Content area
Full Text
A Country Goes Under
Most people are unaware of the existence of the small nation of Tuvalu, a nine-island archipelago in the South Pacific 1000 km north of Fiji and 4000 km east of Australia. Given its minuscule size and remote location, this is hardly surprising.
Yet the 11,000 inhabitants of Tuvalu face a huge dilemma: how to ensure the survival of their nation.The threat to Tuvalu comes not from bellicose neighbors but from natural surroundings: it is estimated that within 50 years, Tuvalu will be swallowed by the sea.
At its highest point,Tuvalu rises only 4.5 meters above sea level, and its average elevation is a scant one meter. When taken together with estimates of rising ocean levels, these figures do not bode well for the future of the islands. Enele Sopoaga, Tuvalu's ambassador to Fiji, stated in 1999 that sea levels will rise more than one foot, and possibly more than three feet, within the next century. He linked these rising levels to melting polar ice caps as the global climate shifts towards warmer temperatures. This threat became clear in 1992 when Tuvalu's Prime Minister Bikenibeu Paeniu announced that his island nation would be "the world's first victim of climate change." Since then, Tuvalu has already begun to see the effects of rising sea levels. Paani Laupepa, acting assistant secretary at the Ministry for Natural Resources and the Environment, lamented that,"The islands are full of holes and sea water is coming through these, flooding areas that weren't flooded 10 or 15 years ago." The...