Reverend Tafue Lusama writes: In my home land of Tuvalu, a person without land is known as a fakaalofa — “a person deserving pity”. Not that many Tuvaluans want pity, despite the real possibility they will lose their island to the increased effects of climate change.
It is getting very difficult to catch fish now, as the ocean temperatures have definitely changed. When I grew up, my grandfather and my father used to teach me about the shift from one season to the other, and how it affects the movement of the fish in the sea from place to place. These ways have all been upset because of the changing weather patterns.
Coral bleaching (the result of ocean acidification and rising sea temperatures) is becoming very noticeable, and has contributed to a sharp decline in fish stocks. As a result, the cost of fish caught around our islands has become very expensive. It is cheaper for a person to walk into a shop and buy a tin of fish, one that is processed thousands of miles away, than it is to buy fresh fish from local fishermen.
Climate change is also reducing access to locally grown foods such as bananas and paw paw. We’ve experienced an increase in the frequency of strong winds and cyclones visiting our shores — fruit are regularly torn from branches before they can even be harvested.
During the high tides, salt water now spills onto our vegetable and fruit gardens, even bubbling up through the ground in some areas. Rising salinity has forced many people to give up growing traditional root crops such as taro and pulaka.
Niu Loane stands in his pulaka pit during the king tide.
The loss of these locally grown foods has contributed to an increased reliance on imported processed foods, in turn causing a rise in health conditions like diabetes and hypertension previously little known in Tuvalu. There is a very real concern that associated increased health costs could cripple many small Pacific island states without the resources to adapt.
When we talk about the impacts of climate change, it’s important to remember that our people depend on land. If we have land, we have life. When our land is being gradually eroded by the sea, we are literally seeing our life being eaten away. We won’t be able to give life to our children and grandchildren — that is how severe it is.
Things are shifting rapidly now, with increased impact on the land and people. Many Tuvaluans worry that an international agreement won’t be reached in time to save our island and way of life. We are dealing with the prospect of having to relocate, either further inland as the coast erodes, or to another country when there is finally no more land. Sea levels are rising by five to six millimetres annually, and Tuvalu sits just four metres above sea level. This is something I’m not sure a lot of people understand – the threat is real.
Many of my people, including myself, regard climate change as an injustice. Tuvalu has not developed or grown rich by emitting greenhouse gases, but is amongst those countries hit hardest by climate change. We’ve been raising our concerns and voices with the international community and the industrialised countries, and still we are being ignored. This is a grave injustice.
Australia and many other wealthy nations are yet to take strong action on climate change, fearing the cost to their economies. However, key reports including the Stern and Garnaut Reviews stress that the economic cost of weak or delayed action will be far greater than if we take strong action now.
The 2009 Copenhagen UN climate change meeting and its lack-lustre outcome left many disappointed, particularly in countries like Tuvalu. But I am cautiously optimistic about what can be achieved at future climate meetings, including the South Africa COP17 in 2011.
The people of Tuvalu believe in humanity and its ability to do the right thing at the right time. We believe strongly in family ties, with our neighbours of Australia and New Zealand looked upon as our big brothers. So in that line of thought, I would like to ask them to consider us and our livelihood, and give us an assurance of life continuity on our small islands.
Reverend Tafue Lusama is General Secretary of the Ekalesia Kelisiano Tuvalu (Christian Church of Tuvalu) and Chairperson of the Tuvula Climate Action Network. These photos were taken by Rodney Dekker for Oxfam Australia during the recent king tide in Tuvalu.
77 Comments
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Hi Hanashi,
Sad that Japan had that quake but this is about Global Warming here and the quake sure as eggs wasn’t caused by burning fossil fuels.
As to the nuclear damage; let’s wait and see.
“A greenpeace guy”
Not very reliable as a source of engineering info.
Hugh (Charlie) McColl
Sorry I read it repeated in a few of danr’s posts and thought he was referring to himself. It seemed a credible conclusion considering all the non scientific dribble he has come out with.
