Climate report appeals to US Congress for action
A new climate report makes an urgent call to the US Congress to collaborate more with Pacific nations.
A Hawaii based scientist says a new climate report is an urgent call to the US Congress to collaborate more with Pacific nations.
A researcher at the East-West Centre, Victoria Keener, told Jenny Meyer about the 3rd US National Climate Assessment and the issues facing US affiliated Pacific Islands.
PVICTORIA KEENER: Some of the main findings include things for the region that are general like ocean acidification and rising sea surface temperatures. So how these affect increased coral bleaching events, and disease outbreaks. Also another key message is the focus on fresh water supplies on a lot of the Pacific Islands. So we have both high islands like Hawaii and low islands like the Marshall Islands, which have very different resources in terms of fresh water. So basically it looks at how climate change in the future will impact the availability of those fresh water supplies. As a lot of the aquifers are both stressed from the ground up as sea level rises and the salt water comes up and narrows it from the bottom and in some cases rainfall declines.
JENNY MEYER: These are concerns that are really pressing for many of the islands in the Pacific, what does the report suggest can be done as a matter of urgency do you think to address this current situation which more and more real and threatening for people in the Pacific every year?
VK: Yeah, exactly. Not only are there these technical issues that people are dealing with. But also in the Pacific there are mounting threats to cultures and sovereignty of islands as well. You know as a lot of these islands are only a few feet, a few metres above sea level. So long before many of the low islands are under water due to sea level rise they are going to be impacted by not being able to grow crops there, having their aquifers salted so that they don't have a good supply of fresh water. Some of the things that are really stressed in the report are things that are win-win for everybody. So by adapting to a changing climate you're not going to hurt a community by doing something like having more fresh water resources, you know expanding your reserve supply. You're not going to hurt anybody by collaborating more between agencies and leveraging projects and working across boundaries. Just things that make sense for everybody.
JM: Is there any funding that's attached with this report?
VK: That is being given out to communities for example?
VK: No, there's not unfortunately. It's really more of a high level policy document meant to inform the United States Congress which can be less than progressive on a lot of climate change issues. That this is real, this is happening now, it's not happening in the future. These are impacts that we're seeing not just on the US mainland but in the Pacific, on the islands, everywhere. It's happening now and we need to start addressing it. Well we needed to start addressing it a long time ago but we definitely need to start doing something now if we want to combat this effectively.
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