Fleeing Desperate Circumstances

The Australian PM braved desperate circumstances to rescue Tuvalu.

“Tuvalu had asked Australia to implement a migration scheme, given the risk that low-lying islands and atolls faced from rising sea levels.”

Australia offers Tuvalu residents climate change visas

“Farewell Tuvalu
Andrew Simms
Monday 29 October 2001
The Guardian

The world has just shifted on its axis, but not in the way you might first imagine. A group of nine islands, home to 11,000 people, is the first nation to pay the ultimate price for global warming.
For many years the most interesting thing to happen to the Pacific island state of Tuvalu was the sale of its internet domain name, .tv, for $50m (£35m). But, just as Tuvalu has traded in its virtual domain, it is about to lose its real one.

The authorities in Tuvalu have publicly conceded defeat to the sea rising around them. Appeals have gone out to the governments of New Zealand and Australia to help in the full-scale evacuation of Tuvalu’s population. After an apparent rebuff from Australia, the first group of evacuees is due to leave for New Zealand next year.”

Comment: Farewell Tuvalu | Guardian daily comment | guardian.co.uk

“A new geological study has shown that many low-lying Pacific islands are growing, not sinking. The islands of Tuvalu, Kiribati and the Federated States of Micronesia are among those which have grown, because of coral debris and sediment.”

Low-lying Pacific islands ‘growing not sinking’ – BBC News

“Kiribati consists of 33 islands, totaling 310 square miles surrounded by the Pacific Ocean. The population is 103,000. Nearly half live on a strip of land less than a mile wide. Over the last 20 years, the planet’s oceans have risen faster than at any time in history. Kiribati will soon be engulfed by water, and its people have nowhere to go”

Drowning Kiribati – Bloomberg Business

“Scientists at the University of Auckland found atolls in the Pacific nations of Marshall Islands and Kiribati, as well as the Maldives archipelago in the Indian Ocean, have grown up to 8 per cent in size over the past six decades despite sea level rise.”