The Green Technocrat

It happened yesterday.  Quietly, without anyone hardly noticing, a group of about 40 families (about 2000 people), part of a group known as the The Carteret Islanders of Papua New Guinea, packed their belongings into boats and said goodbye to their island home forever, thus making them the world’s first, but certainly not last, climate change refugees.

Water levels around their small island home have risen over 10 centimeters in the past 20 years.  While this might not seem too significant it should be noted that the maximum elevation on the island is 1.2 meters, and a change of this magnituted causes disaterous consequences.  Already the island’s crops have been destroyed by the rising tide, and the remaining land has become contaminated with salt making it completely unfarmable.

Very few people are aware that this forced evacuation is even taking place.  I myself had no idea about this until earlier today, despite the fact that I try to follow the subject closely.  While the families have been given land on a nearby island (with higher ground) it is tragic that an entire community has been displaced by climate change.  I hope their loss will open more people’s eyes to the reality around them.

Via Treehugger