Lonely Planet™ · Thorn Tree Forum · 2020 |

# Rising sea levels Country forums / Pacific Islands & Papua New Guinea / Tuvalu
funk_e 12:33 UTC 17 Apr 2007 | I was a watching a documentary yesterday about rising sea levels in Tuvalu, which are threatening to wipe out the whole country. This was put down to global warming and the (supposed) meting of the polar ice caps. The interesting thing is that if you look at the tide charts in Australia now and compare them with tide charts from 20 years ago there is no rise in sea level at all. So how can there be a rise in sea level at Tuvalu and not here? |
islandboi321 23:50 UTC 17 Apr 2007 | I get a really odd feeling people will still be living on Tuvalu 50 years from now... Maybe water levels aren't rising as much as the atolls are SINKING. (Volcanic atolls will eventually sink under their own weight) | 1
dadams 05:54 UTC 18 Apr 2007 | Small islands/atolls like Tuvalu come and they go - never ending cycle. The earth has previously also gone through periods of warming (this one has just been accelerated). But I'm with islandboi - I think a lot of these low lying islands will still be around. But did the doco say that the sea levels at Tuvalu had risen or are just expected to rise? And did they as islandboi states measure whether or not the island had sunk? | 2
agingaquarian 07:30 UTC 18 Apr 2007 | I saw recently a photo of an island in the Solomons that had risen after the recent earthquake. The coral off shore had also risen about a metre and was bleaching and dying. | 3
copperspoon 13:17 UTC 18 Apr 2007 | The callous ignorance on this thread is disgusting! (but somehow not surprising) In fact people's home are being affected already! | 4
islandboi321 19:07 UTC 18 Apr 2007 | Here's what I find surprising, copperspoon... If you consider yourself a superior intellect on this branch (and others), why do you continue to engage us? Cavorting with such inferiors? What would those smallmouth bass think? | 5
pago 20:43 UTC 18 Apr 2007 | You could probably contact AL Bore, but he's probably on his private jet or in his 35 room mansion in Nashville. He's got the answers.... | 6
melbar 08:56 UTC 19 Apr 2007 | how ignorant to the facts... but for some the earth is still flat... | 7
jeaniej 14:04 UTC 21 Apr 2007 | My husband has spent several months in Tuvalu each year over the last couple of years. Last time he was there, the combination of full moon / king tide and storm surges saw water flooding through many homes, and water actually bubbling up through the floors of homes after seeping through the back yards. I seriously doubt that many people will be living there in 50 years.. I really hope they are, but it seems unlikely. Sorry, though, funk e I can't actually explain the mechanisms of it either - some say global warming is the culprit, whereas other similarly intelligent and credible scientists dispute this. I'm still not sure, myself. | 8
mwanamume 03:15 UTC 06 May 2007 | Few people here seem to be serious. funk e actually raised a serious question on Australian tide charts not showing any increase, so why should it increase in Tuvalu? Probably it has not risen, at least not substantialy in Tuvalu either - yet. It will come, you just wait. If we do nothing, that is, and that is the most likely scenario. So what is it that is happening in Tuvalu (as jeaniej tells us)? And why are there not similar reports from other atoll countries? I am not an expert but I have heard that removal of sand on the shores for building (i.a.) the airport runway could be one explanation. Another posibility is that similar floodings have indeed happened before, but too seldom for people to remember well, and the previous time nobody associated with any global warming. In fact Tuvalu is the Pacific Ocean country that has really struggled on the international arena against the global warming, so people may be more aware there than elsewhere. However, not to take the matter seriously will prove to be a bad idea and will eventually flood much of Florida and Manhattan. Then some actions is likely to start. Ingvar | 9
tools4fools 04:41 UTC 20 May 2007 | Intersting as well: just read somewhere (in a newspaper) that while our glaciers here in Switzerland are getting smaller in NZ (think it was) they are actually growing... And yes, most of the global warming is theoretical; scientists are trying to figure out waht will happen; trying to find data that supports their theory, that show a tendancy and that effect is already taking place. But doesn't mean that it has already happend big time... I remember reading about a scientist who had predicted massive problems because of more and more horse carts in the cities. The big cities would drown in horse cr@p. Now todays science sure is much more sophisitcated but eat the end no-one knows what's in for us.... it can change quickly, for the worse (more likely as it looks) or better. ** | 10
liz84 05:54 UTC 13 Aug 2007 | Hi everyone...It is quite easy to say that there is no sea level rising..But if you are from the lovely place call Tuvalu, you wouldnt think otherwise...Its not like our people are making it up..It really is happening...During king tides in Feb, the whole island would be flooded...Our grandparent can confirm that nothing like this happened before... | 11
mwanamume 02:33 UTC 03 Sep 2007 | Dear Lise, I don't want to question you. Please, keep us informed in February. What I do not understand, though, is why you always hear about this problem from Tuvalu only, never from other countries that should be in the same situation. If things go my way I will visit your country within a couple of years. I hope we shall meet so we can discuss further. Ingvar | 12
troodon 08:30 UTC 09 Sep 2007 | If this is happening in Tuvalu and not elsewhere, it seems logical that it most be a local problem, not a global one, which pretty much would have to rule out rising ocean levels as a cause, else it would be far more widespread. It would only take levels to rise by 8 feet to put the entire country of Maldives underwater, for example! Not trying to downplay the problem as far as Tuvalu's concerned, but it seems another factor is at work there, probably shifting tides, lowering of atolls, etc. | 13
rolandb 05:32 UTC 11 Dec 2007 | This is an old conversation, but I found it after seeing a documentary on Tuvalu on Japanese television. I'm kind of amazed to find doubters on TT, and even people saying that global warming is something scientists argue about. There may be slight dissent about what the causes are, but you'd really have to on the fringe and a big believer in global conspiracy theories to doubt that the globe is heating up. It's something journalists argue about (they always want to get a quote from "the other side," however small that camp may be), but the international scientific community (including American Republican friends of mine) is 99.99% agreed that things are heating up and 98% agreed that it's primarily due to greenhouse gases and that we're facing a crisis. To be fair, the extent of that crisis is still a debated subject--but less so if you're living in Tuvalu or coastal Bangladesh. Here's an interesting article from Sierra mag, via Tuvalu itself: http://www.tuvaluislands.com/news/archived/2003/2003-07-A.htm It jives with everything I've seen and read on the topic, namely: 1) The big danger of global warming is weather change, not rising seas. Tuvalu is mostly coral atolls. Coral bleaches and dies in even slightly warmer water. This undermines the structure of the island--water floods up through the ground. 2) "King tides" in Feb and March have gotten bigger, washing over the island, ripping out trees and vegetation. The soil becomes swamped with salt water, and the things that literally hold the land together don't grow back, hastening erosion. If the storm season gets more severe, it doesn't really matter whether the sea level is currently rising or not. The highest point on Tuvalu is something like 16 feet/5 meters and that's probably rock and not coral atoll. The island will be uninhabitable for other reasons before it submerges completely. | 14