CNN
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The UN chief has warned that “global catastrophe” is threatening Pacific islands and the world must respond to the unprecedented and devastating effects of rising seas “before it is too late.” “.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres issued a global SOS – “Save our oceans” – from the Pacific island of Tonga on Tuesday, urging the world to “fund and support vulnerable countries” under grave threat to human rights. Massively increase aid”. due to the climate crisis.
“The ocean is bursting,” Guterres said. “It's a crazy situation: rising oceans are a crisis for humanity as a whole.” A crisis that will soon explode on an almost unimaginable scale, with no lifeboats to ferry us back to safety.
Guterres' dire warning was delivered at a meeting of the Pacific Islands Forum in the Tongan capital of Nuku'alofa, and coincided with the release of two UN reports showing how the climate crisis is accelerating catastrophic ocean changes. is doing
According to the World Meteorological Organization's State of the Climate, sea surface temperatures in the southwest Pacific have risen three times faster than the global average since the 1980s.
And in the past 30 years, sea levels in the region have risen nearly twice the global average.
Meanwhile, ocean heat waves have doubled in frequency and become more intense and long-lasting, the report says.
The oceans have absorbed 90 percent of global heat, the report says, due to humans burning fossil fuels that release heat-trapping pollutants.
This ocean warming is driving sea level rise, as water expands as it warms, and melting ice sheets and glaciers increase in volume.
The Pacific islands are the most affected, suffering from the “triple whammy” of ocean warming, sea level rise and acidification, which is damaging ecosystems, damaging crops, depleting fresh water. Polluting sources, and destroying livelihoods.
Worsening floods and tropical storms are already ravaging the islands. In 2023, 34 “hydrometeorological hazard events” mostly related to storms or floods resulted in more than 200 deaths and affected 25 million people in the region, the report said.
WMO Secretary-General Celeste Saulo said the ocean was “undergoing changes that will be irreversible for centuries to come.”
“Human activities have weakened the ocean's ability to sustain and protect us and – through sea level rise – are turning a lifelong friend into an increasingly dangerous one.”
In a second report published on Tuesday, the UN's Climate Action Team said climate change and sea-level rise “are no longer remote risks”, especially for the Pacific.
Guterres said Pacific islands account for only 0.02 percent of global emissions but are “uniquely exposed.”
“This is a region with an average elevation of only 1 to 2 meters above sea level, where nearly 90% of people live within 5 kilometers of the coast, and where half of the infrastructure is within 500 meters of the sea,” he said. said
If the world continues on its path to warming to 3 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, the Pacific islands could see at least another 15 centimeters of sea level rise by 2050 and more each year, the report said. Expect to see more than 30 days of coastal flooding. found
In 2021, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change concluded that it was “unequivocal” that humans had caused the climate crisis and that “large-scale and rapid changes” had already occurred. Some of which are irreversible.
“Emerging research on climate 'tipping points' and ice sheet dynamics is alarming scientists that future sea-level rise may be much higher than expected,” Tuesday's report said. What was thought before.”
Although the Pacific Islands face “severe and disproportionate” impacts from rising seas, it is a global problem that affects “many low-lying islands, populated coastal megacities, large tropical agricultural deltas, and the safety, security and and pose major threats to sustainability,” said climate leaders.
Both reports call on world leaders to improve early warning systems for vulnerable communities, massively increase funding for resilience and adaptation, and to keep global warming to within 1.5 degrees Celsius. Make deep, rapid and immediate cuts in emissions – a key limit agreed by world leaders. Heat must stay down to avoid damaging climate effects.
“Rising seas are coming for all of us,” Guterres said.
“The world must look to the Pacific and listen to the science… If we save the Pacific, we save ourselves.”