Tuvalu About To Disappear Into The Ocean

[RestoreGore]

http://www.enn.com/ecosystems/article/23020

Published September 13, 2007 08:45 AM
Tuvalu about to disappear into the ocean

SEOUL (Reuters) - The tiny Pacific island state of Tuvalu on Thursday urged the rest of the world to do more to combat global warming before it sinks beneath the ocean.

The group of atolls and reefs, home to some 10,000 people, is barely two meters on average above sea-level and one study predicted at the current rate the ocean is rising could disappear in the next 30 to 50 years.

"We keep thinking that the time will never come. The alternative is to turn ourselves into fish and live under water," Tuvalu Deputy Prime Tavau Teii told Reuters in the South Korean capital where he was attending a conference on the environment.

"All countries must make an effort to reduce their emissions before it is too late for countries like Tuvalu," he said, calling the country one of the most vulnerable in the world to man-made climate change.

snip

"We'll try and maintain our own way of living on the island as long as we can. If the time comes we should leave the islands, there is no other choice but to leave."

Teii said his government had received indications from New Zealand it was prepared to take in people from the islands. About 2,000 of its population already live there.

But Australia, the other major economy in the region, had only given vague commitments.

"Australia was very reluctant to make a commitment even though they have been approached in a diplomatic way."
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This leads me to a question: In the future it is now for sure that we will see thousands perhaps millions of environmental refugees pushed out of their homes which will become uninhabitable because of climate change. Would any country be within their rights to refuse entry to refugees, even if it is a country that is primary in the cause of them leaving in the first place?

[Heidi]

1. Recommended.

You for posting this. :thumbsup:

:kick:

[RestoreGore]

6. Thank you

I can't imagine how scary it must be to live not knowing when your home will be swallowed up by the sea. Unfortunately though, we may get a taste of that on the East coast of this country as well in the next 30 to 50 years if this keeps up.

[aquart]

2. Millions of refugees it will be.

And we will let them drown. Why? Because we will have no place to put them and no food to give them. Yes. It is going to get that bad.

[RestoreGore]

4. I agree, We are not prepared properly for this on a global scale

I try to have hope and I continue to tell people we can do something to mitigate the worst affects of climate change because we must try for our children and their children, and because I love this planet. But I also see that what it will really have to take to make a true difference is just so insurmountable considering that it is human beings that have to be counted on to figure this all out. And yes, I also agree, many would let them drown because so many are basically selfish and greedy people who have lost their true moral purpose. Australia is one example, and its leaders should be ashamed of themselves (but New Zealand gives me hope.) I surely hope the Australian people kick Howard to the curb.

[aquart]

8. "Would have let"? I'm talking about what WE will do.

And I'm troubled that you are still thinking in terms of this happening to OTHER nations. I'm talking about what will happen HERE. A 20-foot rise in sea level when Greenland melts. All our coastal cities under water. Our wheat-growing ability gone as the climate shifts. (Now is an excellent time to marry your children to landholders in the center of Canada.)Drought because there is no mountain snow runoff.

Think how hard it was for our cities to permanently take in the New Orleans refugees. Can you imagine trying to absorb MILLIONS? It isn't physically possible. We are going to let our own people drown.

Everything is going to de-stabilize. Because, you know, people do not want to drown.

You cannot put twenty or thirty million people out of their homes and not expect trouble.

I do not know of a single civilization that lost its coastal cities and survived. Do you?

[RestoreGore]

9. I did mention what would happen here above in another response

I was also talking of this particular instance because it is the subject of the article. Believe me, I do think in terms of it happening here, and what I see isn't pretty.

[roguevalley]

10. imagine the plants, insects, animals and birds that won't be able

to go anywhere. for millennia, they prospered. Now they are a metaphor for us all.

[RestoreGore]

11. Yes, we only think of humans who will have to move

other species are also being effected by these conditions.

[YOY]

3. Every one of those natives to Tuvalu is entitled to whack a global warming denier upside the head

without fear of repercussion in my book...

[RestoreGore]

5. Yes, and the U.S. government should have to take them in here as well

Since they don't seem to believe that this is an URGENT moral crisis as this country continues to use the atmosphere as a sewer.

[jaksavage]

7. I was a Peace Corpse in Tuvalu

1979 to 1981
grass huts and outrigger canoes
the highest land mass point is @ 8 feet above high tide
The problem is when high tide meets a wind storm
waves break over the beach and into the village and gardens

They have modernized housing and boats with motors now
refridgeration and computers too

I miss them so, I never recovered from my service there