Get the Details Straight: Island Nations Are Rising, Not ‘Sinking Into the Sea’
Get the Facts Straight, The Independent, Island Nations Are Growing, Not “Sinking Into the Sea”
By H. Sterling Burnett
The Independent posted an article claiming multiple small island nations are sinking into the sea, threatening the cease existing as nations, leaving their populations adrift. Data shows this is simply false. Amid modest sea level rise, the island nations that The Independent discusses have increased in size, population, and prosperity amid modest climate change. No real data shows that the oceans are about to swamp these countries.
“Small island nations such as Tuvalu, Kiribati, the Maldives and Marshall Islands are particularly vulnerable to climate change,” claims The Independent in its story, “These countries are sinking into the sea. What happens when they disappear forever?” “Rising seas, stronger storms, freshwater shortages and damaged infrastructure all threaten their ability to support life.
“Some islands even face the grim possibility of being abandoned or sinking beneath the ocean,” continues The Independent. “This raises an unprecedented legal question: can these small island nations still be considered states if their land disappears?”
While questions of international law with regard to the status of nations and their peoples should a country cease to exist are beyond the ken of Climate Realism, data indicates that the populations of these nations need not fear for their islands’ continued existence or, as result, the dissolution of their nation and national identity.
Repeated studies show that each of the island nations discussed in the story are actually growing in size, not sinking beneath the seas. In addition, the actions of their governments and private industries, such as increased infrastructure and commercial development, suggest they believe the islands will continue to exist and prosper even amid modestly rising seas.
Climate at a Glance: Islands and Sea Level Rise cites multiple peer reviewed reports debunking previous claims that islands such as Tuvalu, Kiribati, the Maldives, and the Marshall Islands are losing surface area. In fact, due to a growth in height, accretion along their coasts as they add sand, or both, each of these nations have expanded. For example, one recent peer-reviewed study found eight of Tuvalu’s nine large coral atolls have grown in size during recent decades, and 75 percent of the island nation’s 101 smaller reef islands have increased as well.
Concerning the Maldives, whereas 30 years ago, the Canberra Times claimed all 1196 islands that comprise the Maldives could be completely underwater by now. Not only are all 1196 islands still there, but the Maldives population has doubled during the past 20 years. People are flocking to the Maldives islands, not fleeing them. The Maldives are absorbing political refugees, not spawning climate refugees.
In fact, scientists at the University of Auckland found coral atolls in the Pacific nations of Marshall Islands, Kiribati, and the Maldives in the Indian Ocean, have increased their land base by 8 to 10 percent over the past 60 years.
Studies published or cited in Nature, GeoScience World, and Phys.org explain the processes that have allowed so many island nations, countries projected by climate alarmists to sink beneath to waves, to not just keep pace with rising seas but actually gain land.
Climate Realism has published a number of stories explaining that because various island nations aren’t, in fact, being washed away, but rather are increasing in size, there is no climate change induced flood of refugees from those countries, here, here, and here, for example.
In the face of growing populations and tourism, each of the island nations purported by The Independent to be threatened with climate change induced erasure and dissolution have expanded infrastructure and seen long-term, large-scale investments on their islands in recent years. They have new hotels, water development, tourism centers, and public buildings and roads.
At a 2019 climate conference in Bonn, Germany, for example, Kiribati’s President, Anote Tong, said, “Climate change is indeed a serious problem, but we don’t believe that Kiribati will sink like the Titanic ship.” In the same video feed, Tong noted that foreign investors were in the process of developing “5-star eco-friendly resorts that would promote world-class diving, fishing and surfing experiences” on currently uninhabited islands.
It’s hard to believe that governments and for-profit companies would make long-term, multibillion dollar investments, erecting structures and related infrastructure, if they thought it would all be washed away before paying off their loans, much less turning a profit.
The Independent didn’t show much journalistic curiosity or display independent thought when it published this false story about climate change induced disappearing island nations. A simple fact check by the paper’s editors would have prevented this story from getting published, or at least forced the authors to radically rewrite it and quote authors of the studies demonstrating island growth – but then who cares about the truth when there is a good, scary story to tell. Evidently, not The Independent.