Eyes on the Tide

What would you do if your town began to sink under the waves?

The Pacific Ocean covers almost a third of the Earth. Scattered around its rim are many groups of islands. In recent years, the people of these islands have noticed tides getting higher and storms getting worse. And they wonder —  is their world about to change?

Rising Tides

As the climate warms, the huge ice sheets at the North and South Poles are melting, releasing water into the oceans. That makes the ocean higher, like when you add water to a bath. Warmer water also takes up more room than cooler water, so as the oceans warm they rise even more. Scientists expect that if the planet continues to warm, sea levels around the world may rise 2 to 6 feet (1 to 2 m) or more by 2100.

That may not sound like much, but it’s alarming news for islanders and anyone else who lives near the coast.

Island Life

The Solomons are a group of 1,000 small islands in the South Pacific. Some are flat coral islands barely taller than the waves. Others are high volcanoes or big rocks sticking out of the sea. But all have noticed that the sea around them is getting higher. At high tide, water flows into houses and over roads that used to be dry. Beaches are vanishing. Five of the Solomon Islands have disappeared beneath the waves since 1947.

The islanders’ world is changing in other ways too. It’s often too hot to work in the garden during the day. Bad storms seem to come more often. As the sea levels rise, saltwater seeps up through the ground, getting into wells and killing trees and crops.

Islands get most of their fresh water from rain. But with climate change, weather patterns are changing. Often it doesn’t rain for months, then too much comes at once.

Rising waves are also causing some islands to change shape. This happens when waves wash away soil on one side of an island and dump new sand on the other side. Coral islands are always changing shape in this way, but now it’s happening faster. And if your town is on the side that’s washing away, that’s a problem.

But the people of the Solomon Islands aren’t giving up. They’re working with scientists to build seawalls to protect homes from rising water and storms. They’re trying to cut down fewer trees, since trees help hold onto soil. They’re growing crops in containers to keep the saltwater out, or finding crops that don’t mind salt. They’re planting mangrove trees and corals to protect the coasts. They hope that by working hard, they can find a way to stay on their islands — at least for awhile.

Watching the Weather

The Cook Islands are another group of islands in the Pacific. Some are flat and some are tall volcanoes. Even if the seas rise a lot, the hilly islands will stay above the waves. For them, a bigger problem is rain — either too much, or not enough. Heavy rains can cause floods that wash soil and homes down hillsides. And when not enough rain falls, crops suffer.

These islands are ringed by coral reefs. The reefs act as barriers to slow big storm waves that can flood the islands. They are home to many species of fish and shellfish that the islanders eat. But as the ocean warms, coral reefs are dying. Heat and extra carbon dioxide in the air hurt the corals that build the reefs. Without healthy reefs, fish move away, the islanders have less to eat, and fewer tourists visit.

But the Cook Islanders, too, are adapting. They’re buying barrels to store water when the rains do come. They’re building new buildings away from coasts, and fixing old buildings to survive stronger storms. And they keep a careful eye on the coral reefs.

Moving Up

When their homes started flooding every time the tide came in, one village on the island of Vanua Levu in Fiji decided on a drastic solution — they moved the whole town up into the hills. With help from the government and church groups, they built new houses, dug fish ponds, and started growing bananas and pineapples. Some installed solar panels on their new homes, and now they teach others. In many ways, they were lucky. Their island had hills to move to, and there was land the villagers could buy. Some miss their old life by the sea — but at least they’re safe, and still together.

Many other Pacific Islanders are looking for homes on new islands, or even in new countries. Most don’t want to leave, but with the ocean moving in, they feel they have no choice.

Whose Problem?

All these solutions — building seawalls, storing water, moving a town — cost money. Some island nations would like the rest of the world to help them solve the problems caused by climate change or help them find new homes. After all, they argue, the planet is warming because people all over the world are burning fossil fuels. Pacific Islanders make very little of this pollution, but they’re suffering a lot from the effects. If cars and factories in America and Europe cause floods on the other side of the world, whose problem is it?

Maybe we can take a lesson from the oceans. Melting ice in the Arctic makes higher waves in Fiji because all the oceans are connected—there are no walls between them. Change one, change all. And if we’re going to fix the problems of climate change, maybe the world will also have to work together as one.