Disappearing islands

But none really wanted to leave their beloved home islands. They keep their traditions and language alive in Australia and beyond with local church services and community meetings. Their celebrations of Tuvalu Independence Day, October 1, are always lively affairs, with feasting and a Fatele - a Tuvaluan singing and dancing performance which can last for hours is wonderful to witness.

My Tuvaluan friends have a saying, “Tatou ne Tuvalu Katoa” (We are all Tuvaluans). Used locally, it's a call for Tuvaluans to work together for the betterment of their tiny, vulnerable country. The IPCC report reinforces that all of us are, in an important sense, Tuvaluans, beset by the same global warming threats with which they live every day.

The IPCC Report, and subsequent hard scientific studies of global warming's effects due for release during 2007, bring no real surprises to Pacific Islanders like my Tuvaluan friends. They're coping each day with global warming's effects, and their beloved homes may ultimately be doomed.

More information about Tuvalu is on Tuvaluislands.com. Two recent documentaries on Tuvalu put a human face on the effects of global warming in the Pacific. The Disappearing of Tuvalu: Trouble in Paradise, by Christopher Horner and Gilliane Le Gallic, was made in 2004. (and is viewable on Google Video. And Atlantis Approaching by American film maker, Elizabeth Pollock of Blue Marble Productions. An earlier version of this 2005 documentary was shown on a US PBS World Roughcut show in 2006, and that shorter version is on line.