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| Thu, 15th Aug 2019 12:34:00 |
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How to save a sinking island nation |
Weather-related events are estimated to displace 143 million people by 2050 – but rising seas are already threatening tiny tropical nations.
The idea of drowning or sinking islands has long existed as a way to describe future risks that small island states must confront. But the reality is that these threats affect life in such places today. Many small islands states have chosen to reintroduce previously unpopular resettlement and migration policies in the face of climate change.
This is the story of Kiritimati (pronounced Ki-ri-si-mas) in the mid-Pacific – the largest coral atoll in the world. Raised no more than two metres above sea level at its highest point, Kiritimati is one of the most climate vulnerable inhabited islands on the planet.
One in seven of all relocations in Kiribati – whether between islands or internationally – are attributed to environmental change. And a 2016 UN report has shown that half of households have already been affected by sea level rise on Kiritimati. Rising sea levels also pose challenges to the storage of nuclear waste on small island states – a hangover from their colonial past.
Those who have moved become climate change refugees: people who have been forced to leave their home due to the effects of severe climate events and to rebuild their lives in other places, having lost their culture, community, and decision-making power.
This problem will only intensify. Intensifying storms and weather-related events have displaced an average of 24.1 million people every year around the world since 2008, and the World Bank estimates that another 143 million people will be displaced by 2050 in just three regions: sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia and Latin America.
New Zealand has also created an annual opportunity lottery called the Pacific Access Ballot. This lottery is presented as a way for 75 Kiribati citizens per year to resettle in New Zealand. But quotas are reportedly not being filled. Understandably, people do not want to leave their homes, families and lives.
While well-intentioned international policy is predominantly focused simply on relocation, rather than providing adaptive capacity and long-term support, these options still do not offer true self-determination for the people of Kiritimati. They tend to commodify people, reducing their relocation to reemployment plans.
International aid could resolve many future problems and preserve this astonishing and beautiful place for humans, nonhuman animals and plants, but the lack of support from wealthy nations makes options like this difficult for residents of small island states to consider. Artificial islands have been created in Dubai – why not here? Many other hard engineering options exist, such as coastal fortification and land reclamation technologies. Such options could protect the homeland of the Kiritimati people while also enhancing the resilience of these places – if international aid were more readily and consistently available from the nations that have driven this climate crisis.
Read original full article
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