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365 Days of Climate Awareness 342 – AR6 Vol 2, Chap 15: Small Islands [1]

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Date: 2022-07-21

The prototypical island under threat is the tropical atoll, 1.5 m/4.9 ft above mean sea level, where a combination of sea level rise and extreme weather stands to wipe out whole nations. Urban impacts, such as flooding and destabilizing of buildings due to excess rain and storm activity, occur on larger, more mountainous islands. Tropical storm intensity has measurably increased in the last 40 years. Coastal tourism in the islands has been seriously impacted, as have infrastructure and agriculture on islands, particularly in the Caribbean and western Pacific.

Sea level rise not only threatens to overtop islands, but salt water encroachment is fouling limited (rain-derived) freshwater supplies. Furthermore, rising sea temperatures and acidity levels (= dropping pH) are causing corals worldwide to bleach. On coral islands and atolls, this calls into immediate question whether those islands will have any chance of keeping up with rising sea levels, as the living reefs are no longer being built while bleached. Biodiversity on smaller islands is also under severe threat, as land area and freshwater supplies shrink.

Models show all of these impacts worsening, with corals bleaching regularly, or dying altogether. Higher temperatures in air and water will reduce populations of terrestrial, avian and aquatic species, to say nothing of the human populations which depend on them for income and food. Islands—particularly small islands—are some of the most vulnerable locations on earth, being surrounded by an environment—the ocean—increasingly hostile to current ecosystems.

Tomorrow: key risks across sectors and regions.

Be brave, be steadfast, and be well.

Source:

IPCC 6th Assessment Report, Vol. 2, Chap. 15

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