Weber, Eberhard (2014) Of Tsunamis and Climate Change: The Need to Resettle. In: Sustainable Alternatives for Poverty Reduction and Eco-Justice. Cambridge Scholars Publishing, Newcastle upon Tyne, pp. 192-208. ISBN 1-4438-6689-X, ISBN; 978-1-4438-6689-7
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Abstract
Climate and environmental change has become one of the great challenges at the end of the 20th century and it is expected that it also keeps science, policy makers and the general population concerned for the decades, if not centuries to come. Especially in developing countries where exposure to the impacts of climate change is serious and where resilience and the capacities to adapt to a changing climate is small risks and threats to experience unwanted, extreme negative consequences seem to be greatest. Not only in the scientific community it is widely assumed that in extreme cases entire states like Kiribati, the Marshall Islands, Tuvalu, and the Maldives will become inhabitable. People living in these states need to resettle to other countries. For the Pacific Islands alone Campbell (2009) estimates that by 2050 a population between 665,000 and 1,725,000 will be displaced as a result of climate change. Some 320,000 of them live on atolls and require international resettlement, while in many of the other cases resettlement within the same country might be an option.
The book chapter looks from an historical perspective on major movements of people that have taken place in regions of the Pacific Islands due to either sudden-onset events (e.g. earthquakes, tsunamis, or volcano eruptions) or slow-on set movements (e.g. sea level rise, desertification, droughts) or other events. It gives ideas of the challenges that come along when bigger numbers of people migrate or get resettled. Finally the paper looks at different programs and activities promoting short-term, temporary mobility and permanent migration as an adaptation strategy to environmental changes in developing countries, with a particular focus on the Pacific region.
| Item Type: | Book Chapter |
|---|---|
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | Pacific Islands, Natural Hazards, Tsunami, Climate Change |
| Subjects: | G Geography. Anthropology. Recreation > GF Human ecology. Anthropogeography H Social Sciences > HN Social history and conditions. Social problems. Social reform Q Science > QE Geology |
| Divisions: | Faculty of Science, Technology and Environment (FSTE) > School of Geography, Earth Science and Environment |
| Depositing User: | Eberhard Weber |
| Date Deposited: | 21 Dec 2014 23:07 |
| Last Modified: | 27 May 2016 02:34 |
| URI: | https://repository.usp.ac.fj/id/eprint/7830 |
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