Chain Reaction, #91, 2004

The Pacific Nations and the impacts of global warming

There are 22 Pacific Island states, with a combined population of approximately 7 million people. The inhabitants of small island states have a common concern, that climate change will make many of their homelands uninhabitable. Climate change and sea level rise are serious threats, and impacts on food and water security as well as human health are already being felt. The Pacific nation of Tuvalu, with its atolls being an average of 2.5 metres above sea level, has gained international recognition as one of the world’s most vulnerable nations to sea-level rise. However all of the Pacific Islands have been ravaged by a steady increase in cyclone frequency and severity in recent years, such as Cyclone Heta that destroyed almost the entire infrastructure of Niue near Papua New Guinea in January 2004. The effects of increased flooding on high tides, which is already being experienced in Tuvalu, as well as the impacts of extreme weather events on infrastructure, food and water security has the potential to render some nations uninhabitable.

It is essential to look at the impacts of climate change on food, water, health and infrastructure to ensure the protection of social and environmental rights in the 21 century. As the following examples will highlight, the Pacific islands are already being affected by extreme weather events, and broader changes in climatic conditions that affect the general well being of people in Pacific island countries. These are not simply environmental problems, but also social, cultural and economic.

Food Security

As noted by Tuvaluan activist, Siuila Toloa, when climate change forces the movement of people as refugees, there is the potential that countries will lose their sovereignty and traditional customs. Tuvalu lives off a subsistence economy and therefore is heavily dependent on its immediate ecological surroundings, both marine and terrestrial. Salt water intrusion reduces the land’s productive capabilities and has already affected traditional crops on six of Tuvalu’s eight islands . The decline in local food security has changed the focus from subsistence to an increased reliance on the import of processed foods from elsewhere. This is the biggest of the underlying problems Tuvaluans are currently noticing relating to climate change. The change from locally grown foods to imported foods is associated with lifestyle diseases such as hypertension and diabetes.

The impacts of climate change on food systems is not isolated to Tuvalu. Coral reefs are a major food resource providing the environment for subsistence fishing across the Pacific (especially artisinal coastal fishing which, in some countries, is undertaken by women). With increased incidence of coral bleaching, artisinal fisheries are being depleted, as observed by fishers in Samoa¹.

Water Security

Water resources remain very critical for many of the Pacific island countries and are most vulnerable in the atoll² states. Rainwater is the major water source in Tuvalu and the northern atolls of Cook Islands, but a thin layer of fresh groundwater that sits atop the saltwater lens, used as a reserve, is threatened by reduced precipitation rates and sea level rise. Water shortages have also been experienced on higher islands as rainfall patterns (influenced by interannual variations or ENSO) become more variable. Drought in Papua New Guinea, the Federated States of Micronesia, Marshall Islands and Fiji is a manifestation of such variations in climatic and oceanic conditions.³

Increase in Vector and Water Borne Diseases

Warmer temperatures lead to increased incidence of malaria. In the highlands of Papua New Guinea and Solomon Islands, which previously were too cold for mosquitoes to survive, there have been reports of malaria. El Nino cycles have been linked to cholera – there have been outbreaks over recent years in the Federated States of Micronesia and Marshall Islands⁴. In 2003, the World Health Organisation estimated up to 160,000 deaths a year were attributable to global warming, largely due to malaria and malnutrition. These figures are expected to double by 2020.

Infrastructure and Land Losses

With large coastal areas compared to total land area, coastal erosion is a common problem, previously attributed to coastal development e.g. mining, infrastructure construction, pollution, now exacerbated by storm and wave action. There have been reported losses of sandbanks and shorelines in Tuvalu (on the motu of Tepuka Savilivili), the Cateret Islands since the 1960s, and some islands in Fiji have retreated 30m in the past 70 years⁵. In Kiribati the motu of Tebua Tarawa, once a landmark for fisherman, is now under water.

Coastal roads, bridges and plantation are suffering increasing erosion, even on islands that have not experienced inappropriate coastal development. Increased occurrences of climatic extremes, for instance, more intense storms and increased incidence of floods, impacts on housing and community infrastructure, including culturally significant sites such as graveyards. In Majuro, in the Marshall Islands, sea walls have been constructed to try to protect existing infrastructure and halt the impacts of erosion⁶.

To put the impact of land losses in context: the eight atolls of Tuvalu have a total land mass of 26 square kilometres on which over 10,000 people live and have lived for thousands of years. The incremental impacts of sea-level rise of an average of 2 millimetres per year, increased intensity of cyclones, storm surges, and king tides all have significant impact on the quality and amount of land people have to support themselves and to maintain cultural and heritage practices and sites.

While the North will need to work with affected communities in the South, the ultimate form of 'adaptation' to global warming will be the recognition of climate refugees. While there is a growing awareness that this should be a last resort measure, that is, an option that is available when local systems are no longer able to support local communities, and all attempts to adapt to changed conditions have failed, this will require considerable forward planning to put structures in place to assist people move should global warming make their current existence untenable.

Authors: Stephanie Long and Cam Walker

For further information, please see:

1. http://www.foe.org.au/climate

2. http://www.foe.org.au/population

Pacific Island Statistics Source: SBS World Guide 2002.