Coral reef managers and scientists from across Micronesia are gathered in Guam this week to learn about building resilience into reef management and the tools available for addressing the impacts of climate change. Corals are vulnerable to climate change impacts, such as increases in temperature and ocean acidification.
During the 1997-98 El Nino event, reefs in Palau, the Great Barrier Reef, and other locations experienced wide scale coral bleaching due to increased water temperatures. In some of these places, the reefs have started to recover, but other reefs have not. The participants in the Reef Resilience and Climate Change Workshop are meeting to discuss the factors that helped reefs recover and incorporate those into coral reef management.
Managers will learn how to use tools to predict coral bleaching events developed by NOAA's Coral Reef Watch, discuss factors that helped reefs recover during past bleaching events, learn about ecological and socioeconomic monitoring, and develop strategies for reef management that will help the region's reefs be more resilient to the impacts of climate change.
Reef managers around the world are engaged in activities to help coral reefs survive climate change. This workshop will also help integrate managers from this region into a network of global practitioners working to incorporate resilience at their sites.
The Guam Reef Resilience and Climate Change Workshop is part of a series of resilience and climate change workshops that haves been running for the past five years and is sponsored by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Government of Guam, The Nature Conservancy, the University of Guam Marine Laboratory and Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority. (PR)
28 August 2009
10 August 2009
Islanders live in daily fear of weather - The National Newspaper
Islanders live in ‘daily fear’ of weather
Phil Mercer, Foreign Correspondent
- Last Updated: August 08. 2009 8:16PM UAE / August 8. 2009 4:16PM GMT
CAIRNS, AUSTRALIA // Fearing the destruction of their land and culture, small island nations in the South Pacific have pleaded with developed countries to slash their carbon emissions to stave off the worst effects of climate change.
At a regional summit in the Queensland city of Cairns, delegates have called on Australia and New Zealand to almost halve the amount of greenhouse gases they emit by 2020.
Tuvalu, a tiny island north of Fiji with a population of just 12,000, has found itself on the front line of potentially catastrophic environmental upheaval that residents firmly believe is the result of man-made pollution.
“We are witnessing the gradual death of our identity as a people,” said Tafue Lusama, the chairman of the Tuvalu Climate Action Network. “Tuvalu will be the first country to face the impacts of climate change and my concerns are that we have been ignored for far too long by the industrialised countries and the international community,” he said during a visit to Cairns
Tuvaluans are at the mercy of an ecological cocktail of rising sea levels, warmer temperatures and increasingly unpredictable weather events.
“It is very frightening. We literally see the impacts daily. We are living in it and every day we see the islands being eroded by the sea during high tide. We are losing our lands. We’ve already lost our underground water supply because it has been contaminated by salt water,” Mr Lusama said.
“Every time I look at my children and imagine any time anything can happen; a storm surge will just come in suddenly and I won’t be able to protect my family.”
Islanders worry about the fragile health of the coral reefs that protect their homes from large ocean waves and as the earth warms there are growing concerns that the delicate ecosystems will be destroyed, leaving low-lying areas open to inundation.
“If the temperature of the sea increases our coral bleaches and dies. These corals are the houses for the fish. So, our fish stocks either move well into the ocean or they just simply die,” Mr Lusama said.
Although climate change is widely blamed for such disruption, experts have stressed that other factors could also be at work, including El Nino weather patterns and seismic activity as well as deforestation and the removal of sand for building work.
A sense of panic has spread across the vast South Pacific Ocean. In the Federated States of Micronesia, which sits between Hawaii and the Philippines, the effects of a shifting climate have been blamed for forcing islanders from their homes.
“The people who live on those low-lying atolls have experienced extreme weather events such as storm surges, king tides and typhoons in the last five or six years,” said Marstella Jack, a lawyer and former attorney general of the Federated States of Micronesia.
“The water washes over the land, seeps into our soil, intrudes into our vegetation and also our fresh water supplies. It fundamentally affects our daily life. King tides are destroying the outer islands. The next 10 to 20 years are critical for the survival of those very small atolls. People are already starting to leave.”
