A recent study says five islands in the Solomons have vanished and others are suffering severe erosion. Scientists say information from the study could help with future research into the effects of sea-level rise.
Image: picture-alliance/robertharding/M. Runkel
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Five islands have disappeared and another six have been badly eroded in the Solomon Islands owing to rising sea levels, according to an Australian study published on Friday.
"At least 11 islands across the northern Solomon Islands have either totally disappeared over recent decades or are currently experiencing severe erosion," said the study, published in "Environmental Research Letters."
The researchers behind the study looked at satellite and aerial images of 33 islands made from 1947 to 2014, and drew additionally on accounts by local residents.
The five islands that had vanished were all vegetated reef islands of significant size that were unpopulated, but subject to occasional use by fishermen, the study said.
The study also said that between 2011 and 2014, 10 houses had been swept into the sea on one of the six other reef islands that have undergone severe erosion damage from the rising waters, which result from global warming.
In addition, receding shorelines at two sites had forced communities that had existed since at least 1935 to relocate, the researchers said.
Vulnerable region
The author leading the study, Simon Albert, told AFP news agency that the Solomons had rises in sea levels that were almost three times higher than the global average, making the islands an ideal place to study such phenomena.
Among other things, the study established a connection between sea-level rise and larger - and thus more damaging - waves, something that could prove useful for future study, Albert said.
In addition to the relocations mentioned above, the study said that Taro, the capital of Choiseul Province, was set to become the first provincial capital in the world to move residents and services to other locations in the face of the rising waters.
The 2014 floods left thousands homelessImage: REUTERS/Australian Defence Force
The Solomons have also borne the brunt of other climate-change phenomena, with flooding caused by Tropical Cyclone Ida in 2014 being ranked per capita as the world's most deadly single event disaster of that year by the Belgium-based Centre for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters.
Twenty-one people died in the floods, mostly children under 14, and 10 more children died of diarrhea and related complications in the following days. Thousands of others, this time mostly children under the age of five, became ill in the ensuing months with flu-like sicknesses or diarrhea.
The islands are home to some 600,000 people.
Small islands feel the wrath of climate change
Small islands such as Vanuatu in the Pacific are feeling the effects of climate change: Rising sea levels and extreme weather events threaten their very existence. Cyclone Pam is one very tangible signal.
Image: John Corcoran
Cyclone Pam destroys Vanuatu
Winds of up to 320 kilometers (200 miles) an hour ripped roofs off houses and downed trees in Port Vila in the island nation of Vanuatu. Category 5 Cyclone Pam hit the capital on Friday, March 13, 2015. Vanuatu President Baldwin Lonsdale said the cyclones that the nation had experienced were directly linked to climate change. "We see the level of sea rise. [We see] change in weather patterns."
Image: Reuters/K. Paras
'Development has been wiped out'
President Lonsdale dubbed Cyclone Pam "a monster" that had devastated the country. "It’s a setback for the government and for the people of Vanuatu. After all the development that has taken place, all this development has been wiped out." He said 90 percent of the buildings had been destroyed in the capital alone. So far, six people were confirmed dead and 30 injured from the cyclone.
Image: Reuters/K. Paras
Cyclone hit multiple countries and islands
The cyclone devastated numerous countries across the South Pacific. "At least nine nations have experienced some level of devastation including Vanuatu, Solomon Islands, Kiribati, Fiji, Tuvalu, and Papua New Guinea," a statement by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said.
Image: John Corcoran
Children at risk
The UN's Children's Fund (UNICEF) estimates that at least 60,000 children have been displaced or affected by the cyclone. According to UNICEF, hundreds of children in Tuvalu, Solomon Islands and Kiribati are also affected. "It felt like the world was coming to an end," said UNICEF's Alice Clements, one of the organization's staff members, who was in Port Vila when the storm hit.
Image: Reuters/K. Paras
A wake-up call?
For years, small island nations such as Kiribati (pictured here) have been trying to combat climate change. Seychelles President James Michel said on Monday that Cyclone Pam was "a clear manifestation of climate change" and called on the international community to "wake up" to the impact of global warming.
Image: John Corcoran
Local efforts to protect the land
The inhabitants of the most vulnerable islands have been trying to secure coastal areas to prevent the tides from washing away the soil. While these measures assist in the short term, more needs to be done to tackle the root cause of rising sea levels.
Image: John Corcoran
'Natural disasters have worsened'
"Climate change has exacerbated the severity of natural disasters and [their] frequency, that's worsening the impacts on different communities," the president of island nation Kiribati, Anote Tong, said. Climate change and disasters are related, he added. Scientists, however, say it's impossible to attribute single weather events like Cyclone Pam to climate change.
Image: John Corcoran
UN urges action against climate change
"We must especially help the poorest and most vulnerable people," UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said in the aftermath of the cyclone. Prevention of natural disasters is a global task, he added. "Climate change is intensifying the risks for hundreds of millions of people, particularly in small island developing states and coastal areas." A new climate treaty will be negotiated later this year.
