Why are low lying islands affected by climate change?
How will islands be affected?
What will happen to the populations of inundated islands?
Burkett, M. “In Search of Refuge: Pacific Islands, Climate-Induced Migration, and the Legal Frontier.” Asia - Pacific Issues 98 (2011): 1-8.
Within the next fifty years people in the low lying Pacific Islands will be forced to leave their homes because of increased frequency and intensity of storms and floods, sea-level rise, and desertification. Many will not only lose their homes, but also their nation. If plans are not put in place to address this, it could cause a humanitarian disaster and political chaos? What happens to a nation when it no longer possesses any land?
Campbell, J. R. “Climate-change migration in the pacific.” Contemporary Pacific 26.1 (2014): 1-29, 259.
Climate change will affect in particular three things which will drive migration in peoples of the low-lying Pacific Islands: loss or reduction of land security, habitat security and livelihood security. Such climate-change migration will likely be extremely disruptive to the social, cultural, emotional and economic norms of these communities. The essential link between Pacific Islands people and their land is likely to pose significant problems, both for those who are forced to leave and those who must give up their land to accommodate relocatees.
Farquhar, Harriet. “"Migration with dignity": Towards a New Zealand response to climate change displacement in the pacific.” Victoria University of Wellington Law Review 46.1 (2015): 29-55.
International law provides insufficient protection to those who will be forced to migrate due to climate change. Plans should be put in place now to allow peoples to migrate with dignity. New Zealand has traditionally accepted immigrants from South Pacific islands and is likely to be one of the refuges for climate change immigrants.
UN. Climate change ‘threatens self-determination’ of citizens in island States, UN rights council told. 2015 March 2015. <http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=50257#.Vi3A0rcrLIU>.
If Pacific Island nations are inundated, basic human rights, such as the right to food, fresh water, sanitation, health and self-determination will be jeopardized. Leaders must find a way of reconstituting their states elsewhere, otherwise their citizens will become stateless.
UNCCD. Climate Change Impacts - Pacific Islands. n.d. 23 January 2016. <http://www.ifad.org/events/apr09/impact/islands.pdf>.
Describes the basic problems which will assail Pacific Islands in the next fifty years, due to climate change in a very simple paper. The paper describes the impact that climate change will have on agriculture, coastal systems, the ecosystem and water supplies for varying Pacific Island nations.This information is very useful for the current paper.
Notes
Find President of Kiribati, Anote Tong, speech to the UN re Pacific Islands. – Useful but will make the paper too lengthy
Which other countries are involved? Tuvalu? Papua New Guinea – probably not, too mountainous? Micronesia? Marshall Islands – Yes. Info not required.
Find out what December’s climate change conference has said on the subject? Supports same principles as currently being discussed in report.
Project Report Plan
Introduction
Geography and Climate Change on Low Lying Islands
Geographical, Social and Cultural Effects of Climate Change
Implications for Populations of Low Lying Pacific Islands
Conclusion
Project Report
Climate Change and its Effects on Low Lying Pacific Islands
Introduction
Geography and Climate Change on Low-Lying Islands
Built on coral reefs growing on top of extinct submerged volcanic islands, atolls are low lying islands which exist only a few metres above sea level. They are typically lacking in fertile soils, have low terrestial biodiversity, no surface water and a relatively fragile groundwater system. Climate change threats include coastal inundation, which could rob any low lying Pacific island nation of its land area and frequent storms which could wash away fragile soil and reduce salinization of surrounding coastal waters, thus destroying reefs.
The traditional connection between islanders and their land lie at the heart of their culture, and any seperation of this relationship will have enormous cultural and social consequences. If inundation of their land should occur, islanders will have lost their cultural connection to their birthplace as well as a loss of habitat and livelihood. Many Pacific Islanders earn their livelihood from subsistence farming or fishing. If the reefs are destroyed by coastal encroachment and freshwater inundation, fishing will also not be possible.
Most fresh water consumed by islanders is collected in rainwater tanks. Although there will be an abundance of rainwater as a result of climate change, land inundation will destroy collection points and lead to salinization of fresh water, making it undrinkable.
Implications for Populations of Low Lying Pacific Islands
Three critical issues need to be addressed if the populations of low lying Pacific Islands are forced to migrate due to climate change. At present, international law offers no protection to refugees of climate change, as refugee status is only afforded to those fleeing from war, famine or injustice . The international community needs to address this issue with urgency in order to assist the more than 2 million projected refugees who will be displaced by climate change in the next 50 years.
Although industrialized nations in the Pacific, namely Australia and New Zealand have traditionally welcomed immigrants from the Pacific Islands, they are vastly unprepared to accept the enormous number of climate refugees that could need to find safe haven.
The international community also needs to consider the loss of human rights and sovereign status of what will be more than one case of an island nation that has lost its territory. Without a place to live, residents of Pacific Islands who are forced to leave their homelands will be denied the human rights of food, water, a home, to sanitation and health, and to self-determination. Those nations still have an obligation to protect their citizens and they must find a way to do so, having lost their homeland. The President of Kiribati has been purchasing land in other countries in an attempt to overcome this problem, but the international community, through the United Nations, must address this potential problem on an urgent basis.
Conclusion
Although this report has only briefly examined some of the hazards which climate change will wreak upon low lying Pacific Islands, it can be seem that the tremendous impact that climate change will have, will require an urgent positive response from the international community, in order to mitigate an enormous political and humanitarian disaster.