Increasingly the displaced are compelled to move to other overcrowded parts of the archipelago or take the monumental step of seeking a fresh start in the United States.
“I see the injustice in all of this. We’re victimised by factors beyond our control. I think that governments need to start looking at options that are available to do something about this,” said Mrs Jack, who also took a swipe at Canberra’s response to the climate emergency. “Australia is taking a very weak attitude towards carbon reduction.”
Officials meeting in Cairns at the Pacific Islands Forum, the region’s pre-eminent political body, have urged Australia and New Zealand to take a bolder approach to greenhouse gas pollution and also help vulnerable communities adapt to environmental turmoil.
Scientists have predicted that the sea that surrounds the Pacific islands will rise by about half a metre by the end of the century. Given that half of the islands’ population lives within 1.5km of the coast, such gloomy calculations could affect the lives of millions of people.
Edward Natapei, the prime minister of Vanuatu, said his corner of the South Pacific was already under siege. “Vanuatu is located on what they call the ring of fire, where we have cyclones, earthquakes, volcanic eruption and tsunamis. About two years ago we had to relocate an entire village in the northern part of the country further inland because the original site went underwater,” he said.
While the Australian prime minister, Kevin Rudd, has promised “maximum action” to address these ecological challenges, islanders believe that their culture and identity are at serious risk of extinction.
“I would invite climate change deniers to come to live in Tuvalu and experience the reality of what is happening and see if they feel the fear we face every day,” Mr Lusama said.
pmercer@thenational.ae
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Islanders live in daily fear of weather - The National Newspaper
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05 August 2009
Pacific islanders speak out about climate change
Voices of the Vulnerable: Pacific islanders speak out about climate change
Communities in the Pacific islands are among the world’s most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. On Saturday August 8, people from Kiribati, Tuvalu and the Federated States of Micronesia will tell New Zealanders that tackling climate change is not just a matter of taking care of the environment, but of saving the lives of people who played almost no part in causing the problem.
This weekend Te Papa hosts Voices of the Vulnerable, a challenging discussion in which Pacific islanders speak out about climate change as it is affecting them today. The panel, chaired by Dr Claudia Orange, will include speakers from Kiribati; Tuvalu; and the Federated States of Micronesia as well as climate change scientist Jim Salinger and New Zealand-based development experts.
Panellist, Ms. Pelenise Alofa Pilitati of Kiribati said, “The future of Kiribati is in our hands. We want our children to love their country and love to serve their people. But what is the future of our children when our country is being threatened by global warming?”
New Zealand’s greenhouse gas pollution per capita is fourth highest in the developed world. Rich industrialised countries are overwhelmingly responsible for the climate crisis, contributing around three quarters of the world’s greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. In contrast 100 countries, with a total population of around 1 billion people, are responsible for just 3 per cent of global emissions. The great injustice is that it is the poorest people who suffer most from the effects of climate change.
“There is still time to avert the worst impacts of runaway climate change, but it’s going to take a tremendous effort. The New Zealand government is hinting at an emissions reduction target of 15 per cent by 2020, which would sound the death knell for our Pacific Island neighbours, whose histories and cultures could end up as artefacts in museums,” said Susi Newborn, Oxfam New Zealand’s Climate Change Campaign Coordinator.
“The recent public consultations heard a unanimous call across the country for a 40 per cent reduction. How can the government justify turning a blind eye to the needs of our Pacific region and a deaf ear to what the average Kiwi wants them to do about climate change?” Newborn added.
Ms. Pilatati summed up her passion for preserving her homeland: “Some of my friends have migrated to Australia and New Zealand looking for greener pastures, but I refuse to migrate. I choose to return to Kiribati and to stay in the Pacific so that I could help my people. And if helping my people means speaking to all the leaders of the Pacific, then I count that my privilege. If it means talking to the whole world, I will gladly do it. If I have to shout it, I will shout the loudest.”
