What has been anticipated as now begun… the relocation of islanders.
Yesterday in the news they announced that the Maldives is going ahead with its relocation plan.
The Tsunami has obviously given the spark to Maldives to go ahead with the relocation plan, 40% of the country’s land have been submerged during the tsunami, but the real-problem of the island nations (we all know it) is the rise of ocean due to global warming. The Maldivian government plans to relocate 60% of its people from low-ground islands to higher ground islands.
Maldives have at least some higher-ground to relocate its people but it is not the case for another country with an even more critical situation, Tuvalu.
Tuvalu is a small country in the south pacific composed a a few coral islands, its highest ground is not more than 4.5metres above sea-level. More and more often Tuvalians see their whole country flooded during “king tides” that can reach more than 3 metres above normal sea-level. The last one was two-weeks ago. Tuvalu’s government is now trying to dress a relocation plan with Australia and New Zealand in case of an emergency.
I liked the analogy that the government of Tuvalu does between the “War on terror” and “climate change” in terms of national security.
QUOTE=>
Tuvalu said it understood that for many countries, particularly developed nations such as the United States, national security was now a priority and the island nation supported the war on terror.
Tuvalu representative Enele Sopoaga told the General Assembly that national security was also a priority for Tuvalu, but the threat it faced was not from terror groups or weapons of mass destruction but climate change.
“For Tuvalu and many small-island developing states security should be seen in its multi-dimensional nature. Our national security is threatened by environmental degradation emanating from outside the country,” Sopoaga said.
“The impact of climate change has the potential to threaten the survival of our entire nation,” he said.
<= END of quote So which one are the most threatening WMDs? Sarin or CO2
doesn’t this seem like a perfect opportunity for international cooperation? aren’t we all in this together? Living in an Earth-system that is increasingly devestated, I can only imagine that the concept of a “country” will eventually become useless… there may be a point where huge industrialized countries will be faced with a crisis like the citizens of Tuvalu… well who will help that country then? Maybe, we western countries need to think a bit more long-term, and do a thing or to that will help us make friends, not enemies… you know what they say: “what goes around, comes around”.