August 27, (THEWILL) – The United Nations, on Tuesday, raised alarm over rising sea levels in the Pacific islands
Unveiling research that shows the region’s seas rising much more swiftly than global averages, UN Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres, said a worldwide catastrophe is putting the Pacific paradise in peril.
“I am in Tonga to issue a global SOS Save Our Seas on rising sea levels. A worldwide catastrophe is putting this Pacific paradise in peril. Global average sea levels are rising at rates unprecedented in the past 3,000 years”, Guterres said.
Sparsely populated and with few heavy industries, the Pacific islands collectively pump out less than 0.02 percent of global emissions every year.
The World Meteorological Organisation has been monitoring tide gauges installed on the Pacific’s famed beaches since the early 1990s.
A new report released by the top UN climate monitoring body showed seas had risen by around 15 centimetres in some parts of the Pacific in the last 30 years.
The global average was 9.4 centimetres, according to the report.
“It is increasingly evident that we are fast running out of time to turn the tide”, said the forecasting agency’s top official, Celeste Saulo.
Some sites, particularly in Kiribati and Cook Islands, measured a rise that matched or was just under the global average. But other sites, such as the capital cities of Samoa and Fiji, were rising almost three times higher.
In low-lying Pacific nation, Tuvalu, land is already so scarce that throngs of children use the tarmac at the international airport as their own makeshift playground.
Scientists have warned that, even under some moderate scenarios, Tuvalu could be almost entirely wiped off the map within the next 30 years.
