Paradise lost: Climate change is sinking these Pacific islands

A RECENT study by Australian researchers reveals how climate change has submerged five uninhabited Pacific islets and eroded the coastlines of a further six islands, washing away villages and significant portions of land.

The affected area, as outlined in the journal Environmental Research Letters, is the Solomon Islands, a nation in Oceania that lies to the east of Papua New Guinea and about 1,600 km north of Australia. The study found that sea levels in the Solomons have risen by as much as 10mm in just two decades, forcing the ad hoc relocation of several settlements.

Coastal inundation higher in Pacific region

The study’s authors refer to their findings as the first definitive scientific evidence or confirmation of the impact of climate change on Pacific coastlines. Previous global research, focusing on areas with slower increases in sea level — of around half of what has occurred in the Solomon Islands — found that islands could more or less cope or even expand despite sea level rise. However, much of the Pacific can expect similar levels to what the Solomons are experiencing.

The higher-than-global average rates of sea level rise affecting parts of the Pacific region, along with higher instances of damage, can be attributed to natural variations in climate, geological phenomena (faults, plate tectonics), as well as higher wave energy. These factors, together with human-induced climate change, make many Pacific island territories especially vulnerable to coastal inundation.

Other Pacific islands being lost to climate change

Islands in the tropical Pacific, or Oceania, are hotbeds of sea level rise. Besides the Solomon Islands, there is great concern about the future of the Marshall Islands, an independent territory or “Associated State” of the United States. With their narrow, serpentine geography, these 29 coral atolls are at particular risk of vanishing completely.

The reality of coastal inundation is not limited to diminishing coastlines and lost property. It is uglier than just that.

Though each territory is unique and has different individual geographic features and vulnerabilities, there are similar stories throughout the tropical Pacific, in Melanasia, Micronesia, Polynesia, extending to Southeast Asia, and elsewhere in the Pacific. Other island nations under particular threat include Kiribati, the Cook Islands, Fiji, Palau, New Caledonia, French Polynesia, the Maldives, and the Seychelles.

Further afield on the west coast of the United States, residents in the San Francisco Bay area — where a newly proposed property tax would be used to help restore tidal marshes and secure flood protection — are becoming more concerned about rising sea levels. There are similar stories in Southern California and even on the Atlantic coast of the US, particularly in the state of Florida and in New Jersey’s Atlantic City.