Southeast Asia closes island beaches to recover from climate change, tourism

BANGKOK - More popular Southeast Asian islands will be off limits to visitors this year as officials seek to protect eco-systems crumbling from warming seas and unchecked sprawl, despite the risk to tourism revenues and tens of thousands of jobs.

Southeast Asian beaches are being closed to allow
them to recover from the effects of climate change.

Thailand will shut Maya Bay, which famously featured in "The Beach", starring Leonardo DiCaprio, for four months a year, from June. In the Philippines, officials plan to close Boracay island for six months at the end of April.

"Islands have very fragile eco-systems that simply cannot handle so many people, pollution from boats and beachfront hotels," said Thon Thamrongnawasawat, a marine expert in Bangkok.

Read Rina Chandran’s story from ABS/CBN News - “Southeast Asia closes island beaches to recover from climate change, tourism.”

The water is coming for Copenhagen; good design could be its best defence

Each day, hundreds of thousands of commuters snake their way across bridges that connect Copenhagen’s many islands. Cyclists, motorists and pedestrians speed over busy canals and race through the thin cobbled streets of the old city, while canal tour boats filled with tourists slowly orbit the centre. On a warm day, the canals are lined with sunbathers jumping from BIG architects’ famous harbour baths, with their distinctive barbershop stripes. Paper Island, in the Christianshavn district, is home to the city’s new pop-up cultural precinct. It is regularly filled with diners, who spill out of the warehouse housing Copenhagen Street Food to watch the sunsets on its banks.

Copenhagen is a city that thrives from its coexistence
with water. By 2100, this relationship will need to be re-negotiated.

Since its beginnings as a Viking fishing village, Copenhagen’s relationship with the Baltic Sea has played a vital role in shaping the city’s culture. Today, canals cordon off its many islands, serving the veins that pump life into its distinct geographical and cultural pockets, such as Christianshavn, even as they divide them. The canals contribute both to Copenhagen’s particular aesthetic and its leading place in global liveability rankings. But the harbour city, whose name has become shorthand for the 2009 UN Climate Change Conference, sees water not only as its biggest asset, but one of its biggest risks.

Read the Foreground story - “The water is coming for Copenhagen; good design could be its best defence.”

Townsville isn't an outlier. It shows with clarity what Australia could become

When I was a child in Townsville in the 1980s, the Great Barrier Reef still seemed immovable. It was a settled fact like the islands or the sea. As soon as we were old enough to swim the adults would take us out in tinnies to catch fish from among the gently swaying blots of coral close to shore. Later, with friends, I swam and snorkeled farther out, on the reef proper. I saw my first real ocean waves on its outer edge – among other things, the reef protected Townsville and its harbour from the wild moods of South Pacific.

 Videos taken from light planes by the ARC Centre of
Excellence for Coral Reef Studies (CoECRS) show
‘hectares of sepulchrally white, dead and dying
coral pass spread out under their wings.’

Neither Townsville nor Australia has reciprocated that protection. The reef is dying. You can see for yourself in the videos and photos published by the ARC Centre of Excellence, based in Townsville, which studies the ecosystem that we will likely soon have killed. The videos are mostly taken from light planes. They show hectares of sepulchrally white, dead and dying coral spread out under their wings. The vision is accompanied by deadpan commentary from the crew. They’re doing important work, but the footage is pretty thin as a requiem for what may once have been the world’s greatest natural wonder. In our ecologically diminished future, people will be surprised that this was the best we could manage in the way of mourning.

Read The Guardian story by Jason Wilson - “Townsville isn't an outlier. It shows with clarity what Australia could become.”

Marshall Islands now in Barack Obama declared 'severe drought'

The Marshall Islands was one of those that
pushed for 1.5 degrees Celsius increase
at the Paris climate discussions and
 now it is facing a severe drought. 

Barack Obama has declared the severe drought in the Marshall Islands a disaster, opening the way for emergency US funding for the Pacific island nation.

The disaster declaration, which follows a request from Marshallese president Hilda Heine on 1 April, will allow Fema to provide emergency relief to the archipelago, which is suffering one of its worst-ever droughts. Fema is able to provide federal assistance to overseas territories such as the Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico, American Samoa and the Marshall Islands, as well as US states.

Heine declared a state of emergency in February after the Marshall Islands, a collection of atolls south-west of Hawaii, received just a quarter of its usual rainfall during the November to February period.

Read The Guardian story - “Obama declares disaster as Marshall Islands suffers worst-ever drought.”

Another climate change first

Climate change “firsts” have been and will be many.

Climate refugees arising from rising sea levels that flood small islands and pollute potable water supplies will be just the beginning.

Climate Progress reports a small town on Taro Island — the capital of Choiseul Province in the Solomon Islands — is planning to relocate its entire population in response to climate change.

The report, headed: “Meet The First Pacific Island Town To Relocate Thanks To Climate Change”, notes that it is the first time that a provincial capital in the Pacific Islands will have done so.