Sometimes he talks in riddles and makes no sense, so I have given up even trying to work out what he is talking about. When asked specific questions, he is evasive and just rants. Can’t be bothered really.
By the way, I saw ‘An Inconvenient Truth’ for the first time last night. It was made 6 years ago and it struck me as how little has happened since it was made on abating CO2 emissions.
“Sometimes he talks in riddles and makes no sense,”
Apologies for the sarcasm.
We all have faults.
Joke
If Carbon pollution is CO2 then what is Hydrogen pollution.
Yes, RAIN.
If either was missing from our lives we would not be here. Both are life essentials.
I rented ‘An Inconvenient Truth’ about two years ago, got a bottle of beer and sat down for a few laughs.
It was hilarious watching the Algorism weaving his spell.
It reminded me of The Poseidon Adventure.
Absolutely priceless…..everyone on the planet sure should stop driving their cars and stop using electricity and i can guarantee the poor inhabitants of Tuvalu they will never have to worry about strong winds and high tides ever again. You climate change idiots are totally unbelievable, but you love it don’t you, you know the atmosphere contains a minute amount of co2 and only a fraction of that is emitted from human activity. Yeah it’s great to believe in something but oneday you’ll realise your just being tricked.
How stupid would someone have to be to think people are influencing weather events like cyclones and floods. The only fact about agw is that if you believe it you should be ashamed of yourself for being so stupid and ignorant.
senior #56
Let’s look at the structure of your reply there, to see how it fits the climate delusional thought pattern.
1. Stupid pointless statement that suggests a ludicrous solution to the problem.[1]
2. Blatant display of scientific illiteracy leading to:
3. The assertion that one’s own scientific illiteracy is much more valid assessment than the 200 odd years of scientific research on climate issues, and the consensus statements of all of the world’s major academies of scientists.
My the climate delusional trolls are out in force on this blog again. It’s pretty depressing really.
Senior, rather a strong statement The only fact about agw is that if you believe it you should be ashamed of yourself for being so stupid and ignorant
So naturally, you are well qualified to make such a statement. Just tell us what education you have had in this topic. Please cite, universities studied at, what field of study you majored in and to what level. It would be nice if you could provide references to your peered researched work.
What! Haven’t got any formal qualifications…. fair enough. Then I suggest that perhaps you shouldn’t be calling people who do study these things, ‘stupid’.
I liken your situation to an abattoir slaughterer criticising a surgeon who performs heart lung transplants. Extremely presumptuous and egotistical.
Dear senior
Posted March 14, 2011 at 5:40 am | Permalink
Absolutely priceless…..everyone on the planet sure should stop driving their cars and stop using electricity and i can guarantee the poor inhabitants of Tuvalu they will never have to worry about strong winds and high tides ever again. You climate change idiots are totally unbelievable, but you love it don’t you, you know the atmosphere contains a minute amount of co2 and only a fraction of that is emitted from human activity. Yeah it’s great to believe in something but oneday you’ll realise your just being tricked.
How stupid would someone have to be to think people are influencing weather events like cyclones and floods. The only fact about agw is that if you believe it you should be ashamed of yourself for being so stupid and ignorant.
Fcking PRICELESS POST. So Good I just had to repost it
THANKS FOR THAT I needed a good laugh this morning.
You could also mention that people in the pacific are also at the mercy of deep underground fissures fault lines and volcanic activiy eathquakes the list of geological influences that have nothing to do with mankind is endless. And Lets not talk of sturctual geography and complex things such as plate tectonics and how islands are formed and lost.
Anyone from the Warm Earth Society on this list managed to link the japanese earthquake with AGW yet?
I will restate my premise. IF we are to help the people on this Island then we must move them and do so immediately. Politisicing their natural problem by the advocates of AGW WILL NOT HELP THESE PEOPLE.
Small Islands in the pacific and elsewhere come and go, this is a fact.
Now for all the hippy trippy climate self confessed experts on everything here may I draw your mind back to the lost city of atlanis or the demise of the Minoan people…. caused my man…or nature. I can raise about 100 other prehistoric examples and a few more recent if you like. But SHOULD they have moved to higher safer ground like those on Tuvalu….. yes is the common sense answer.
