Tuvalu

Should the inhabitants of Tuvalu allow themselves to be overwhelmed by the possibility that global warming could adversely affect sea level change? Although this atoll nation has a maximum elevation of five metres, the cause of their concern is conditioned as much by the vagaries of international politics as it is with mean sea level. Tuvalu, which means eight together in the local Polynesian dialect, is a collection of nine atolls, eight of significance, trending linearly south-east to north-west over a 750 kilometer stretch of the central Pacific, just south of the equator. The premise that long-term threat from climate change and sea-level rise may make reef islands uninhabitable is a subject of academic debate amongst oceanographers and climatologists, none of whom are citizens of coral atoll nations. Fearing their country could be submerged, Tuvalu sent a special envoy, Toaripi Lauti, to the 1997 Kyoto conference on climate change. (Globe & Mail 09-24-2001).

Although geographically similar, Tuvalu formerly known as the Ellice Islands and Kiribati, to the north, formerly known as the Gilberts, will likely have divergent futures. One only has to look at the political position of Banaba, formerly known as Ocean Island, to gauge a measure of the political parameters involved. Banaba, the only limestone island in the otherwise atoll nation of Kiribati, promises safe haven should coral atolls be flooded. Consequently the national leaders of Kiribati have refused to consider the application of the Banabans for independence. The citizens of Kiribati do not relish the idea of being in the unenviable position of Tuvalu, which looks forward to a future fraught with sea-level rise rendering their atolls uninhabitable thereby leaving them without recourse to refuge. Lacking the safety net that their neighbours in Kiribati possess, the Tuvuluans have made applications to emigrate as the world's first climate-change refugees to New Zealand and Australia(Globe & Mail 24-09-2001).

Is global warming the essence of the problem that confronts the people of Tuvalu? Other factors need to be considered. The most serious aspect of the situation is the population density of about 400 people per square kilometer. In the past, Polynesians emigrated from island group to island group. Many of the legends of these voyages simply indicate that the voyagers were never heard from again. That does not mean that they perished at sea. The distances that they travelled and the multitude of islands that they visited made recontact a hit or miss affair. It is believed that the Polynesians travelled to atolls through a technique called wave-lapping. They would train a small boy to lie in the bow of the canoe and listen to the changes in the pattern of the lapping of the waves against the bow. Although no one knows how to do this today, they do know of the existence of the technique. Fortunately, the Tuvaluans can now rely on global positioning satellites to help them navigate but where would they go if they were forced to leave Tuvalu? Who would accept them?

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