----- forwarded message ----- Date: Wed, 18 Jul 2001 15:09:42 +0200 From: secr <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: Vanishing Pacific island group appeals to be saved ----- forwarded message ----- Subject: [gaia-l] Vanishing Pacific island group appeals to be saved Date: Wed, 18 Jul 2001 08:04:41 -0300 From: Mark Graffis <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] AUSTRALIA: July 18, 2001 SYDNEY - A tiny South Pacific group of atolls is appealing for help on the Internet to stop its 500 people vanishing into the ocean because of rising sea levels they blame on climate change. As the world meets in Bonn to try and salvage the globe's first pact on cutting greenhouse gas emissions, Taku'u just north of Papua New Guinea's Bougainville island says its white sandy beaches have gone and its drinking water has been ruined by salt. The highest point on the 13 islets is 4.2 metres (not quite 14 feet) above sea level. "For as long as global warming continues and (the) sea level continues to rise, the relocation of the people of Taku'u would be inevitable," Sarimu Teurikanu, treasurer of the Association Na Taku'u, told Reuters in an e-mail on Tuesday. The atolls, also known as the Mortlock Islands and part of Papua New Guinea, began sinking several years ago and the group has launched a website at http://members.tripod.com/akoa - Fitina/takuu.htm to appeal for international help. Total land area of 13 islets is less than one square km - or the size of a city park. Last year, salt water contaminated its fresh water supply, ruining crops. Homes have had to be moved inland. There is only one island in the atoll group suitable for gardening, but it is shrinking as salt contaminates its groundwater. Environmental researchers say low-lying atolls, like Kiribati, the Maldives and Taku'u, are in the front trenches of the fight against the rising sea levels that may come with higher global temperatures. The erosion already taking place in some South Pacific islands can be traced to more factors than just global warming, says Greenpeace. But climate change is a major one. Officials from 180 countries are this week meeting in Bonn to try and reach some agreement after Washington earlier this year rejected the 1997 Kyoto protocol, the world's first accord on reducing carbon dioxide emissions. The Papua New Guinea government in Port Moresby is providing emergency assistance in the form of food to Taku'u, where the residents subsist on fishing and some gardening, but the help is not enough to preserve their way of life. Teurikanu said the island peoples' legends and songs told of a great sea voyage that brought their descendants to Taku'u from the east. That culture would lose all meaning if the community was forced to abandon its homes. "Songs would be sung without meaningful association but with great imagination," Teurikanu said. "This aspect would be lost forever on the younger generation when legends are but tales of a non-existent place." Story by Michael Christie REUTERS NEWS SERVICE
