Fiji Losing Land Because of Rising Sea Waters

Kanyad Keshani Koshi, professor of environmental studies at the University of the South Pacific in Fiji, tells Christopher Joyce of National Public Radio (NPR) that if rising ocean waters "turn against" Fijians, their already low living standards will worsen. The island of Fiji has livable lowland but the center is mountainous volcano surrounded by steep rocky slopes. This is inhospitable higher ground if the low lands become uninhabitable.

Fiji, surrounded by the world's largest ocean, is racking up obvious affects of climate change. Though rising ocean waters are not obvious, changes are beginning to show. You can see "the exposed roots of coconut trees," as Simon McGree, Fiji's meteorological office chief climate scientist, told Joyce of NPR.

McGree further said that real estate records, which indicate land boundaries, show that land is already lost to rising ocean waters. Even a small rise leads to potentially devastating weather effects. There are higher tides and storm surges. Other areas are seeing a drop in rainfall levels. There are stronger storms and unexpected Pacific area droughts.

It is well known and proved that warmer waters and stormwater runoff carrying silt are hurting the Pacific's Great Barrier Reef. Clive Wilkinson, coordinator for the Global Coral Reef Monitoring Network, tells Joyce that the runoff soils are harming the coral and warmer waters are beginning to kill parts of the Great Barrier Reef.

Wilkinson says that a warming Pacific doesn't just effect the coral and reef around the large island nations of the South Pacific. There is a much greater global effect. For instance, the unpopular El Nino Pacific Ocean pattern that brings droughts all over the southern hemisphere, in Indonesia, Australia, Africa, has a shrinking recurrence cycle. It is now recurring every seven and possible every four years.

For all these reasons, New Zealand, along with Australia, is implementing a crisis plan. Joyce reports for NPR that there is a likely potential that millions of people will suffer from rising ocean waters, the stronger storms that come with them, and the loss of freshwater supplies.

As reported on NPR, according to Adrian Macy, New Zealand's newly appointed climate ambassador, who was formerly ambassador to France, climate changes introduce "massive threats" to Pacific island economies and the threats can only be enlarged to humanitarian crises in the event of a mass migration of people out of the islands. Macy also says that this is why New Zealand, and also Australia, are beginning to make "plans to handle climate refugees."

As Kanyad Keshani Koshi said to NPR, "There are a lot of secondary impacts of climate change which will make the quality of life in the island Pacific very, very bad...."

Christopher Joyce, "Pacific Island Cultures Brace for Climate Change," National Public Radio. URL: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=10891261&ps=bb1