The effects of climate change are causing a rising tide of fear
This week’s climate change talks in Durban may have been overshadowed by economic turmoil but, as environmental specialist Julia Edwards, from Porthcawl, discovered, rising sea levels spell disaster in one of the most beautiful parts of the world
THE I-Kiribati – the people of Kiribati – are disgruntled. As climate-change negotiators enter the final stages of yet another global gathering (COP 17), this time in Durban, representatives from countries where climate change is a daily reality are tired of talk; they want to challenge governments to take action. “Hear our cry,” say the I-Kiribati people.
Pin-pointing Kiribati on a world map would probably test most people’s geography. But the challenge may be particularly difficult for future generations if the climate scientists are correct in their forecasts of future sea-level rise.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change predicts that average global sea levels will rise by between 18cm and 59cm by the end of the 21st century; recent year-on-year sea-level records from across the Pacific region indicate that such forecasts may be too conservative.
The Republic of Kiribati (pronounced Kiribas) is an island nation in the central Pacific, about half-way between Hawaii and Australia. It is made up of 32 low-lying coral atolls and one raised island, and has a land area of about 500 square miles, compared with a vast sea territory of almost two million square miles.
With most of the land less than 3m above sea level, scientists predict that perhaps as early as the middle of this century Kiribati, along with the other low-lying Pacific nations of Tuvalu and the Marshall Islands, will be submerged under rising seas, and its people forced to relocate. In the fight against climate change, Kiribati is in the “front of frontlines”.
The issue of climate change featured strongly in the recent Kiribati elections. Activists elsewhere await news on whether Anote Tong will be successful in his bid to retain the presidency for a third and final term.
The announcement is expected later this month. For many years Tong, the current caretaker president, has been one of a few “lone” voices in the international arena advocating the urgency of climate change.
Tong said: “Climate change is the great moral challenge facing humanity this century”, and he acknowledged that the I-Kiribati people need to be prepared for the possibility of relocation “beyond our islands”.
“One day it won’t be a matter of choice,” he said.
Last year’s Conference of the Parties (COP 16) meeting in Cancun recognised the likely impact of climate change on the movement of people. All parties to the convention were encouraged to take measures “to enhance understanding, co-ordination and co-operation with regard to climate change-induced displacement, migration and planned relocation, where appropriate, at national, regional and international levels.”
Forced migration will be a real challenge for the I-Kiribati people, who, along with the estimated 500,000 other people of the Pacific, face relocation by 2050.
“We want to avoid being climate refugees,” said Andrew Teem, senior policy adviser for climate change in the Kiribati Office of the President.
“The process of relocation is going to be hard,” he said. “No, it’s already hard just thinking about it. The issues are mind boggling. But somebody has to think about it, somebody has to worry about it.”
Some politicians, however, have questioned whether Tong is giving up the fight by appearing to promote resettlement for the I-Kiribati people. Relocation should be a climate-change adaptation option of last resort.
Not everyone can migrate.
“Most people in Kiribati don’t understand climate change,” said Claire Anterea, a local climate-change campaigner and secretary of the Pacific Calling Partnership NGO. “However, they do understand the changes that are happening to their environment. You have to know how to approach them on the subject.”
Dr Ueantabo Neemia Mackenzie, director of the University of South Pacific, Kiribati Campus, agrees. “When islanders talk of the sea reaching the first row of coconuts, you know things are getting worse,” said Mackenzie. Such observations indicate that livelihoods are under threat.
No one in Kiribati is immune to climate change. Dr Mackenzie disclosed that his childhood home has been submerged by rising-sea levels. “Only the foundations are visible and they are under water,” he said.
According to the Kiribati Adaptation Programme, addressing short-term changes is the best strategy to plan for long-term impacts. So what can the I-Kiribati people do?
Claire Anterea jokes: “We could each climb a coconut tree, but there are more people than coconut trees!”
Many agencies are working to raise awareness among the I-Kiribati people and to help reduce the vulnerability of communities to the effects of climate change. For some people, however, it appears that it may be too late.
Dozens of dead coconut trees litter the landscape of Tebunginako village in Abaiang, an outer atoll to the north of Tarawa atoll, the capital. Other fruit trees and crops have vanished from the area and the village of 60 households was forced to relocate to nearby land.
More than a century ago, previous generations of villagers had blocked an ocean/lagoon channel, preventing the natural flow of sand along the passage and into the lagoon. This action caused instability and on-going shoreline readjustment.
Then, 15 years or so ago, the seawall was breached, allowing seawater to penetrate a brackish pond used to farm milkfish. Today, only the church and hall of the Roman Catholic Church remain at the site and recently, the church approached the Kiribati government for financial assistance to move from the area.
Despite appearances, the landscape of Tebunginako is not evidence of recent human-induced climate change; it is, however, a timely reminder of the likely future impacts of climate change in Kiribati and other low-lying islands. Long before islands are submerged by rising sea levels the fresh-water supplies (known as lens), found beneath each atoll, will become contaminated by salt water, rendering the islands uninhabitable.
Drawing on their strong Christian faith, the I-Kitribati people are encouraged never to give up hope. Rev Rewi Tereroko, the Kiribati Protestant Church Moderator and chair of the National Church Council of Kiribati said: “I do not disbelieve the scientists, but I do not depend on them, I depend on the love of God... There is always hope and God loves the people of Kiribati. We encourage our people to take responsibility for God’s world. We need to do something today to benefit future generations.”
In early September Ban Ki-Moon made a special two-day visit to Kiribati – the first-ever visit to the atoll nation by a secretary general of the United Nations – and reiterated his stance that climate change must remain a top priority on the international development agenda. His pledge will be tested in Durban.
According to Kiribati tradition, a frigate bird – the bird flying across the ocean on the national flag of Kiribati – sends messages from place to place. Let us hear the cry of the I-Kiribati people from across the seas. Climate change is happening now. “Now is the time for climate-change action,” say the I-Kiribati people.
Dr Julia Edwards, from Porthcawl, is a mission partner with the Methodist Church UK and has served as a researcher for the Pacific Conference of Churches on climate change and resettlement within the Pacific region
Read More http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/2011/12/09/the-effects-of-climate-change-are-causing-a-rising-tide-of-fear-91466-29922213/#ixzz1gUB4pWze
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