11 Paddling on Both Sides of the Canoe …
209
archipelago’s GDP” (Luetz 2017: 45). When disaster strikes, a domino effect can
occur, causing one vulnerable sector to influence another. The effects of less dramatic
climatic events may accumulate over time, also setting in motion a chain of problems. For example, fresh water is a key resource yet when supply is affected by
climatic events, food security and public health are threatened such as when an
island’s freshwater lens becomes inundated with sea water thus becoming brackish
and undrinkable.
Under climate change scenarios, tropical cyclones are predicted to have greater
intensity, and droughts and floods may occur more frequently (Hashim and Hashim
2016; Shope et al. 2016; Sugi et al. 2017). The droughts lead to shortages of
drinking water and impair food supplies; the floods damage infrastructure, contaminate freshwater and agricultural soils with saltwater, and may compel evacuation.
Both droughts and floods can damage local ecosytems and reduce biodiversity. Of
further concern is the absorption of carbon dioxide by the oceans leading to ocean
acidification, which harms marine organisms with shells, including coral reefs that
are critical physical barriers for atoll islands serving as protection against storm
surges and high waves (Gerrard and Wannier 2014: 4).
Globally more than 600 million people, or 8.6% of the world’s population, live
in coastal zones (i.e. generally considered to be zero to ten metres elevation), which
comprise only 2% of the world’s land area. Of these 600 million people more than
half, ~360 million, live in urban centres. This amounts to 13% of the world’s urban
population living in the highest-risk zones of sea level rise (McGranahan et al. 2007:
17–20). Thus, Pacific Island nations, most especially the low-lying atolls, and their
urban centres are exceptionally vulnerable to the adverse effects of human-induced
climate change and extreme weather events such as Tropical Cyclone Winston in
2016.
The +30,000 islands of the Pacific are spread across five time zones in both
the Northern and Southern Hemisphere (Andrew et al. 2019). Approximately 12.4
million people live in the 22 Pacific Island Countries and Territories (PICTs) of
Melanesia, Polynesia, and Micronesia (United Nations 2019). This figure does not
include a further 4.9 million people residing in Aotearoa New Zealand and another
1.4 million residing in Hawai‘i (United Nations 2019). Troublingly the populations
and communities of the Pacific impacted by weather-related disasters, such as category five cyclones (e.g. Tropical Cyclones Pam in 2015 & Winston in 2016), have
increased dramatically in the last several decades. Data and climatic projections
from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) point to increasingly
damaged environments, such as coral reefs, overall loss of terrestrial and marine life
and ultimately decreasing biodiversity (IPCC 2018).
Juxtaposed against the worsening environmental conditions, the dense urban and
economic centres of the Pacific are located in coastal zones and are also vulnerable to
rising sea levels and other extreme events. Beyond tropical cyclones, these include
floods, tidal surges, droughts and landslides. Though sea level rise is commonly
misunderstood as being a uniform process, it is a far more complex process with
various factors, such as the formation of the Earth’s crust, ocean temperature and
salinity reflecting regional variability, as well as the gravitational and rotational
209
archipelago’s GDP” (Luetz 2017: 45). When disaster strikes, a domino effect can
occur, causing one vulnerable sector to influence another. The effects of less dramatic
climatic events may accumulate over time, also setting in motion a chain of problems. For example, fresh water is a key resource yet when supply is affected by
climatic events, food security and public health are threatened such as when an
island’s freshwater lens becomes inundated with sea water thus becoming brackish
and undrinkable.
Under climate change scenarios, tropical cyclones are predicted to have greater
intensity, and droughts and floods may occur more frequently (Hashim and Hashim
2016; Shope et al. 2016; Sugi et al. 2017). The droughts lead to shortages of
drinking water and impair food supplies; the floods damage infrastructure, contaminate freshwater and agricultural soils with saltwater, and may compel evacuation.
Both droughts and floods can damage local ecosytems and reduce biodiversity. Of
further concern is the absorption of carbon dioxide by the oceans leading to ocean
acidification, which harms marine organisms with shells, including coral reefs that
are critical physical barriers for atoll islands serving as protection against storm
surges and high waves (Gerrard and Wannier 2014: 4).
Globally more than 600 million people, or 8.6% of the world’s population, live
in coastal zones (i.e. generally considered to be zero to ten metres elevation), which
comprise only 2% of the world’s land area. Of these 600 million people more than
half, ~360 million, live in urban centres. This amounts to 13% of the world’s urban
population living in the highest-risk zones of sea level rise (McGranahan et al. 2007:
17–20). Thus, Pacific Island nations, most especially the low-lying atolls, and their
urban centres are exceptionally vulnerable to the adverse effects of human-induced
climate change and extreme weather events such as Tropical Cyclone Winston in
2016.
The +30,000 islands of the Pacific are spread across five time zones in both
the Northern and Southern Hemisphere (Andrew et al. 2019). Approximately 12.4
million people live in the 22 Pacific Island Countries and Territories (PICTs) of
Melanesia, Polynesia, and Micronesia (United Nations 2019). This figure does not
include a further 4.9 million people residing in Aotearoa New Zealand and another
1.4 million residing in Hawai‘i (United Nations 2019). Troublingly the populations
and communities of the Pacific impacted by weather-related disasters, such as category five cyclones (e.g. Tropical Cyclones Pam in 2015 & Winston in 2016), have
increased dramatically in the last several decades. Data and climatic projections
from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) point to increasingly
damaged environments, such as coral reefs, overall loss of terrestrial and marine life
and ultimately decreasing biodiversity (IPCC 2018).
Juxtaposed against the worsening environmental conditions, the dense urban and
economic centres of the Pacific are located in coastal zones and are also vulnerable to
rising sea levels and other extreme events. Beyond tropical cyclones, these include
floods, tidal surges, droughts and landslides. Though sea level rise is commonly
misunderstood as being a uniform process, it is a far more complex process with
various factors, such as the formation of the Earth’s crust, ocean temperature and
salinity reflecting regional variability, as well as the gravitational and rotational