In Tonga, a volcano-triggered tsunami underscores islands' acute climate risk

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SINGAPORE: For the South Pacific island nation of Tonga, the tsunami unleashed by Saturday's (Jan 15) volcanic eruption laid bare some of the ways that climate change is threatening the islands' very ex

laid bare some of the ways that climate change is threatening the islands' very existence.

Their plea for global climate action is especially desperate, given that Pacific island nations account for only 0.03 per cent of global carbon emissions, according to the World Bank. "Tsunami surge and storm surge sit on top of sea level," said Benjamin Horton, who has studied global sea-level rise and is chief of the Earth Observatory of Singapore. So with higher seas,"you won't need such big natural disasters to cause widespread devastation".

That continued warming is likely to make the soil drier as high temperatures cause more evaporation and affect regional rainfall patterns, according to the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Tonga itself saw a large blob of ocean heat form south-east of its islands in January 2020, with surface water temperatures registering 6 degrees Celsius above average for that month.REBUILD OR MOVE ON?

 

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