Hi all,

There is a documentary on sea-level rise, climate change and Tuvalu on ABC Wednesday 13th October, 9:30pm.

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Alistair Hart
Alis...@health.qld.gov.au
October 12, 2004
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Paradise Drowned: Tuvalu The Disappearing Nation

9:30pm Wednesday, 13 October

The idyllic paradise of the tiny Pacific nation of Tuvalu is facing a dilemma. Its population is divided over whether to believe climate reports claiming it will be swallowed by rising sea levels... or to heed scientists who say this will not happen.

The young Polynesian people of Tuvalu, anxious about their nation disappearing off the face of the earth, are eyeing education and employment opportunities elsewhere and want to leave. The elderly want to stay.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has released a report saying that there is no doubt that, due to global warming, the sea will rise about a metre in the next 100 years.

Tuvalu which sits about two metres above sea level, is already suffering effects of rising ocean levels with localised flooding at high tides causing havoc with livestock and food crop fields.

Paradise Drowned looks at the plight of the people of Tuvalu through the eyes of young Tuvalu woman, Melita Falavi. Melita, 22, is in her second year studying pharmacology at Otago University, Dunedin. She returns to Tuvalu for Christmas with her family, wondering in her first-person narration how many more family gatherings can occur in this endangered paradise.

The independent Tuvalu people, have sustained a Polynesian lifestyle there for 2000 years. The elders believe they can survive this threat, having withstood invasion by the Europeans in the 16th century, occupation by the Americans and bombing by the Japanese during World War II.

The younger population see the disappearance of fresh food and water and the increasing cyclone activity as ominous signs of a drowning paradise. Yet some scientists say the reports of global warming are alarmist and wrong. Does Tuvalu have a future and is the rest of the world powerless to help these islanders from becoming victims of the global affliction?

I've included you in this email because I thought that either the environmental or social implications of sea-level rise on Island communities may interest you. Please accept my apologies if this is not the case.

Sincerely,

Alistair Hart

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Alistair Hart
GIS Project Officer
Health Surveillance
Tropical Public Health Unit Network
PO Box 1103
Cairns QLD 4870
Ph: 0740 503 628
Fax: 0740 311 440
E: alis...@health.qld.gov.au

"If there's a 'where' in it, we're in it!"