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Emphasizing that sea level rise is accelerating, especially in the more vulnerable Pacific island nations, United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres He sent the world another climate SOS. This time he said the acronyms stood for “Save Our Oceans.”
The United Nations and the World Meteorological Organization released a report on Monday saying that sea level rise is worsening due to global warming and melting ice sheets and glaciers. The report emphasized that the southwest Pacific is not only affected by sea level rise, but also by other climate change impacts such as ocean acidification and marine heatwaves.
Guterres made the climate appeal in the Tongan capital on Tuesday during a visit to Samoa and Tonga at a meeting of the Pacific Islands Forum, whose members are among the countries most threatened by climate change. Next month, the United Nations General Assembly will hold a special session to discuss rising sea levels.
“This is a crazy situation,” Guterres said. “Sea level rise is a crisis of total human creation. It will soon grow to almost unimaginable proportions, with no lifeboats to get us back to safety.”
“A global catastrophe is putting this Pacific paradise at risk,” he said. “The waters are overflowing.”
A report commissioned by Guterres’ office found that sea levels around Tonga’s capital, Nuku’alofa, rose 21 centimeters (8.3 inches) between 1990 and 2020, double the global average of 10 centimeters (3.9 inches). Sea levels in Apia, Samoa, rose 31 centimeters (1 foot), while those in Suva-B, Fiji, rose 29 centimeters (11.4 inches).
“This puts the Pacific island nations in grave danger,” Guterres said, noting that about 90 percent of the region’s population lives within 5 kilometers (3 miles) of sea level rise.
Since 1980, coastal flooding in Guam has increased from two times a year to 22 times a year. Flooding in the Cook Islands has increased from five times a year to 43 times a year. In Pago Pago, American SamoaAccording to the World Meteorological Organization’s “State of the Southwest Pacific Climate in 2023” report, the number of floods in coastal areas increased from zero to 102 times per year.
The World Meteorological Organization said sea levels along the western edge of the Pacific are rising at about twice the global average, while sea levels in the central Pacific are rising closer to the global average.
United Nations officials say sea levels in the western tropical Pacific are rising faster because of the flow of melting glaciers in West Antarctica, warming waters and ocean currents.
Guterres said he had seen changes since his last visit to the region in May 2019.
As he discussed environmental issues at his annual summit with Pacific leaders in Nuku’alofa on Tuesday, a hundred local high school students and activists from across the Pacific held a march for climate justice a few blocks away.
One of the marchers was Itteterenga Ray of the Banaban Human Rights Defenders Network, whose people were forced to migrate from Kiribati to Fiji generations ago due to environmental degradation. Ray said abandoning Pacific islands should not be seen as a solution to rising sea levels.
“We advocate climate mobility to protect your islands from climate change devastation, but it’s not the safest option,” he said, saying the Banaban people have been cut off from the source of their culture and traditions.
“The alarm is warranted,” said S. Jeffress Williams, a retired sea level scientist with the U.S. Geological Survey. It’s especially bad for the Pacific islands because most are lower in elevation, so people are more vulnerable, he said. Three outside experts said the sea level report accurately reflects what is happening.
The Pacific Ocean has been hit hard, even though it produces only 0.2% of the greenhouse gases causing climate change and sea level expansion, according to the United Nations. The biggest cause of sea level rise comes from melting ice sheets in Antarctica and Greenland. Melting glaciers on land exacerbate the phenomenon, and according to the laws of physics, warming water also expands.
“The rate of melting of the Antarctic and Greenland ice sheets has accelerated significantly over the past three or four decades due to warming temperatures at the poles,” Williams, who was not involved in the report, said in an email.
The United Nations says about 90 percent of the heat trapped by greenhouse gases ends up in the ocean.
The United Nations report says global sea level rise is accelerating, echoing findings from peer-reviewed studies, with Guterres saying the current rate of sea level rise is the fastest in 3,000 years.
According to the United Nations, global sea levels rose an average of 1.3 centimeters per decade between 1901 and 1971. Between 1971 and 2006, the rate of sea level rise jumped to 1.9 centimeters per decade, and between 2006 and 2018, the rate of sea level rise was as high as 3.7 centimeters per decade. In the past decade, sea levels have risen by 4.8 centimeters (1.9 inches).
The UN report also highlights cities in the 20 richest countries, which account for 80% of global greenhouse gas emissions, as places where sea level rise is hitting densely populated cities. These cities have seen sea level rise at least 50% above the global average over the past 30 years, including Shanghai, Perth, Australia, London, Atlantic City, New Jersey, Boston, Miami and New Orleans.
New Orleans topped the list, with sea levels rising 10.2 inches (26 centimeters) between 1990 and 2020. UN officials highlighted that flooding in New York City during Superstorm Sandy in 2012 was worsened by rising sea levels. A 2021 study showed that climate-induced sea level rise added $8 billion to damages from that storm.
Guterres is stepping up his rhetoric of what he calls “climate chaos” and urging rich countries to step up efforts to cut carbon emissions, stop using fossil fuels and help poorer countries. However, a 2023 UN report found that countries’ energy plans show they will produce twice as much fossil fuel by 2030 as is needed to limit warming to internationally agreed levels.
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Borenstein reported from Kensington, Maryland.
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Follow Seth Borenstein and Charlotte Graham-McLay on X: @borenbears and @CGrahamMcLay
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For more AP climate coverage, visit: http://www.apnews.com/climate-and-environment
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The Associated Press’ climate and environment coverage is supported by funding from several private foundations. Associated Press Responsible for all content. Find AP’s criteria for partnering with charities, a list of supporters and areas of funded coverage at AP.org.
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