHHHH! Shutup minitrue, aka (Captain Ron)
Untrue! All Pacific islands are just like Haiti! Bad, Bad: Really bad here. Stay home!
(The last thing I want is a bunch of NeoCon Repukes showing up over here, trying to save "he who sits in darkness" from paradise......) Repukes would have us all in chains making widgets within 30 days of their nefarious arrival. Their felonious deeds would go unpunished as they corrupted the local police to install slave camps like in Saipan and American Samoa.
There's marlaria here, there's parasites in the water, toxic smoke in the air, flies, no-seeum's, leeches, headhunters, vodoo and worse!
Stay away I tell you!!!!
TJ
"All tyranny needs to gain a foothold is for people of good conscience to remain silent." - Thomas Jefferson
But not all the islands will disappear, right? Many of them will be a lot smaller, but they'll be around.
The severity of storms will pose a big problem but the rise in the ocean levels will take more than a couple of centuries and more to 'sink' these islands unless the remaining ice on greenland and the antartica happen to slide off into the sea.
Already happening... haven't you heard about the break up of the Ross Ice Shelf in Antarctica?
And the glaciers that cover Greenland are so riddled with holes they are very cautious about sending out survey teams.
Walk in peace.
Yeah, I've read about that and some others but ice shelfs are in the water so that melting from them is negligble but there is concern about Greenland's ice becoming so weakened that it could 'crash' or slide off the land creating some not so good conditions and I believe Antartica's western land based ice sheet is a possible one for doing the same; now that would create a dramatic rise in sea levels world wide but according to the Ice Age Cycles the melt lasts for approximately 10,000 years and we are supposed to be in the 8,000th year(or there about) of this warm up and with the added part of pollutions creating more and more 'insulation' that will warm things up faster then ice will melt faster.
But also as that happens all that fresh water entering into the oceans will shut down the ocean currents thus setting up more water vapor in the atmosphere that will take this planet into the next age of ice sheets and cold so as much as man IS influencing the climate, the climate is still an 'earth's orbit around the sun and the tilts the earth presents to the sun' which is the basic climate change engine.
Check out NOAA's website, there is plenty of info there.
Those silly islanders in the Maldives and Marshals who evacuated! Some posters know more than they do about tides and ocean basin behavior at the confluence of high astrological tide and low pressure system (typhoon, cyclone). Those breakers rolling through their bedrooms must be only their imaginations! We all know they lived there for 500 years with no floods. How could the gov lie about Greenlands Ice cap runnoff? (worth 20 feet in sea rise if it breaks up like it's doing)
This Hollywood understanding of an instant reversal of global warming is most amusing. Ever been in a science class? Ever heard of a heatsink? That's what those oceans are you know, giant heatsinks. Even if we turned off every engine on the planet today, some scientist believe it would take 30 years for the accumulated heating effect to stop increasing.
And by that time, about fifty million people are getting sick causing world wide disease that's coming to a town near you.
Meanwhile, back at the think tank, clueless neocons sit around talking about cooling trends even though there's no evidence of any such thing. Hey guess what? I lost 20 lbs this month! I must be in a weight loss trend! (Never mind the fact that I'm still tipping the scale at a life annual record of 295 lbs.)
Also this "Instant Ice Age-Going-to-Save-us-Cycle" fantasy is really something. When's that going to kick in? 2050? What if you're off by a few hundred years? (That's nothing in Geologic Time.) The Sedimentary record is clear that the ocean once was 400 feet higher than it is today (And that was before a single private engine spewed reflective gases into the blue.)
The Church of constant growth is a surefire killer for everybody.
TJ
"All tyranny needs to gain a foothold is for people of good conscience to remain silent." - Thomas Jefferson
I am totally unimpressed with your version of climate change which apparently mirrors most other people's ideer of what the climate MUST change like and since you can't describe a single real truth about what the Ice Age Cycle is, please don't try, your brain isn't ready for that much influx of information.
But just for shits and giggles:
Also this "Instant Ice Age-Going-to-Save-us-Cycle" fantasy is really something. When's that going to kick in?
It will kick in on April 1st of next year at about 2:15pm or am, not sure yet about that.
2050? 2,050 what?
What if you're off by a few hundred years?
Me, you and gezus are gonna get drunk, whoopee!
Sedimentary record is clear that the ocean once was 400 feet higher than it is today.
Just gunna hafta raise the high dive board an extra 500 feet.
Wherever land-borne ice (LBI) is, it will melt faster as temps increase. When LBI melts, the water flows to the ocean. As the oceans spin, rotate, with the earth, water level at the equatorial bulge initially will rise, but, the forces associated with the change in location of that water mass will put some pressure on the tectonic plates. Land unburdened by ice mass will tend to slowly rebound as well.
Is it not then quite plausible that a change in the forces that affect tectonic plates/activity will create conditions for volcanic warming of the ocean and atmosphere? Is it probable that tectonic activity will mark the onset of the "forcing-of-the-forcings"? USGS people have to be brought into the mix of scientists that are keeping tabs on our situation. Data from the Mid-Atlantic Ridge/magnetic striping must also be examined.
