THE JOURNAL OF
MARINE EDUCATION
current
Volume 24 • Number 2 • 2008
CLIMATE CHANGE EFFECTS ON OUR NATURAL RESOURCES AND RIGHTS IN
THE
PACIFIC
IPMEC: K EYNOTE A DDRESS (DAY 1) BY BEN NAMAKIN
THOUSANDS OF PEOPLE IN THE PACIFIC ISLANDS live in remote areas and don’t work in the office. We exist on this planet because of our natural resources. We contribute less than one percent of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions. We are not the cause of climate change. But we are the most vulnerable to its effects. It is destroying our natural resources and denying us our human rights. That’s why it’s very important for us to speak up and make other countries aware of the price that we are paying for their environmental risk-taking. Today we commonly see flooding and droughts because of the change of weather patterns. Saltwater intrusion is affecting the quality of our drinking water, as well as the water of our taro patches and our agricultural products. Our very beautiful, unique terrestrial and marine species that make us proud every day are under threat because of coral bleaching and other effects of climate change. These effects are happening more frequently and intensely these days, which is evidence that global warming is really happening. The effect is worse in the atolls. In Kiribati, the people are confused by the changes they are seeing with the environment because they’ve never experienced these things in the past.
social rights, many of our social affairs that take place on beautiful areas like beaches; how can we continue to do these things if our beaches are eroded? As far as cultural rights, consider the people in Kiribati who use rocks in the sea as landmarks to navigate their way out into the ocean to fish. Now these rocks are completely underwater, and so some parts of their culture have been destroyed also. The pandanus trees mean a lot to the people of Kiribati, as it is used for making houses, traditional dancing clothes, thatches, local medicine, and more, many of the pandanus trees are being destroyed by saltwater intrusion. The same situation is also being experienced in other parts of the Pacific Island nations.
This is not just an environmental problem. It’s a human rights issue as well. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights speaks to economic, social, and cultural rights. If we look at the economic rights, that means we have the right to make money. But global warming is destroying the ecotourism, agriculture, and fisheries that dominate our Pacific economies. If we look at
Our small island nations will be covered one day if nothing is done to deal with sea level rise. Where will we all go? If we’re going to be offered a place somewhere else to move, who is going to pay for the costs and how will we carry on our cultural identities? How can we carry those fish that we love to eat in the Pacific Islands with us, how can we carry the plants
Saltwater intrusion in Kiribati (2003).
Coral bleaching in Pohnpei, Federated States of Micronesia.
¯ SPECIAL ISSUE FEATURING HO‘OHANOHANO I NA¯ KUPUNA PUWALU AND INTERNATIONAL PACIFIC MARINE EDUCATORS CONFERENCE
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