The First Casualties of Climate Change

12/27/06  Print This Post Print This Post    5 Comments      Written by Ian MacKenzie
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The fate of the Cateret Islands

My friend has a sense of humour.

For Christmas, he gifted me a darkly hilarious “Global Warming Mug” – a mug featuring the world’s continents in all their glory. Except there’s a catch. When you pour in a hot liquid the heat alters the continents, revealing the edges of the world that will be swallowed in the future due to unabated climate change and rising sea levels.

My initial thought was the wonderfully depressing feeling the mug would invoke with every morning coffee, but then I realized it was an effective reminder; a “call to action” that climate change isn’t just going to go away if everyone ignores it.

If fact, the first casualties of rising sea levels appear to be the people of the Carteret Islands – living among the most beautiful and most remote corners of the world. These islands also happen to sit at their highest only 170cm above sea level. (watch video)

“The Carterets are a portent of catastrophe to come – not only for the other low lying atolls of the South Pacific, but for low-lying coastal communities across the world, from Bangladesh to New Orleans.

If environmental scientists and campaigners are correct, the rising seas are the result of global warming caused by the release of greenhouse gasses.

Some time next year the islanders will become the world’s first climate-change refugees; within a few years, barring a dramatic reversal, their home will literally go down in history as the first inhabited territory in the world to be swallowed up by global warming.”

Damn, that’s depressing.

But luckily, if anything, 2006 will be remembered as the year global warming finally hit the mainstream. No longer can the average citizen go about their day without having an opinion on climate change and whether humans have something to do about it.

So I’ve had enough bad news. If Al Gore taught me anything, it’s that we don’t have time to feel sorry for ourselves. Says Future Sea Level.org, a grassroots activist group dedicated to raising public awareness about climate change:

“Even though most serious effects of global warming are primarily going to affect future generations, the actions taken over the next decades will profoundly affect the world in which our children and grandchildren will live.

The challenge is to make the long term and gradual impacts of global warming the immediacy needed to help people make important decisions today.”

This year I bought a bike and ride it almost every day. It’s not much in the grand scheme of things, but it’s certainly a start. Now with the year almost at an end, if you make any resolutions for yourself and the future, pledge to do your part in saving the world.

For a daily reminder, I suggest picking up a Global Warming Mug.

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What have you done this year to combat climate change? Whether large or small, please share in the comments (seriously, it’s inspiring).


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About the Author

Matador ID: ianmack

Ian MacKenzie is the founder and editor of Brave New Traveler. He is currently editing the One Week Job documentary. Aside from writing, he spends his time exploring the fundamental nature of existence and wishing he did more backpacking.

5 Comments... join the discussion!

  • Mike Wiskar replied on December 29, 2006

    This past year I have tried to use public transit at every opportunity. God bless that U-Pass. Sure I have been stranded a couple times in Vancouver slightly intoxicated at one in the morning, but what are you going to do? Let’s hope that our government will listen to the people and also take serious action to combat climate change. I am sending Stephen Harper one of those global warming mugs, however I’m sure that as I speak Exxon Mobile is also sending Harper funds for an upcoming election campaign.

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  • Darren Cronian replied on December 30, 2006

    Governments across the World, won’t get cars off the road, until they have improved the public transportation system.

    The UK must have one of the worst public transport systems in Europe, and this means that people are going to stick with the fuel guzzling rather than stand in the rain waiting for a bus or train.

    Great idea for a mug though!

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  • Rahul Makhija replied on April 16, 2007

    Hey man!
    Thats cool…i would love to see such a mug. Any idea how does it function in this manner.

    Anyways leaving that apart global warming certainly has changed the world. last year, i don’t think i experienced winter in my city. And then i started thinking at least 10 years back one sweater used to come out of the closet and people used to carry it. This year – there was hardly any need for it

    Anyways
    I insist everyone to sign
    Global Warming Petition

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  • Derek C. Wallace replied on May 2, 2007

    In January of this year, I visited Chicago and in the course of just three days the temperature swung from being in the high 80’s where people were swimming at the beach to the low 30’s where a thick blanket of snow coated the entire city. Stories like this poured in across the country at the time.

    Unfortunately, the Carteret Islands have a close cousins in the islands of Lohachara and Ghoramara. I think what jarred me the most was looking them up on Google Earth and actually seeing nothing but ocean.

    http://news.independent.co.uk/environment/article2099971.ece

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  • Dacnet replied on November 4, 2009

    - Climate Change made the typhoons in the south pacific very destructive. Typhoon Ketsana made a lot of mess in Philippines and Vietnam

    (Report comment)

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