This article from CQ Global Researcher (Moore, 2011) discusses the issues that will arise when circa one million people will be forced to vacate their island nations, as they vanish beneath rising ocean levels, as a consequence of Global Warming. Moore poses some key questions such as where those peoples will go, who will organize and fund relocating them and can those places still be considered as countries when the land itself no longer exists? The article mentions Papua New Guinea, where people are already being forced to abandon land that is no longer habitable due to the rising waters of the sea. Although the land is not yet actually flooded, the water supply can be contaminated by sea water, plus extensive flooding becomes more frequent and the area put at risk from larger waves. The Marshall Islands is another location mentioned. Their ambassador to the United Nations raises legal issues such as who will control the country’s fishing and mineral rights if the land has vanished? He also asks where the population will go, who will pay to relocate them and indeed whether other nations have any actual obligation to give them new homes? The article suggests that other countries will still recognize those “lost” nations, because the global warming and its effects are not their fault, but that the industrialized nations must accept the blame. It is the view of this researcher that all developed countries should share the responsibility for the rising sea levels caused by Global Warming and should therefore do everything in their power to help these peoples in whatever ways are needed, when the situation actually arises that they have to abandon their homelands.
Works Cited:
Moore, J. (2011, September 6). Resolving Land Disputes. CQ Global Researcher, 5, 421-446. Retrieved from http://library.cqpress.com/globalresearcher/document.php?id=cqrglobal2011090600&PHPSESSID=shf4a5kmmmqgglpfekf49087a3
