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Former heads of government complain that rising sea levels are destroying island states and driving people away.
For European eyes, the islands of Kiribati may be the clichéd image of a South Seas paradise. But when the storms come – and they come more and more often – paradise turns into hell. Even low waves wash over the coral gravel islands, which are little more than a few meters high.
The reason: the rising sea level. A consequence of man-made climate change. The water seeps into the houses. Salt poisons the palm trees and makes the fresh water undrinkable. And sometimes even the dead rise from their graves; the rising water level pushes them upwards.
Water dominates everyday life in the South Pacific, says Tommy Remengesau, former President of Palau, during an event in Australia. The sea determines the culture, the traditions, the life, the economy and the future of the region.
He is a member of a group of former Pacific leaders who oppose what they see as the developed world’s negligent stance on climate change. In the run-up to the climate conference in November, the Pacific Elders recall that global warming in their part of the world is no longer a theory, but everyday reality. The consequences are dramatic.
Legend:
“Water dominates everyday life in the South Pacific,” says Tommy Remengesau, a member of the Pacific Elders.
imago images/Mick Tsikas
The acidification of seawater due to the increase in the greenhouse gas CO2, the bleaching and destruction of corals as a result of higher water temperatures, a dramatic increase in the number and intensity of storms and cyclones and the rise in sea level all lead to a loss of quality of life for people and to flee the area.
The elders remind that it is not the small countries in the middle of the Pacific that are responsible for global warming, but the industrialized countries. They criticize the fact that most of these rich countries are now talking about the apocalyptic consequences of escalating temperatures, but in fact are still doing too little about it.
Australia, the immediate neighbor in the Pacific, continues to rely on the combustion and, above all, on the lucrative export of climate-damaging coal and natural gas. The ex-president of Kiribati Anote Tong condemns the government in Canberra because it claims that the country itself is not responsible for the climate emissions caused in this way, but rather the customer states that bought and burn its coal.
Double standards in Australia
Australia makes tens of billions of dollars a year by exporting climate-damaging coal, Tong says. One cannot shirk responsibility if one derives such advantages from it, says the ex-politician.
Before the next conference, he calls for a new direction in global climate policy. Not only a possible legal responsibility of those who cause climate change must be discussed, but also a moral one.