The Greenland ice sheet is a major player, as is of course, Antarctica, but do not discount all other LBI.
LBI was at some time moved from the seas to the land by weather systems, some ordinary and, I believe there is much documentation for, extraordinary system activity.
The IPCC/Gore chart of CO2/Temp Dev displayed prominently in Al's movie and book shows very clearly what can be expected.
Change will happen. HOW it happens and WHEN it will happen are the big questions. A macro-reversal into an Iceage is indicated by the chart. That is different from, but no less a threat to civilization than the runaway warming scenario.
Carbon-based energy choices are the wrench thrown into the workings of what could be a survivable natural cycle.
We must switch out of the oil/coal economy into the non-nuclear alternatives---where we should have been for the last 40+ years.
But have no doubts about the likelyhood of collosal change---it's coming whether we switch or not. The hotter it gets, the sooner it happens, and likely, the more severe it will be.
By virtue of our technology, we are the first humans to have a chance to prepare for the change. Will we prepare, or just fuck around with the status quo until our options run out?
Study the chart!
In World War II I was a young man on an American patrol craft (PC 1172). Our home base was Eniwetok atoll in the Marshall Islands. The locals there were perfectly described by an earlier commenter: "Children were cherished and elders were respected and cared for. No one went hungry or was without shelter. Someone would always take in the less fortunate. All in all, a most beautiful and loving people and culture."
Hi Mr. Madsen,
I was at Operation Redwing, Bikini Atoll, 1956 (H-Bomb tests) We put into Kwaj when trying to run out from under the fallout from a test. At that time, it was a military base with dependent housing. I think all of the native population had been sent elsewhere by then.
My last voyage, in an old schooner, passed to the south of the Marshal's. Another thing I noticed was that, where we saw tremendous amounts of sea life, huge shoals of flying fish, porpoise everywhere, whales, birds of many description when we sailed to Bikini in '56, traversing the same general area in the schooner in '91, we sailed across a desert. Occasional small shoals of flying fish, only a few pods of porpoise, (mostly near harbors, very few in the open ocean) one Sperm Whale, several pilot whales and a handful of boobys. Usually trailed a line and lure, caught three fish in 10,000+ miles. San Francisco, Honolulu, Pohnpei, Palau, Philippines, Singapore.
Steve O.
Please be quiet while I fondle my 2010 Lexus brochure.
The impact on the US could be worse than anything human mankind has ever witnessed.
Since early childhood I had these premonitions, dreams, about a time to come for Me to witness, in which people would wish to never had been born. While the pictures were all similar, distressed, starving and lifeless people without destination, wandering to death, the emotions were variable, sometimes involved, other times only observer.
At one time I was prescribed sleeping meds, because I could not sleep, way too many gruesome dreams, sometimes even during the day.
Since My focus on inner 'Being', those dreams and premonitions started to occur less frequent. Plus, starting with 14 years of age I turned to Pot as the best 'dream-supressant'.
40 years later My discomfort returns, as I see one vision after another matching up with 'reality'.
Nobody needs to be rocket scientist, as a matter of fact it could rather be hindering to be one, to witness and conclude the changes the planet and Humankind has gone through just during the last 50 years alone. Distress at the capitalism/militarism/religion level plus an ever growing climate backlash hitting hardest the most serene places in the Pacific Ocean/World.
Back to the US and its fate. When somebody told me about Yellowstone 'warming up' two years ago, I had this dumpling in my throat. That's what it was. Many of my dreams took place in America, for me only identifiable through the faces of the people in my dreams.
Ocean level rise does indeed cause the tectonic plates to become erratic in movement. Here on the Big Island You sit on a 'Hot Spot' of which nobody has a clue how they form, this one in the center of the Pacific seems to have a special meaning. While You feel how the plate moves under You, slowly but surely, any kind of variance is immediately apparent. The amount of earthquakes has increased. No significant tremors in a week now though. Silence. Spooky silence. Many people here believe something is cooking under the island. When I tell them about the fact, that increased ocean levels will increase pressure on the seafloor they look at me in disbelief. "Really?". Living only minutes away from the Lava's Ocean Entry I expect spectacular events ahead. Mauna Loa/Kilauea are one big pressure relief valve. This kettle will soon whistle for the world to hear. When that happens You may want to relocate out of the path of Yellowstone.
The idea of countries like Australia and US taking in people is wonderful, yet I know it might be a better idea to leave those places, too.
At one point I wanted to buy a decommissioned submarine. If You remove all the military crap from it, it has enough room to even grow food under lights. Then, when the ocean rolls up into these monster tsunamis, You dive some and then some.
On the other hand I don't intend to throw the towel yet. My solar aggregator will help people save a lot of energy, every little bit counts. Plus the revolution of biogas digesters, providing You with all the energy You need. From 'waste'.
My mom always told me that Martin Luther said: "If the world comes to an end tomorrow, I will plant an apple tree today."
Aloha
Believe That You Can Change Your Beliefs.