Fotos: XXX18 Spotlight 9/2019 ENVIRONMENT
— construction of a sea wall to protect the
administrative centre of the capital, paid
for by the UNDP. The local town council
also has a plan to reclaim land in the south
of Fongafale, to raise the land 10 metres
above sea level and build high-density
housing. The plan would cost US $300m
(€268m), and that has no funding so far.
Other options are also being explored.
Evacuating the islands is the last resort,
says Tuvalu’s prime minister, Enele
Sopoaga, despite frequent talk of Pacific
neighbours that Tuvaluans will become
the world’s first climate-change refugees.
Many in the government openly ex-
press anger at the election of Donald
Trump, saying his climate-change scepti-
cism has caused a huge step back for glo-
bal cooperation on climate issues and has
made Tuvalu’s small voice on the world
stage even smaller.
“I think they hate us,” says Soseala Ti-
nilau, director of the environment min-
istry. Tinilau is referring to the cheerful
burning of coal by the US and Australia,
among others, despite a recent report
from the UN Intergovernmental Panel
on Climate Change warning that global
warming must be kept to a maximum of
1.5 °C over the next 12 years to avoid cat-
astrophic climatic effects.
Fiji has repeatedly offered land to the
Tuvaluan government to move their pop-
ulation 1,200 kilometres further south, an
offer the Sopoaga government has not
accepted. Former Australian prime min-
ister Kevin Rudd recently suggested that
Tuvalu’s citizens could be offered full cit-
izenship in exchange for their country’s
maritime and fishery rights, a proposal re-
jected by Sopoaga as “imperial thinking”.
“Moving outside of Tuvalu will not
solve any climate-change issues. ... If
you put these people in the middle of
industrialized countries, it will simply
boost their consumption and increase
greenhouse-gas emissions,” says Sopoa-
ga, who fights for global cooperation on
climate-change issues.
“I am very worried about this self-de-
featist approach, suggesting that people
from low-lying, at-risk countries could be
relocated. It fails to understand the impli-
cations of this issue for the entire world.”
Sopoaga says there is “no plan B” for
Tuvalu, and every government effort
is focused on adapting to the changing
weather and staying put: “We cannotjust say, ‘Kick these people out’. It is too
simplistic and defeatist an approach. ... I
believe we still have time to make this is-
land very attractive, very beautiful, so that
it will continue to be inhabited by genera-
tions of Tuvaluans to come.”Paradise nearly lost
Seen from the air, Tuvalu looks like par-
adise: a slim scar of sand planted with
coconut palms and surrounded by dark
green waters. But up close, the fragility of
the land shows itself. Beside the runway,
golden sand spills on to the concrete, and
green grass struggles to survive. The ho-
rizon is dominated by sea,which presses
at you from every side. The heavy, hot air
pushes people into the dark interiors of
their homes in the middle of the day.
Next to the runway, in Tuvalu’s Bureau
of Meteorology, Nikotemo Iona and his
small team are working overtime on the
latest rainfall measurements. They are
only hours away from declaring another
drought. According to local climate data,
says Iona, the biggest impacts of climate
change on Tuvalu have been rising air
temperatures, more intense and frequent
storm surges and decreasing rainfall, as
well as the total inundation of low-lying
coastal areas of Funafuti, including some-
times the country’s lifeline, its runway.
“Many people intend to migrate in re-
sponse to climate change,” says Iona.
“However, most of the older generation
do not want to move, as they believe they
would lose their identity, culture, lifestyle
and traditions. But I believe that younger
generations intend to migrate for the sake
of the future generations.”
During storm surges or the highest
tides, the Pacific Ocean bubbles up from
the sandy soil under Enna Sione’s small
yellow house. Sione’s eyes are troubled
as she stares at the ocean beating its path
against her home. She, her husband and
four children are planning to migrate to
New Zealand in the next two years to join
more than 2,000 other Tuvaluans already
living in that country, a migrant popula-
tion that doubles every five years.
“The weather has really, extremely
changed. Sometimes I feel scared of the
ocean,” says Sione.
“Maybe one time Tuvalu will disap-
pear. From what I can see, a lot is already
gone. I think one day we will disappear.”
© Guardian News & Media 2019approach [E(prEUtS]
, hier: Haltung
boost [bu:st]
, ankurbeln
bubble up [)bVb&l (Vp]
, aufsteigen
declare [di(kleE]
, verkünden
entire [In(taIE]
, gesamt
funding [(fVndIN]
, Finanzierung,
Förderung
high-density housing
[haI )densEti (haUzIN]
, verdichteter
Wohnungsbau
impact [(ImpÄkt]
, Auswirkung
implication
[)ImplI(keIS&n]
, Auswirkung
inundation
[)InVn(deIS&n]
, Überschwemmung
lifeline [(laIflaIn]
, Lebensader
low-lying [)lEU (laIIN]
, tiefliegend
reclaim [ri(kleIm]
, zurückfordern, zurück-
gewinnen
relocate [)ri:lEU(keIt]
, umsiedeln
resort: last ~ [ri(zO:t]
, letzter Ausweg
sake: for the ~ of sth.
[seIk]
, um etw. willen
scar [skA:]
, Narbe; hier: ring-
förmige Anhöhe
self-defeatist
[)self di(fi:tIst]
, hoffnungslos
spill [spIl]
, sich ergießen
stay put [steI (pUt]
, sich nicht vom Fleck
rühren
storm surge
[(stO:m s§:dZ]
, Sturmflut