So, stop playing politics with these peoples lives to promote your own cause, for it will not help them.
Hanashi
Posted March 13, 2011 at 1:52 am | Permalink
I hope you pulled thru ok mate.
Darn scary stuff.
Escpecially the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant…Onagawa nuclear power plant seems stable atm.
It is unfortunate that the enviromental debate and the international organisations that control it are so concerned with the weather that their focus is diverted from by far the most devistating thing on this planet, nuke power plants and weapons.
In fact, arguements about not burning coal are leading to MORE nuke programmes which will lead to more wars as the The International Atomic Energy Agency pretends they have it all undercontrol.
I am sorry that this earthquake has poisoned many people maybe even yourself.
You will mostly only find people on hear who want to talk about the weather as the biggest danger to mankind. I am NOT one of those people as I have both eyes wide open and see that the weather is the least of our problems. Just look at the geopolitical order, now that be real nightmares.
Hope you are alive and well.
LisaCrago, in your post 59 you warn against “playing politics” and then in your next post 60 you urge the reader to “look at the geopolitical order”. If it’s a real nightmare then stop looking at it….. or as the Pope might have said, you’ll go blind(er).
So whose got the delusional thought pattern here, someone who knows carbon pollution has got nothing at all to do with small pacific islands disappearing or some media outlet who has got every freethinking fruitcake in the palm of their hands.
Politics don’t have as much to do with it as you think, when a politician tells you about how negligent we are for polluting they’re just buttering you up so when they tax you on it you cop it sweet, not sour. Lisa, do you think most of the people reading this thread know much about tectonic plates. ….greenies, ya gotta love ‘em, hash pipe in one hand, soy milk in the other.
senior #62
That’ll be you. It’s quite easy to demonstrate as well.
A classic non sequitur which starts with a supposedly scientific statement, and follows it up with a nutjob political statement. So in this case we can clearly show that you’re delusional with a lack of insight. For academic achievements we call this the Duning-Kreuger effect. This is where the person making the mistakes lacks the expertise to understand why their they are wrong.
The issue of climate change and our collective guilt over the production of Carbon Dioxide is a sociological and psychological phenomenon of astonishing proportions.
We are told by politicians, economists and global warming advocaats that our consumption of fossil fuels produces “harmful” CO2 and we are endangering our future.
The paradox, as seen by scientists, is that Carbon Dioxide is perhaps the only industrial bye product of this process which is harmless to the environment and humans and an essential building block in the Earth’s biosphere.
Perhaps we need a judicial inquiry to sift out the misinformation, pseudo science and assertions motivated by self interest to allow the scientific reality to assert itself once and for all.
In calling for reduction in CO2 we seem to be putting the cart before the horse. Before engaging in costly, ruinous carbon reduction schemes we must first show that CO2 produced by man is damaging the environment.
There is currently no evidence or possible mechanism known to science which causes carbon dioxide to act as a temperature accelerant.
danr:
You’re delusional. This is false. Your understanding of the science of climate change is clearly absent.
Oh yeah, for good measure, your understanding of the economics of climate change mitigation comes straight out of the astroturfers big book of idiot economics as well. Seeing as you’re so hard of thinking, it’s probably worth pointing out that the sceince and economics of the problem are totally different things.
KdKd,
The Duning-Kreuger effect explains everything, particularly: “The unskilled therefore suffer from illusory superiority, rating their ability as above average, much higher than it actually is”
Kdkd,
Senior doesn’t believe that sea levels are rising. He raise this point in another thread. And part of HIS evidence was:
“In 1842 the “Isle of the Dead” in SE Tasmania was selected for the site of a “Mean Sea Level” refernce mark by Capt. James Clark Ross. Today this mark can clearly be seen 35 cm ABOVE the current mean sea level.”
I asked him how far above the MSL it was when Capt. James Clark Ross put it there back in 1842.
