For no community is the climate crisis more urgent than those living in the low-lying island regions across the globe. Living in a country as vast as the USA, I often marvel at the self-sustaining lifestyles and economies of these islands. Now, with glaciers melting and sea levels expanding, these islands face the dire prospects of extinction. This is happening for no fault of their own. In aggregate, the total contribution of these islands to global CO2 emissions is almost zero percent.
When we think of rising sea levels in the US, we think of coastal states—such as Florida, New York, or my own state of California. Now, the United States of America is a vast country. So even though we read about these sea levels, in the back of our minds, we have this comforting thought: “if and when this happens, we will move inland—like, say, to Missouri.”
However, many other island nations do not have this luxury. I am referring to islands like Tuvalu, Kiribati, or the Maldives. These islands are in remote corners of the world. Their livelihood depends on the island and its ocean resources. When ocean temperatures rise, and ocean acidification increases, it directly hurts marine food chains such as fish and plankton. When the fish supply in the surrounding waters decreases, it hurts the food security of the island communities.
In large countries like the United States, mountains, rivers, and lakes play critical roles in the water supply chain. In my home state of California, the melting snowpack from the Sierra Nevada mountains provides almost a third of our water needs.
However, island nations do not have such luxury. You will not find any lakes or mountains on these tiny lands. Instead, their primary sources of water are natural water aquifers—geological formations that store rainwater. As oceans continue to get warmer, they result in water expansion and rising water levels. Expanding saltier ocean water bodies encroach on these aquifers. Erratic weather patterns due to global warming also result in unpredictable rains. Both these factors hurt the water security of the island communities.
Expanding and rising water bodies also imply shrinking land masses. Shrinking landmasses implies less land available for homes and houses to live in. So either you have to raise your house by building on stilts or move “inland.” But on these small islands, there is no concept of “inland” - so where will these communities live as available land masses continue to shrink? Floating homes? This is a bleak possibility threatening the land and home security of the island communities.
So, with food, water, and homes at risk, the threat of climate change is real and immediate for these communities. Where will they live? What will they eat? Where will they get their water from? What does it mean to be climate resilient for these communities? What does climate adaptation look like for them? The dire straits that they find themselves in are due to no fault of theirs—as is the case with all marginalized communities facing climate-change-induced crises.
References:
Snapshot: Small Island Developing States. (n.d.). UNDP Climate Promise. https://climatepromise.undp.org/research-and-reports/snapshot-small-island-developing-states
Parsons, C. (2023, November 3). The Pacific Islands: The front line in the battle against climate change. NSF - National Science Foundation. https://new.nsf.gov/science-matters/pacific-islands-front-line-battle-against-climate
Ground Water on Tropical Pacific Islands— Understanding a Vital Resource, U.S. Department of the Interior U.S. Geological Survey, Circular 1312
Chan, M. (2022, June 22). A floating city in the Maldives begins to take shape. CNN. https://www.cnn.com/style/article/maldives-floating-city-spc-intl/index.html
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