Saving the world from global warming

Predictably, the recent Pacific Island Forum raised serious issues. Leaders agreed to disagree when Australia and New Zealand blocked a bid to limit average global warming to 1.5 degrees over pre-Industrial Revolution levels rather than 2 degrees, as accepted by the 2014 Climate Summit.

When Tony Abbott returned, he and Peter Dutton engaged in some tasteless small talk which upset the President of Kiribati, Anote Tong.

Tong has campaigned about the impact of climate change in the Pacific, and he reacted with sadness rather than anger. "I find that extremely sad, extremely disappointing, that we are making jokes about a very serious issue. It shows a sense of moral irresponsibility quite unbecoming of leadership."

Tong and Kiribati are a symbol of the fight against climate change. "This entire country is about to be wiped out by climate change," he warns us. "It won't be the last one."

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon agrees. In September 2011 he visited Kiribati and met with Tong. The main topic of conversation was climate change and the effect of rising sea levels. "Watching this high tide standing on the shore of Kiribati, I said 'High tides show it's time to act'. We are running out of time,"said Ban.

Media reports claim security guards put a life jacket in his room, just in case, and he planted some mangroves - "one of the cheapest and surest ways to protect coastal environments".

Australia provides substantial foreign aid to Kiribati. When Bob Carr as Foreign Minister visited in 2013 he said "Kiribati is at the front line of climate change…Unless action is taken, Kiribati will be uninhabitable by 2030 as a result of coastal erosion, sea level rise and saltwater intrusion into drinking water."

Kiribati comprises a chain of 33 atolls and islands spread out over 5000 kilometres of ocean. It became a British protectorate in 1892, was granted self-rule in 1971 and independence in 1979. The Phoenix and Line Island groups were added in 1979.

Kiribati owned assets of considerable commercial value. Banaba is a phosphate island, and mining for fertiliser stripped away 90% of the island's surface. By the 1970s, annual production reached a high of 550,000 tons, but deposits were exhausted by the time of Kiribati's independence. Phosphate was Kiribati's major resource, leaving fishing and copra as the only real sources of income.

Kiribati established diplomatic relationships with China in 1980. The relationship was important for both countries. China established a satellite tracking station in 1997, paid $US250,000 a year rent and provided aid to Kiribati. The geographical situation, just above the equator, was ideal for China's space program, but was unpopular with America –some argued that its purpose was to spy on a US testing station on Kwajalein atoll in the Marshall Islands.

Anote Tong won the election in 2003. The space station was the hot election issue. Anote was backed by Taiwan, his half-brother Harry by China

Within a month, Anote announced that Kiribati would cut ties with mainland China and switch allegiance to Taiwan. Taiwan reportedly paid over $11 million in ''aid'' but speculation was that the US was behind the switch and helped pay the bill.

China responded immediately. It severed diplomatic ties, dismantled the station within days and withdrew all aid, infrastructure and medical support. It maintains a presence, leading to speculation that it may return given a more friendly government.

Not everyone agrees with the diagnosis of Kiribati's problems provided by Tong, Ban Ki-Moon and Bob Carr.

Tong's own Office of Te Beretitenti (Office of the President) reports that "there is evidence that at present, climate change is not the main cause of coastal erosion, water shortages or overcrowding. Other issues, especially population growth and the move to Western lifestyles, are having a more immediate impact."

South Tarawa, the capital, is home to more than 51,000 people - 5,000 per square kilometre, almost five times the population density of Bangladesh.

The people are camped on top of the water supply - a freshwater lens which, being less dense than seawater, floats on top of it. The weight of the fresh water pushes down the surface of the sea water…The amount of fresh water in the lens is a balance between what is added and what is withdrawn or lost. When it rains, a floating lens of fresh water forms, which goes up and down with the underlying sea water.

Rising sea levels will not cause fresh water to mix with the seawater, the lens simply rises on top of it. Human activities can alter the water level, or pollute it. Over pumping depletes it.

The population of South Tarawa is building toilets and burying their dead in close proximity to the lens. The Office of Te Beretitenti (OTB) reports: "Most households…use rain water and groundwater for drinking, cooking, and cleaning. However, groundwater fetched from wells…is not suitable for human consumption…universally microbiologically contaminated and should not be used for drinking or cooking…without being boiled. Worse, in the main settlements…chemicals and heavy metal in the water lens have been found…the water is unsuitable for drinking even after it has been boiled."

The problem is caused by an explosion in population growth, and "the lack of a water reserve management plan linked to a lack of will for curbing unacceptable practices affecting lens water quality…Kiribati has an extremely high incidence of water-borne diseases with an infant mortality rate amongst the highest in the Pacific at 46 per 1,000 live births, which is attributed to infantile diarrhoea. The World Health Organization (WHO) and health officials report an average of three outbreaks of diarrhoea annually directly linked to poor water supplies, inadequate sanitation, unsafe practices and poor public hygiene…diseases spread very quickly and easily because of overcrowding, poor ventilation, and dirty surroundings.

