Millions of people living on islands around the world are now on the frontline of global warming. Islanders around the world, from Maldives to Papua New Guinea, have joined together to present an unprecedented resolution before the UN in an effort to gain global support as they prepare to face the devastating results of rising sea levels, including loss of coastline, drought, and economic hardship. For islanders, the threat of becoming environmental refugees is becoming all too real.

Members of the Pacific Small Island Developing States include Fiji, Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Nauru, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga, and Tuvalu. These countries, along with Australia, Austria, Canada, Israel, Maldives, New Zealand, Seychelles, and Turkey, are submitting a draft to the United Nations entitled “Security and Climate Change.” This draft calls attention to the immediate social, economic, and security threat resulting from rapid climate change and rising sea levels.

Time magazine called President Tommy E. Remengesau of Palau, an island 600 miles southeast of the Philippines that is right now threatened by rising sea levels, the “hero of the environment.” Remengesau was recently in Hawai‘i for a U.S. Coral Reef Task Force meeting in Kona and a Nature Conservancy gathering honoring him at the Pacific Club in Honolulu.
According to a Honolulu Star Bulletin article, Remengesau remarked that President Bush regards global warming as a “theory.” “Unfortunately,” Remengesau said, “ it is not a theory for those of us living on the front line.” Palau is facing drought, depleted fish stocks, and property loss due to rising sea levels.

“ The problem is, we are small,” he said. “People don’t think it is an urgency, that Pacific islanders live in paradise. Believe me, it’s like the tsunami that starts with us. We are the window of what will eventually be happening to the rest of the world.”

The Pacific Small Island Developing States asked the UN to evaluate the security threats theses islands will face such as population relocation, ocean incursions, and the salting of food stocks and fresh water.

Palau’s UN Ambassador, Stuart Beck, said that different nations have different definitions for the term “security,” but “from the perspective of the Pacific Island nations, the extinction of our cultures is undoubtedly a clear and present danger. Never before have states faced the prospect of their removal from the globe. The Security Council, in its wisdom and pursuant to the Charter, may provide solutions which can strengthen ongoing efforts of the international community to address the problem.”

Some UN agencies are aware of the problem. According to a UN Food and Agricultural Organization report issued in July, the world’s oceans are changing and rising ocean temperatures will have serious consequences for millions of people dependent upon fishing for their livelihoods, as many people in Pacific Island communities do. The report suggests that changes in sea temperature will alter the temperature of aquatic species people eat and adversely impact the metabolism, growth rate, reproduction and susceptibility to diseases and toxins of many aquatic species.

The report goes on to say that climate change is also causing the increase of extreme weather events, such as the El Niño sea surface-warming phenomenon in the South Pacific and the general warming of the world’s oceans. The Atlantic in particular is showing signs of warming deep below the surface, and warmer water species are now migrating toward the South and North Poles, the report states.
The UN has recognized that small islands are threatened by global warming. According to a 2007 UN press release, Achim Steiner, executive director of the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) said,” Small islands, along with the Arctic and low-lying developing countries, are in the front line in terms of climate change. Small islands are, as a result of their size, limited natural resources including energy and water supplies, physical locations, distance from markets, and other factors already vulnerable to extreme weather events and other economic shocks.” He went on to say that there will be “serious and significant future impacts facing small islands unless greenhouse gas emissions are cut.”

The problem is low-lying small island states do not have the luxury of time to wait for greenhouse gas emissions to be cut. Answers and solutions are needed immediately for those islanders on the forefront of climate change. Small island developing states are hoping that the “Security and Climate Change” draft will reemphasize the urgency of this problem and the need for immediate assistance in coping with the effects of climate change.