A bit like seeing one end of a rope with the other end of the rope hidden behind a corner and saying ‘look, this is a long rope!’
I don’t think senior looked for the answer, or if he did, he must have concluded that Capt Clark Ross was part of the global conspiracy to hoodwink the population cop it sweet for a carbon tax.
Not bad for a man who has been dead for a hundred years.
Gotta love it.
danr #64 thought his post was such a work of genius that he posted it in the Lomborg thread as well.
PeeBee #66
Whereas the skilled rate their performance as much poorer, and understand the limitations of their knowledge much better. Which is why I don’t bother explaining the details of climate science to the delusionals any more. It’s done much better else where, and it’s complicated enough that I’ll stuff it up if I tried.
I thought we’d done with the “Kuning-Dreuger effect”.
“your understanding of the economics of climate change”
At least we did one economics course in our Uni Degree. All competent scientists and engineers need that to avoid misapplying themselves to solutions that are ridiculous.
Ever heard the old saying; the cure was worse than the problem?.
PB Everyone knows that the Earth is ALWAYS cooling.
As this happens we can expect less and less CO2 will be expressed from Earths core.
Recent times (geologically) have been, as you said, very low in CO2.
It may be that we need to work out ways of getting more CO2 into the atmosphere to preserve our habitat.
Band aids are analogous to CO2.
You could plaster yourself with band aids. Looks bad but It doesn’t prove there is a wound underneath.
Likewise more CO2 is not proof that the temperature is rising.
Satellite measurements are proof of that.
poor Hugh, not the sharpest tool in the shed.
how about you do your self a favour and try and engage in some constructive critique of peoples post you do not agree with using reasoned debate, as opposed to such pathetic attempts to take words out of different posts and twist them into different contexts to TRY and score cheap points.
If you do not understand what a reference to a/the geopolitical world order means here is a VERY simple definition for you that you may understand; The study of the relationship among politics and geography, demography, and economics, especially with respect to the foreign policy of a nation.
or a more accademic one; International relations is often portrayed as a sphere of anarchy, of innate disorder, political geographers and others have identified patterns in the development of modern international politics which they call geopolitical world orders.
Now even one such as yourself can understand the difference of the above and playing climate politics with people on a sinking island.
LisaCrago, I can tell that you have never been in the shed so what would you know? The author of this article (Lusama) asks that the reader contemplate his situation. He doesn’t ask for an opinion on what someone else thinks his problem is.
You LisaCrago, present an opinion that Tuvalu is “…. a sinking island”, without any evidence whatsoever, in complete rebuttal of the author’s point of view. You say he is wrong and that his problem is something geomorphological rather than climatological. You say he should get another island as if that is the first thing that came into your head. It’s a silly, disrespectful and gratuitously patronising statement – probably one of the smartest you think you’ve ever made. Good on you LisaCrago.
And YES I have contemplated his situation and offered REAL and practical advice. It is exactly what Islanders on small pacific islands have done since prehistory.
What have you done you argumentitive bastard? What is YOUR solution? Bitch about the weather? Use TVs miserable situation to future your own theoretical belief.
Oh I so have been to the shed mate and have all the regular pieces of paper to show so… and many pacific islands as well. And you? Unlike other posters on this blogg you can not even raise a reasoned real argument about any premise I have raised. You take anything sensible I have raised and twist it out of context in a weak attempt to discredit someone intelligent who may well have a valid point of view different to your own.
Well you may be happy to see these people starve and drown for all I know as you do sound like a bit of a twisted sister and the worst example of a one eyed AGW fanatics; it is people like you that give reasoned AGW advocates a bad name.
Given that the Himalayas are growing at a rate of 2inches (50mm) per annum, you’d expect somewhere you’d get the opposite effect, wouldn’t you?
And given that Tuvalu is on the other side of the Indo-Australian plate, it is highly likely that Tuvalu (being the very top couple of metres of a 5,000m volcano) is sinking.
Tuvalu seems to be in serious trouble from Island sinking, the world community needs to prepare to help them out.
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