The Tragedy Of Tuvalu

Photo by mrlins

As dawn breaks over the Pacific today, the small island state of Tuvalu has just two days' worth of fresh water left. Most of the world is ignoring them.

Near neighbours New Zealand and Australia have noticed the State of Emergency. Australia offered a desalination unit. For 12,000 people, that doesn't seem like much. New Zealand gave them two desalination units, and some plastic bottles. The US, meanwhile, has given the Red Cross $50,000.

Wow, $50,000. From one of the richest countries on the planet.

The tragedy is, Tuvalu is on the front line of the fight against Climate Change. Rising sea levels mean that it is sinking beneath the waves, with some estimates saying that it only has 50 years left before it is lost completely. That figure of 50 years misleads us. It gives us an image of islanders only evacuating when the water reaches their armpits, or of them building their homes on higher and higher stilts.

The reality, of course, is that long before those 50 years are up they will have run out of fresh water. They will have run out of food because their crops are continually inundated with sea water. The younger members of society will have gone to seek a future somewhere else, leaving behind those that are less able to help themselves when everything is "ok", never mind when the sea is encroaching every further into their paradise.

And, of course, they need somewhere to evacuate to. Australia has told them they're not wanted. New Zealand has agreed to take just 75 of them per year. Their closer island neighbours aren't big enough to cope with an influx of 12,000 people. Britain, meanwhile, is pretending it has nothing to do with them, despite that rather obvious Union Jack in the top left hand corner of the Tuvalu flag, and a rather familiar national anthem that begins "God Save Our Gracious Queen...".

If the people of Tuvalu weren't knee-deep in the Pacific, I'd say they were being hung out to dry.