Seni Nabou is our Political Advisor in the Pacific region. She normally works out of our office in Suva, Fiji, but currently Seni is aboard Greenpeace ship, the Esperanza, for its Pacific “Our Climate, Our Future” ship tour. So far, Seni’s met with Cook Island Government officials as well as residents on the islands.
It’s been a moving and inspiring experience for her going by this post from Pukapuka Island.
I left Pukapuka yesterday with a tinge of sadness, fond memories and a personal resolve in my commitment to do what I can to raise the tempo on climate change so that lives, like those in Pukapuka and other Pacific communities, can fulfil their potential and take control of their destinies.Along with Vaine Wichman and Elizabeth Wright from Rarotonga we were adopted by Papa Tukia and stayed onshore for a couple of day’s in Pukapuka. It took me right back to my formative years and visits to my own village in Fiji. As part of the Greenpeace team on the ground here, we were never made to feel like visitors or guests, but rather as a welcome extension of the Pukapuka family.
The welcome ceremony accorded to us by pupils of Niua School was simply an awesome expression of sincerity and kinship.
It’s easy to think that you can come out to far-flung communities such as Pukapuka to tell them about what climate change is all about. The reality is we learned more from them about what they have lived through and observed, how they adapt and what they believe the causes to be.
The residents of Pukapuka’s Ngake village that we surveyed expressed their observations of gradually eroding shorelines, more intense heat, extreme spates of cold (so cold that they’re donning sweaters in the tropics during their “winter”), coconut tree leaves’ new shoots drying up while young, nu (young coconuts) growing smaller and with juice not as sweet, less fish in their lagoons and more intense storms.
They know all too well about natural disasters and to this day recall Cyclone Percy’s vicious assault on their community in 2005. Many residents who we surveyed attributed the changing weather patterns to the fact that earth is getting hotter.
Amazingly these isolated communities who continue to maintain harmony with their land, sea and air don’t need science to tell them what’s wrong – they already possess an innate sense of what’s happening to their natural surroundings.
As we wrap up the Cook Islands leg of the Pacific “Our Climate, Our Future” ship tour, I am compelled to blow the conch shell and rally all Pacific Islander warriors out there to step up and have a voice on climate change on behalf of the people they care about back in our island homes.
Our Pacific communities, especially those living far away from main island centres, battle climate change impacts daily but they can and must not continue to do it alone.
Climate change impacts are a dear cost to everyone and every island country. The only difference is that those who maintain traditional lifestyles are steps ahead in knowing how to adapt – residents shared with us their knowledge on how they dealt with food, water and shelter insecurity during times of shortages and/or disasters. This aptitude may not be the same case for those who live in Island centres.
Every individual who has the Pacific in their blood or their heart must stand up and speak out on behalf of their people. They must also speak truth to those in power so that industrial countries make big cuts in emissions from fossil fuels, provide money to developing nations like ours to help us end forest destruction and adapt to climate change.
The best chance for the world to agree to do all these things is a meeting in Copenhagen, Denmark this December. A fair deal at Copenhagen will be one where those with the most responsibility for the problem take the action needed to solve it, and those who are the first to suffer from it are protected.
All world leaders must agree on an action plan to cut global greenhouse gas emissions in time to avoid catastrophic climate change. For this action plan to be effective, rich nations must agree to cut their emissions by at least 40 per cent by 2020.
We can achieve a good outcome in Copenhagen if the road there begins with a visionary first step at the Pacific Island Forum Leaders meeting in Cairns this August.
Moreover we need our immediate Pacific neighbours, Australia and New Zealand, to consider that their 14 Pacific neighbours are already party to the calls for very progressive emissions cuts through their international alliances, and they need to fall in line if they believe they really are an integral member of our Pacific community.
Event: You too can hear first-hand about Pacific Islander experiences
Three Pacific Islander community leaders will be speaking about climate change impacts in the Pacific and how Pacific Islanders are adapting to change at events in Sydney (23 July), Brisbane (28 July), Melbourne (30 July) and Cairns (2 August).
Come and stand alongside our Pacific neighbours. More event details »
