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NUKU’ALOFA, Tonga (AP) — U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has drawn attention to accelerating sea-level rise, particularly in more vulnerable Pacific island nations, and issued another urgent appeal to the world, this time to save the oceans.
The UN and World Meteorological Organization report, presented on Monday, said rates of the disease are worsening as the planet warms and ice caps and glaciers melt. The report stressed that the southeastern Pacific is being affected not only by rising sea levels but also by other impacts of climate change such as acidification and marine heatwaves.
Guterres made the appeal from the Tongan capital on Tuesday during a visit to Samoa and Tonga, where the Pacific Islands Forum, whose members are among the countries most threatened by climate change, will convene a special session of the UN General Assembly in September to discuss rising sea levels.
“This is a crazy situation,” Guterres said. “Sea level rise is a crisis of total human origin that will soon reach almost unimaginable proportions.”
“A global catastrophe is putting this Pacific paradise at risk,” he added. “The ocean is overflowing.”
A report commissioned by Guterres’ office determined that sea levels around Tonga’s capital, Nuku’alofa, rose by 21 centimeters (8.3 inches) between 1990 and 2020, double the global average of 10 centimeters (3.9 inches). In Apia, Samoa, an increase of 31 centimeters (1 foot) was recorded, while in Suva-B, Fiji, an increase of 29 centimeters (11.4 inches).
“This puts Pacific island countries at serious risk,” Guterres said, adding that about 90 percent of the region’s population lives within 5 kilometers (3 miles) of the ocean.
Since 1980, coastal flooding in Guam has increased from 2 to 22 events per year, and in the Cook Islands from 5 to 43. Flooding in Pago Pago, American Samoa, has increased from 0 to 102 events per year, according to the World Meteorological Organization’s 2023 Southwest Pacific Climate Report.
“The ocean is changing from a lifelong friend to a growing threat because of sea level rise,” WMO Secretary-General Celeste Solo told reporters in Nuku’alofa on Tuesday.
The UN weather agency noted that while in the western extremes the Pacific Ocean’s water level was almost twice the world average, in the central region it was closer to average.
United Nations officials say sea levels are rising faster in the western tropical Pacific because melting ice from West Antarctica is flowing into warmer waters and currents.
Guterres said he could see changes since his last visit to the region in May 2019.
While he was in Nuku’alofa discussing environmental issues with Pacific nations at their annual summit of leaders, a hundred local high school students and activists from across the Pacific were marching for climate justice a few blocks away.
One of the participants was Itinterunga Rae from the Banaban Human Rights Defenders Network, whose people were forced to move from their native Kiribati to Fiji generations ago due to environmental degradation. Rae said abandoning the Pacific islands should not be seen as a solution to the problem.
“We promote climate mobility as a solution to insulate your islands from the devastation of climate change, but it’s not the safest option,” he said. He added that the Banabens are cut off from the source of their culture and heritage. “The alarm is warranted,” said S. Jeffress Williams, a retired U.S. Geological Survey scientist who specializes in sea level. He added that the situation is particularly bad for Pacific islands because most are at lower elevations and more vulnerable.
Three outside experts said the sea level report accurately reflects what is happening.
Although the Pacific region produces only 0.2% of the greenhouse gases that cause climate change and ocean expansion, it is disproportionately affected, according to the United Nations. Most of the sea level rise is due to the melting of the Antarctic and Greenland ice sheets. The melting of land glaciers and warming water also play a role.
The United Nations says about 90 percent of the heat trapped by greenhouse gases ends up in the ocean.
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Borenstein reported from Kensington, Maryland.
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Borenstein in X @borenbearsand Graham-McClay @CGrahamMcLay.
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The Associated Press’s climate and environment coverage is supported by several private foundations. The Associated Press is solely responsible for its content.
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