Nasa researchers: 2030, half the main island of Tuvalu will be under water
Published 2024-09-25 09.14
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full screen The South Sea country of Tuvalu where the sea level is expected to be one meter higher by 2100. Photo: Kirsty Needham / Reuters
Time is running out for Tuvalu.
Villages balance piecemeal on a headland only 20 meters wide.
Now the country wants to secure future fishing rights – even when the islands are swallowed by the sea.
- Tuvalu is threatened by rising sea levels, with villages on narrow headlands and the sea expected to drown the islands within decades, leaving the 10,000 residents homeless.
- Climate change has already driven drastic lifestyle changes for the Tuvaluans, with rainwater harvesting and ruined crops. An agreement with Australia allows the annual migration of 280 Tuvaluans.
- Tuvalu is working to change international maritime laws to secure continued fishing rights and recognition as a state even after the flood, which is critical to the country’s economic future.
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One of those who has postponed starting a family because of sea level rise is 29-year-old Fukanoe Laafai:
– I think we are about to sink, she tells the news agency Reuters.
If she has children in the island kingdom, most of the islands will be taken over by the sea before her children are adults. At the same time, the 10,000 inhabitants of the nine atolls in the South Sea would be homeless.
Raises 1.5 times faster
In the last three decades, the sea level has risen by 15 centimeters. That is one and a half times faster than the average on Earth, writes Reuters.
According to NASA scientists, daily tides will submerge half of the largest island of Funafuti, home to 60 percent of the population, in just 26 years.
Life has already changed drastically for the Tuvaluans. Even now, the population collects rainwater in large tanks. A raised garden has been made ready for vegetable growing, salt water has entered the groundwater and previous crops have been destroyed.
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full screen A young boy fishes on what used to be a house plot in Tuvalu. (The picture is from 2007.) Photo: Björn Lindahl
Through a ground-breaking climate and security agreement last year with Australia, 280 Tuvaluans are allowed to emigrate there every year, starting next year.
Anxiety is spreading on the islands, fearing permanent displacement and the loss of their unique culture.
– It is a tough decision to make. When you leave a country, you leave the culture you were born into and culture is everything – family, your sister, your brother. That’s all, Maani Maani, 32, who works in the IT sector in Fongafale, told Reuters.
Change the laws of the sea
Four officials have worked on a legal solution where Tuvalu continues to exist as an independent state – even after the islands have disappeared below the surface.
Above all, it is now about changing the laws of the sea in order to maintain control over a vast marine zone with coveted fishing rights. They see two ways to achieve this, according to Reuters: by testing the matter in the International Court of Law of the Sea or through a resolution in the UN.
Today, land above sea level is required for a state to exist.
Tuvalu’s land mass is only 26 square kilometers, but it is spread over an archipelago of 900,000 square kilometers – more than twice the area of Sweden’s land mass of 447,425 square kilometers.
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fullscreen Prime Minister of Tuvalu Feleti Teo. Photo: Frank Franklin II/AP
And the territorial waters are a gold mine for Tuvalu. There is plenty of tuna that foreign fishermen pay the country 30 million dollars (roughly 302 million kroner) annually in license fees to catch. It is by far the country’s largest income.
Nasa: The level increases by at least one meter
Currently, Tuvalu is trying to buy time. Barriers have been built against the sea as protection against ever-worsening storm surges on Funafuti, which is 400 meters wide at most. Tuvalu has built seven hectares of artificial land and plans for more. With the construction, it is hoped that the new one will stay above the tide until 2100.
Then Nasa expects that the sea level will have risen by one meter – or in the worst case, even more. That would leave 90 percent of Funafuti under water.
Now the residents struggle daily with the tangible consequences of climate change – and try to get used to the idea of saying goodbye to the islands.
– Everyone thinks about it. The torrents are scary, says Maani Maani, who worries about what will happen to the elderly residents if the able-bodied emigrate first.