Credit: World Corporate Services Limited
One of the impacts of climate change is rising sea level. Many of the world’s major cities & millions of people are predicted to be impacted in coming years.1
Most immediately at risk are the Marshall Islands – with highest point just 10 metres above sea level2 & an average elevation of 2 metres,3 rising sea level is already impacting day-to-day life. Many have seen the writing on the wall – one third of the population of the Marshall Islands live in the United States.
Wired
https://www.wired.com/2016/09/sea-level-rise-already-driving-people-marshall-islands/
The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2015/12/02/world/The-Marshall-Islands-Are-Disappearing.html?_r=0
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1 Business Insider Australia: “Rising Sea Levels Could Cause Staggering Damage To These Cities”, http://www.businessinsider.com.au/cities-exposed-to-rising-sea-levels-2014-4
2 Wikipedia: “Geography of the Marshall Islands”,
“highest point: unnamed location on Likiep 10 meters / 33 feet above sea level”, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geography_of_the_Marshall_Islands
3 Embassy of the Republic of the Marshall Islands, Washington DC: “The mean height of the land is about 7 feet above sea level (2 meters).”, http://www.rmiembassyus.org/index.htm / sea waves low-lying fragments of land Marshall Islands tides support life latest temporary sea wall cleaves her property waves knocked down floods plants face a salty demise Marshall Islands corrugated metal wall Heine president of the Pacific island nation rising seas need a better wall climate change declared a state of emergency drought water rationed nation faces existential threat sea level rise and potential exodus of its population numbers are increasing people leaving people thinking about the sea level rise secure land departing Marshallese USA United States of America 20,000 people located between Hawaii and Australia largest Marshallese community has gathered New York Los Angeles Springdale Arkansas better job prospects college education climate change third Marshall Islands 60,000 strong population now resides in the US archipelago unique culture departure Marshallese government massive out migration population left seas rise compact of free association Marshallese people live and work US without visa extended living in the US Marshall Islands hopeful migrants expiration American deal more people will leave these are our homes Marshall Islands island paradise 29 coral limestone sand atolls five islands 750,000 sq miles of ocean vulnerable ocean advancing melting glaciers thermal expansion islands arranged broken arcs around large lagoons islands coin-flat incredibly narrow just a dozen yards separate one coast from the other water graves sliding into the sea spilling bones what remains of the beach labour of repatching flood defenses gnawed-away coastline five-meter swells inundated Majuro US Geological Survey sobering research mix of sea level rise marauding waves many atoll islands flooded annually salinizing limited freshwater resources forcing inhabitants abandon their islands decades centuries salination escape route option moving USA Marshall Islands under US administration during cold war US conducted nuclear weapons testing islands Bikini atoll 23 bombs Bravo shot vaporized three small islands Bikini evacuated wind blew radioactive detritus inhabited atolls Rongelap Utrik evacuation Rongelap radioactive fallout cancers thyroid radioactivity wounds dispossession run deepest Marshallese Majuro island US military base Kwajalein missiles Marshallese legacy of trauma Bikini atoll global warming climate change nuclear bombs global warming climate change We are going to go under Marshall Islands remote everything needs to be imported unemployment rate is around 36 percent country produces coconuts breadfruit sells fishing licenses international trawlers scour Marshallese waters tuna international aid Marshall Islands population Peace Corps member administer trust fund people’s houses washed away Marshallese /
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