Scientists predict that rising sea levels will put thousands of islands at risk of becoming inhabitable. This is because when islands become lower compared to the level of water surrounding them, it increases the likelihood of severe floods. It also contaminates freshwater and causes damage to infrastructure.
According to research in the journal Science Advances, the Marshall Islands is particularly in precarious state. While they mainly focused on this already endangered island, they also warned that findings apply to islands all over the world including the Maldives, parts of Hawaii, and Seychelles.
Threats to Groundwater:
Potable groundwater on the majority of atoll islands will become unavailable no later than the middle of the 21st century, according to these findings. Scientists used global greenhouse gas emission rates to predict the impacts of the changing climate on part of the Marshall Islands. They found that when local sea levels around the islands reach one metre higher than it currently is, around half of the island will flood each year.
Coral Reefs:
The analysis also considered the interactions between rises in sea levels and wave dynamics over coral reefs. These interactions will likely result in annual flooding that will destroy infrastructure and contaminate island freshwater. Islands that are currently considered in the same zone will be severely threatened in decades to come. Salty seawater will seep into the ground and contaminate the freshwater aquifer. Rainfall later in the year is not enough to get rid of the saltwater and refresh it before the next year’s storm arrives.
Researchers are urging local governments to prioritize funding and adaptation efforts. Marshall Islands’ politicians are vocal in their calls to action for world leaders to meet the terms of the Paris climate agreement and to limit global warming.
The Numbers:
The islands are home to 70,000 inhabitants, who will likely have to be evacuated as the sea levels rise. The country’s former foreign minister describes the temperature increase of over 2C as a “death warrant.”
For thousands of years, Marshallese have been notorious for embracing their watery environment. They built cultures on more than 1,200 islands that were scattered across 750,000 square miles of the ocean. Now they are facing a crisis: move or evacuate.
Melting Ice:
There are over 600 billion tons of melting ice flowing into the oceans that are absorbing twice as fast as they did 18 years ago. A report published in 2018 by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) highlighted various projected outcomes. According to their statistics, global temperatures could exceed 3 degrees celsius above pre-industrial temperature by 2100. This could result in a global average sea level rise of between one and four feet above or higher.
There has always been an urgency here. People have been navigating the Marshall Islands for decades and been asking the U.S. military to fill in the reef flats between islands.
Time is literally running out for the islands and it may be a matter of sink or swim.
Related:
2018 Climate Events A Result Of Climate Change
Northern Ontario Warming Quicker Than The Rest Of The Country
