The end of the Pacific? Effects of sea level rise on Pacific Island livelihoods

Patrick Nunn

doi:10.1111/sjtg.12021

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The end of the Pacific? Effects of sea level rise on Pacific Island livelihoods

Journal article

Open access

Peer reviewed

The end of the Pacific? Effects of sea level rise on Pacific Island livelihoods

Patrick Nunn

Singapore Journal of Tropical Geography, Vol.34(2), pp.143-171

2013

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/sjtg.12021

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Abstract

climate change

coasts

Pacific

sea level

society

livelihoods

As in the past, most Pacific Island people live today along island coasts and subsist largely on foods available both onshore and offshore. On at least two occasions in the 3500 years that Pacific Islands have been settled, sea level changes affected coastal bioproductivity to the extent that island societies were transformed in consequence. Over the past 200 years, sea level has been rising along most Pacific Island coasts causing loss of productive land through direct inundation (flooding), shoreline erosion and groundwater salinization. Responses have been largely uninformed, many unsuccessful. By the year 2100, sea level may be 1.2m higher than today. Together with other climate-linked changes and unsustainable human pressures on coastal zones, this will pose huge challenges for livelihoods. There is an urgent need for effective and sustainable adaptation of livelihoods to prepare for future sea level rise in the Pacific Islands region. There are also lessons to be learned from past failures, including the need for adaptive solutions that are environmentally and culturally appropriate, and those which appropriate decision makers are empowered to design and implement. Around the middle of the twenty-first century, traditional coastal livelihoods are likely to be difficult to sustain, so people in the region will need alternative food production systems. Within the next 20-30 years, it is likely that many coastal settlements will need to be relocated, partly or wholly. There are advantages in anticipating these needs and planning for them sooner rather than later. In many ways, the historical and modern Pacific will end within the next few decades. There will be fundamental irreversible changes in island geography, settlement patterns, subsistence systems, societies and economic development, forced by sea level rise and other factors. © 2013 The Author Singapore Journal of Tropical Geography © 2013 Department of Geography, National University of Singapore and Wiley Publishing Asia Pty Ltd.

Details

Title: The end of the Pacific? Effects of sea level rise on Pacific Island livelihoods
Authors: Patrick Nunn (Author) - University of New England
Publication details: Singapore Journal of Tropical Geography, Vol.34(2), pp.143-171
Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell Publishing Asia
Date published: 2013
DOI: 10.1111/sjtg.12021
ISSN: 0129-7619; 0129-7619
Copyright note: Copyright © 2013 Wiley-Blackwell Publishing Asia. This is the accepted version of the following article: Nunn, P. D. (2013), The end of the Pacific? Effects of sea level rise on Pacific Island livelihoods. Singapore Journal of Tropical Geography, 34: 143-171. doi: 10.1111/sjtg.12021, which has been published in final form at http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/sjtg.12021
Organisation Unit: Indigenous and Transcultural Research Centre; Australian Centre for Pacific Islands Research; School of Social Sciences - Legacy; University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland; School of Law and Society; Sustainability Research Cluster
Language: English
Record Identifier: 99449035802621
Output Type: Journal article
Research Statement: false