Download Measuring the effects of climate change, and particularly sea levels

Measuring the effects of climate change, and particularly sea levels, in the Pacific is complicated by the weather systems known as El Nino and La Nina. Each of these Pacific nations, however, face a common thread of flooding, harsh storms, and increasing sea level temperatures and acidity of their coastal waters. 1. Kiribati Image source: http://nomadiccosmopolitan.com/tag/kiribati/
100,000 people 1° 25’ N, 173° 00’ E
33 islands and atolls The Kiribati government says that higher sea levels have contaminated their freshwater supplies and crop soil with salt water, as king tides flood the country. Predicted to disappear by 2100, the nation has purchased 6,000 acres on Fiji, to ensure food security and possibly to relocate residents in the future.
2. Tuvalu Source: http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/01538/tuvalu­capital_1538340i.jpg
10,000 people 8° 00’ S, 178° 00’ E
Like Kiribati, Tuvalu is predicted to disappear by 2100. In addition to increasing storm surges which damage the infrastructure of the island, salination destroys viable land, including crops of coconut, taro, and pulaka.
3. Marshall Islands Image source: http://acrosstheoceanblue.com/wp­content/uploads/3305­1514_Majuro­Marshall­Islands.jpg
68,000 people 9° 00' N and 168° 00' E Plagued in recent years by droughts, the Marshall islands also face extensive damage from flooding and inundation. Mangrove trees are being planted along the shoreline, their extensive root structures intended to secure the sand and protect against surges. 4. Nauru
Image source: http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2011/apr/26/nauru­united­nations­developed­world
9,500 residents 0° 32’ S, 166° 55’ E
Low­lying Nauru is facing the effects of soil erosion and salination, as well as increasingly extreme storms and droughts within an ecosystem already facing the consequences of extensive phosphate mining. Because of the mining of the island’s rocky interior, nearly all residents of this 8 square mile island live along the coast leaving them particularly vulnerable to the rising sea levels.
5. Fiji
Image source: http://i­lab.org.au/conference/upload/Slideshow11.jpg
880,000 people 18° 00’ S, 175° 00’ E
Although not yet facing the imminent dangers of its more low­lying neighbors, Fiji is nevertheless experiencing the effects of coastal erosion and climate change and has begun building desalination plants and water tanks in vulnerable areas. The government has also begun relocating residents from the outer islands; residents
of Vunidogoloa were formally relocated in 2012.