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  PlanetArk 7 Dec 05
Arctic, Tropical Islands Unite in Climate Fight
Story by David Fogarty

PlanetArk 6 Dec 05
Pacific Islanders Move to Escape Global Warming
Story by Alister Doyle, Environment Correspondent

MONTREAL - Rising seas have forced 100 people on a Pacific island to move to higher ground in what may be the first example of a village formally displaced because of modern global warming, a UN report said on Monday.

With coconut palms on the coast already standing in water, inhabitants in the Lateu settlement on Tegua island in Vanuatu started dismantling their wooden homes in August and moved about 600 yards (meters) inland.

"They could no longer live on the coast," Taito Nakalevu, a climate change expert at the Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme, told Reuters during a 189-nation conference in Montreal on ways to fight climate change.

So-called "king tides," often whipped up by cyclones, had become stronger in recent years and made Lateu uninhabitable by flooding the village 4 to 5 times a year. "We are seeing king tides across the region flooding islands," he said.

The UN Environment Programme (UNEP) said in a statement that the Lateu settlement "has become one of, if not the first, to be formally moved out of harm's way as a result of climate change."

The scientific panel that advises the United Nations projects that seas could rise by almost 3 feet (a meter) by 2100 because of melting icecaps and warming linked to a build-up of heat-trapping gases emitted by burning fossil fuels in power plants, factories and autos.

Many other coastal communities are vulnerable to rising seas, such as the US city of New Orleans, the Italian city of Venice or settlements in the Arctic where a thawing of sea ice has exposed coasts to erosion by the waves.

CORAL ATOLLS

Pacific Islanders, many living on coral atolls, are among those most at risk.

Off Papua New Guinea, about 2,000 people on the Cantaret Islands are planning to move to nearby Bougainville island, four hours' boat ride to the southwest. Two uninhabited Kiribati islands, Tebua Tarawa and Abanuea, disappeared underwater in 1999.

"In Tegua, the dwellings are moving first. The chief has moved, he has to start the process, so his people are now following," Nakalevu said. A church would also be dismantled and moved inland.

Nakalevu said the rising seas seemed linked to climate change. It was unknown if the coral base of the island, about 12 square miles (31 square km), might be subsiding.

Most villagers rely on yams, beans and other crops grown on higher ground. To help Lateu, Canada had provided $50,000 to build a system to collect and store up to 9,500 gallons (36,000 liters) of rain water to break dependence on springs by the coast.

In the Arctic, indigenous peoples in Shishmaref in Alaska and in Tuktoyaktuk in Canada were considering moving because of climate change, UN officials said.

"The peoples of the Arctic and the small islands of this world face many of the same threats," Klaus Toepfer, UNEP's executive director, said in a statement. "The melting and receding of sea ice and the rising of sea levels, storms surges and the like are the first manifestations of big changes underway which eventually will touch everyone on the planet," he said.

PlanetArk 7 Dec 05
Arctic, Tropical Islands Unite in Climate Fight
Story by David Fogarty

MONTREAL - On the surface, polar bears and coral atolls don't have much in common but when it comes to global warming they have plenty to link them.

Rising seas and more frequent and severe storms are threatening the livelihoods of indigenous groups in the Arctic and small tropical island states, forcing some communities to relocate while driving up business costs and threatening tourism.

"These are the two most vulnerable regions to climate change," said Sheila Watt-Cloutier, chair of the Inuit Circumpolar Conference, at the launch of a project on Tuesday to help Arctic communities and mostly Pacific island states adapt to climate change.

She said evidence of a warming planet was stark and compelling and the cultures of the Arctic and island nations were at risk, adding that promoting adaptation was urgent.

"As we melt, the small developing island states sink," she told a news conference in Montreal, where about 190 nations are meeting to try to find ways to curb the emission of greenhouse gases released from burning fossil fuels.

Sea levels are already rising globally by about 0.08 inches a year (2 millimeters) and a UN climate report says seas are projected to rise between 3.5 inches (9 cm) and 35 inches (88 cm) between 1990 and 2100. But the report also predicts more intense storms and greater extremes of floods and drought.

SLOWLY GOING UNDER

In many Pacific island states, rising sea levels are causing chaos, said Taito Nakalevu of the South Pacific Regional Environment Programme, an organization established by Pacific governments.

"Climate change has an impact on almost all aspects of our lives," he said. "Most of our rural communities are still very dependent on natural resources, such as fisheries, agriculture and forestry. But because of climate change, these resources are becoming scarce."

In the low-lying Pacific state of Tuvalu, a cluster of atolls no more than 16.5 feet (5 meters) above sea level, so-called king tides are becoming unusually powerful, swamping large areas, causing beach erosion, flooding of crops and homes. In some areas, rising salinity has meant crops can no longer be grown, he said. King tides are often whipped up by cyclones.

The problem now was how to protect people's livelihoods and cultures. Some would be forced to move to other islands, while others would have to adapt, he said. If they can't, some cultures could be wiped out. Rising seas have forced 100 people on one Pacific island to move to higher ground in what may be the first example of a village formally displaced because of modern global warming, a UN report said on Monday.

With coconut palms on the coast already standing in water, inhabitants in the Lateu settlement on Tegua island in Vanuatu started dismantling their wooden homes in August and moved about 600 yards (meters) inland.

Settlements in the Arctic are also under threat by the loss of protective sea ice barriers, allowing waves to batter once sheltered coasts and causing widespread erosion.

"The key message is that climate change is happening now and has been doing so for the past 30 years and doing so in the Arctic at a pace faster than anywhere else on the planet," said Bob Corell, senior fellow at the American Meteorological Society.

In 30 years, Alaska's annual mean temperature has increased by up to 9 degrees Fahrenheit (5 degrees Celsius), said Corell, who chaired a 2004 international Arctic climate change assessment report. Citing US government figures, Corell said 143 villages in Alaska would need to be moved over about the next 20 years at a cost of $100 million to $400 million per village, or about $1 million per person.
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