Despite a apace rising sea level , the island nation of Tuvalu hasactually increase in orbit . This might sound paradoxical , but it hint at an under - appreciated dynamism of reef island that – for now at least – is stopping them from sink beneath the wave .
On the surface , this might seem like a clime change denier ’ wet pipe dream , but permit ’s not get onward of ourselves here . While it is true that the island nation did indeed arise in size over the last few ten , the country also experienced a sea level rise double that of the global average . The waters are still go up , it just so happens that the movement of sediment around these atolls is a lot more dynamic than previously understand .
“ We tend to cogitate of Pacific atolls as motionless landforms that will simply be submerge as sea levels come up , but there is growing evidence these islands are geologically active and are forever changing , ” say Paul Kench , co - source of the study put out inNature Communications , in astatement .
“ The study findings may seem counter - intuitive , give that [ the ] sea storey has been rising in the area over the past half - 100 , but the rife way of change over that prison term on Tuvalu has been expansion , not corroding . ”
The researchers from the University of Auckland used artificial satellite images to keep note of Tuvalu ’s nine atolls and 101 reef islands from between 1971 and 2014 .
Between this stop , they noted that despite the sea level rising at a rate of around 4 millimeters a year , eight of the nine atolls and close to three - quarters of all the islands actually increased in size , while the remaining quarter diminish . Overall , they bump that the total orbit of Tuvalu has grown by 2.9 pct over the last four decades .
Do n’t be lure in by the idea that this means that clime change is not happening or that these islands are good . The authorsstill emphasize thatclimate change “ persist one of the major threats ” to these countries .
For example , there ’s been a mass of discussion about the inhabitants of low - lying Pacific nations being get out stateless and what will happen to these eventual mood refugees . It now seems that there might be a lot more resilience in some islands than others , and perhaps the best course of action would be to identify which ones these are and image out a way for migrants to move there .
While this latest research may mean there is a rest period for some tropical island nations , it does fiddling for many coastal towns and cities in other parts of the world that are peril with infringe wave . reposition sediments are not going to negate the impact ofrising weewee in Miami , or prevent community inBangladesh from drowning .
