By David and Pearl
We have thoroughly enjoyed our 10 days at Manihi atoll. Throughout our stay though, there's been an elephant in the room that leaves us sobered. Namely, what will become of this and all the other Tuamotu atolls with the predicted sea level rise due to climate change.
The latest NOAA forecasts range from 8 inches to more than 8 feet of sea level rise by the end of this century. The highest confidence is around the mid-range. Regardless of what it turns out to be, the forecast trend has been continually upward as more data and better modeling become available.
Poignantly, a friend sent us an article just after we arrived here, reporting that the largest ice shelf yet recorded had just broken off of Antarctica.
We measured the height from sea level at mid-tide to the top of the sea wall at 2 feet. Most of the village is at about that level. A sea level rise of just 2 feet would likely inundate and eliminate all the villages in the Tuamotus during a storm.
As we set sail tomorrow, it's heartbreaking to have experienced the people's sense of place here and know that the time left for villages like this is probably very limited.
A donde vamos?
ReplyDeleteYes very sad. Arghhhh. Words fail me.
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