03 August 2009
Climate change a present threat to Pacific nations
Stewart Shuker, Brisbane, & Sue Bolton, Me
2 August 2009Speakers from Micronesia, Kiribati, Tuvalu and the Torres Strait Islands described how climate change affects their everyday lives at meetings of 180 people in Brisbane on July 28 and 170 people in Melbourne on July 30
Climate change has meant tidal surges now breach high sea walls, coast lines are being steadily washed away and staple crops and underground water sources are lost to rising sea levels. Diseases such as Dengue fever and Japanese encephalitis have returned to many Pacific islands.
Pelenise Alofa Pilitati from Kiribati said her people might be displaced by rising sea levels. “This is the last night you can help your brothers, now, right now, today. What will you do for your brother, for your Pacific family?” she asked. Pilitati said Pacific Islanders did not want relocation; they wanted the global warming problem fixed.
Pilitati comes from the Barnaba Island in Kiribati. The Barnaban people have been relocated twice before — once by the Japanese during World War II, and a second time by the Australian and New Zealand governments, which wanted the island for phosphate mining.
In the second relocation, all Barnaban people were relocated to Fiji. Still today, the Barnaban people want to return.
At the Melbourne meeting, Reverend Tafue Lusama from the Tuvalu Climate Action Network showed a slide of a community hall which was originally built on dry land. Now it is half underwater at high tide. People must plan festivals to coincide with low tide or paddle to the community hall.
Marstella Jack, the former attorney-general of Micronesia, said a recent tidal surge wiped out Micronesia’s entire food and cash crops. Many Pacific Islanders don’t have a regular income so they rely on what they grow. Many islands did not receive emergency food supplies for three months.
“Why did we come here? It is human nature to turn to your neighbours for help”, said Jack. “Present funding ends up in the pockets of consultants. We need funding for sea walls, for adaptation. We need funding that ends up in our communities.”
The speakers made an impassioned plea for the world’s governments, including Australia, to set binding emissions reduction targets, with a minimum 40% cut in CO2 emissions by 2020.
In Brisbane, Greenpeace’s Trish Harrup said: “Shareholder profits are being placed above Pacific Nation survival, and it is not good enough, not good enough from a nation that thought it was voting for real change in climate policy. All it will take for entire Pacific Nations to disappear is for good people to do nothing.”
The meeting was part of a speaking tour, titled Voices from the Frontline: Climate change and the Pacific, co-organised by Oxfam and Greenpeace.
Pelenise Alofa Pilitati from Kiribati said her people might be displaced by rising sea levels. “This is the last night you can help your brothers, now, right now, today. What will you do for your brother, for your Pacific family?” she asked. Pilitati said Pacific Islanders did not want relocation; they wanted the global warming problem fixed.
Pilitati comes from the Barnaba Island in Kiribati. The Barnaban people have been relocated twice before — once by the Japanese during World War II, and a second time by the Australian and New Zealand governments, which wanted the island for phosphate mining.
In the second relocation, all Barnaban people were relocated to Fiji. Still today, the Barnaban people want to return.
At the Melbourne meeting, Reverend Tafue Lusama from the Tuvalu Climate Action Network showed a slide of a community hall which was originally built on dry land. Now it is half underwater at high tide. People must plan festivals to coincide with low tide or paddle to the community hall.
Marstella Jack, the former attorney-general of Micronesia, said a recent tidal surge wiped out Micronesia’s entire food and cash crops. Many Pacific Islanders don’t have a regular income so they rely on what they grow. Many islands did not receive emergency food supplies for three months.
“Why did we come here? It is human nature to turn to your neighbours for help”, said Jack. “Present funding ends up in the pockets of consultants. We need funding for sea walls, for adaptation. We need funding that ends up in our communities.”
The speakers made an impassioned plea for the world’s governments, including Australia, to set binding emissions reduction targets, with a minimum 40% cut in CO2 emissions by 2020.
In Brisbane, Greenpeace’s Trish Harrup said: “Shareholder profits are being placed above Pacific Nation survival, and it is not good enough, not good enough from a nation that thought it was voting for real change in climate policy. All it will take for entire Pacific Nations to disappear is for good people to do nothing.”
The meeting was part of a speaking tour, titled Voices from the Frontline: Climate change and the Pacific, co-organised by Oxfam and Greenpeace.
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