An Entire Country Has to Be Evacuated Because of Climate Change

An Entire Country Has to Be Evacuated Because of Climate Change

"The existential threat we face is not of our making. But it will remake us."

Going Under

Tuvalu, a small island nation in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, is planning to evacuate all of its over 11,000 inhabitants, due to rising sea levels caused by climate change that mean, essentially, that the low-lying country has no feasible future.

As Wired reports, the nation signed an agreement with Australia in 2023 to set up a migration scheme in which 280 residents will permanently settle on the continent per year through a climate visa program.

It's a sobering reminder of the incredibly damaging effects that global warming is having on our planet. Tuvalu is only 6.5 feet above sea level on average, meaning that rising tides will almost certainly be devastating to the region. Fierce storms, facilitated by rising temperatures, could make matters even worse for an already very vulnerable population.

Rising Tides

Australia's climate visas are allocated based on a lottery system. This week, the Australian High Commission of Tuvalu revealed that it had received "extremely high levels of interest in the ballot with 8,750 registrations, which includes family members of primary registrants."

In other words, moving every Tuvaluan is taking on increasing urgency even as demand for the program spikes.

"When combined with other Pacific pathways to Australia and New Zealand, nearly 4 percent of the population could migrate each year," UNSW Sydney research fellow Jane McAdam wrote in a recent piece for The Conversation. "Within a decade, close to 40 percent of the population could have moved — although some people may return home or go backwards and forwards."

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