PHOTOS: The rising king tides of Tuvalu

The king tides in Tuvalu | Photo Credit: Florent Baarsch All Rights Reserved

Last year, we at TckTckTck had the pleasure of working with Florent Baarsch through his participation as the French climate tracker for our Adopt a Negotiator project. In 2011 Florent is spending six months in Tuvalu, the small Pacific nation that’s also one of the world’s most at-risk for climate change.

Like the residents of the Carteret Islands, whose climate challenges were documented in the Oscar nominated short film Sun Come Up, the citizens of Tuvalu do not have the luxury of simply waiting around for panels of international negotatiors to take action. They face the effects of climate change every day and do what they can to adapt. But time is short. The sea is rising.

Never is this more poignant than in January and February when Tuvalu experiences its yearly King Tides. This year the tides measured around 3.24 metres, and on an island where the highest points range between three and four meters, even the smallest increase in sea level can have disastrous effects.

Florent documented the 2011 tides for his website Klima Tuvalu, and his photos are amazing.

As he writes on his blog:

“The people on Tuvalu are already experiencing flooding in places that were not flooded some years ago. The seawater is seeping through the ground, salting the arable soil and ground water. Growing the traditional pulaka, taro, papaya, breadfruits and bananas gets harder because of the progressive salinization. Consequently, the population is increasingly dependent on costly imported food.

The waves and rising tides are washing away the coastline and the once so beautiful sandy beaches. As the ground is swept away, the coconut trees are falling down, increasing the erosion process. Even the seawalls, built to protect the coasts, are giving away to the rising and intensified waters and the waves are now washing over and behind the walls.

With the estimated sea-level rise, Tuvalu might loose up to 1 meter of shoreline a year – a huge loss for the islands where the widest part is just about 400 meters.”

We believe all of us have a moral and ethical obligation to help climate-threatened nations like Tuvalu. It is essential that we push governments to move quickly on adaptation funding, education and sign a fair, ambitious and legally binding global climate deal. Agreements and negotiations can be deferred for years, but the rising tides cannot.

Tags: Tuvalu

Category: Fresh Air