"Currently unemployment and under-employment are a serious problem… In 2010 only 34% of urban people over 15 years of age were engaged in cash work. Of the remainder, 21% were unemployed, 5% were engaged in voluntary or subsistence work, and 41% were not in the labour force... In total, two thirds (66%) of adults …are either out of the labour force, unemployed or engaged in subsistence activities.

Only 23 per cent of Kiribati's population receives any sort of cash income -and the vast majority of these people are in government jobs.

"Every year, households…slip further into debt…People, mostly men, spend their evenings singing and drinking kava, and then spend the whole morning of the next day sleeping, or if employed… perform half awake…at work the following day."

Climate change was not Ban Ki-Moon's only concern. He emphasised the importance of raising the status of women.

One quarter of women under the age of 25 have engaged in "transactional sex,"according to the World Health Organization. 70% of women have experienced abuse by a partner. The number of women reported to have died in childbirth rose dramatically in 2012 (from 1 in 2011 to 6 in 2012). There are high rates of sexually transmissible infections…up to 15% among antenatal mothers.

"Children and young women roaming around kava bars and night clubs…at night is becoming a normal sight…Either parental control has loosened or the parents are not at home, and are most likely to be found in Church maneabas playing bingo or in kava gatherings."

President Tong wants to do something about it. "I would love to have dictatorship powers for six months,"he says. "But on the issue of settlement on the lens, we are kicking those people out. They've been given eviction notices". He said the process of removing people has been going on for 20 years.

The OTB reports: "The population of South Tarawa grew by almost 10,000 people between 2005 and 2010, an annual population growth of 4.4%... by 2030 South Tarawa's population will double to about 107,000 people…As South Tarawa is the hub of central government administration and of the commercial sector, it is rational that new migrants will continue to move to the urban areas in search of better employment opportunities and higher incomes for themselves and their families.

"Developments and the growing population have both put a lot of pressure on the environment…because of the over extraction of sand, gravel and rocks, removal of trees from shoreline for firewood or building, and poor waste disposal habits… Disposal of wastes…directly into the ground or along the shoreline is a big threat to the freshness and cleanliness of water lens.

"Sanitation is inadequate…sewage collected is discharged to the sea…Leaking pipes in the reticulated saltwater system…injecting a lot of seawater into the water lens, making groundwater repulsively brackish and contaminated.

"The beach is still being used as toilet by many people… Many of the flush toilets and pit latrines are poorly maintained…they leak into the water lens and many are offensive…The habit of disposing of rubbish anyhow, especially into the sea, is polluting the beaches, coastal waters and the lagoon."

Islands in the South Pacific are living organisms, they adapt to changes in sea level.. In a recent study, researchers compared aerial photographs and high-resolution satellite images of 27 islands taken since the 1950s. Only four islands had decreased in area despite local sea level rises of almost 120mm in that time, while 23 stayed the same or grew.

The Australian Bureau of Meteorology's Sea Level & Climate Monitoring Project found that between 1992 and 2012 the mean sea level at Tarawa varied between about 1570mm and 1680mm .The most highly populated islands in South Tarawa have grown by 12.5% to 30%.

Serious questions have been asked of President Tong and his government.

When Ban Ki-Moon visited Kiribati, former President Teburoro Tito, commented that people are more concerned about the rising cost of living and government corruption, than the impact of climate change. "They've gone too far... Of course, we had the Secretary General coming... they're overplaying it, and there's a danger in bluffing the world."

In 2011 Australia provided some $32,000,000 in aid , much in scholarships. Kiribati barred Australian officials from meetings determining the allocation of these scholarships, leading to accusations of nepotism.

In 2014 Taiwan demanded an explanation for the disappearance of $US1.5 million dollars provided to purchase a transportation vessel. According to Kiribati media, its government said the money was wired to an overseas account, but apparently not that of the boat builder.

Tong claims that under his leadership, Kiribati created the Phoenix Islands Protected Area (PIPA), "making it off limits to fishing and other extractive uses". He has repeatedly called PIPA his country's gift to the world. What Kiribati actually did in 2008 was ban fishing in the three percent of the reserve that wasn't being fished in the first place. In the rest of the reserve, as in the rest of Kiribati's Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ), industrial tuna fishing has been steadily increasing as prices and profits soar. Many environmental scientists claim that the area is overfished at unsustainable rates, and there are claims and counterclaims regarding the size and disposition of fishing licenses.

Tong has won numerous awards for his activities in combating climate change. The late Malcolm Fraser headed a committee "to promote the candidacy of Anatole Tong for the Nobel Peace Prize."

President Tong admits "We don't have everything working here like it should…I know that. But our problems are rooted in climate change…This is not caused by us. This is caused by you."

Apparently the problems would be solved if only Australia agreed to limit temperature increases to 1.5 degrees and stopped coal mining.

Perhaps President Tong should read the conclusions of his own Department, and spend a bit more time at home, solving problems that are surely within his control, thus showing the sense of moral responsibility becoming of leadership he expects of others.