<
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/jun/27/tuvalu-climate-crisis-rising-sea-levels-pacific-island-nation-country-digital-clone>
"When Lily Teafa was growing up in Tuvalu, her uncles would go fishing every
day and come home with a big catch to share with the neighbours. Now, they’ll
come home most days and say “sei poa” or “bad catch”.
The 28-year-old, who works with a youth-led organisation on climate change
projects such as coral restoration in the tiny Pacific nation, says signs of
her homeland slipping away are everywhere.
“Whenever we go for a picnic, especially at the northern and southern ends of
this beautiful island, we always notice that a piece of land has been washed
away by the sea.”
Tuvalu is expected to be one of the first countries in the world to be
completely lost to climate change. The three coral islands and six atolls that
make up the country have a total land mass of less than 26 sq km. At current
rates of sea level rise, some estimates suggest that half the land area of the
capital, Funafuti, will be flooded by tidal waters within three decades. By
2100, 95% of land will be flooded by periodic king tides, making it essentially
uninhabitable. That’s within Teafa’s lifetime.
The question of survival is an urgent one. Teafa says that for youth in
particular, fear is the predominant emotion. “It’s the worst feeling ever;
worse than being afraid of heights, afraid of the dark. Now we’re afraid of the
future.”
In the face of this reality, work is under way in Tuvalu to reclaim land, along
with attempts to preserve its culture and history online, in groundbreaking
plans that could see Tuvalu become the first wholly digitised nation existing
in the metaverse."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
