Public Address | Cafe | Speaker: Misrepresenting Kiribati and climate change

Sofie Bribiesca

Wed, 30 Sept 2015 09:58:40 +1300

Based on that news report I am considerably less sympathetic to his particular case

And based on that news report, the owner of the Orchard (his boss) also said it was he who gave Teitiota the idea to be the first climate change refugee. Teitiota may well have been considering…

Tinakori

Wed, 30 Sept 2015 00:01:21 +1300

"The details of the cited articles (rather than just their headlines) tend to support my comments above."

Maybe if you're on the staff of the Lysenko Institute for Scientific Investigation........

Stephen Judd

Tue, 29 Sept 2015 11:02:49 +1300

The other thing to consider is salination and the ability to grow food crops. I heard a correspondent on the radio on the weekend, talking about how tree crops are dying as their roots get down into the brine :-/

linger

Tue, 29 Sept 2015 01:30:48 +1300

The details of the cited articles (rather than just their headlines) tend to support my comments above.
18 out of 29 islands have actually grown – i.e., more than a third in this (Tuvaluan) sample didn’t : hardly a reliable mechanism to stake your future on. Indeed, while team member…

Tinakori

Mon, 28 Sept 2015 17:12:58 +1300

On the contrary these are statistical processes with memory. In this case the memory of the physical history of the islands for the last 60 years. And that memory – the 12-30% increase in observable land area in the sample islands – directly contradicts the hypothesis that Kiribati (and others)…

linger

Mon, 28 Sept 2015 15:59:16 +1300

These are statistical processes, without memory. An island that has so far gained from the action of such processes may not continue to do so. You really don't want to be arguing, "hey, let's wait here for a tsunami to save us" ... because they tend not to do that…

Tinakori

Mon, 28 Sept 2015 14:48:56 +1300

There's a whole series of papers on the subject at http://www.env.auckland.ac.nz/people/p-kench

In one sample of 27 islands they found that 23 had increased in size over the last 60 years, including all of the islands in the sample from Kiribati, which had increased by between 12 and 30%. This at…

linger

Sun, 27 Sept 2015 21:27:08 +1300

At best, there will come times, in the not-too-distant future, when Kiribati becomes at least temporarily uninhabitable, through storms or tsunami. So the government’s land purchases and legal options sound like prudent explorations of possible escape plans.

william blake

Sun, 27 Sept 2015 20:07:20 +1300

Slam dunk. Is that a climate change joke?

Sue

Sat, 26 Sept 2015 14:20:52 +1200

Half of Kiribati's 100,000 (ish) population live on the main island of Tarawa it's overpopulated with huge sanitation issues & working in health Suzy is doing the work of angels.

Kiribati has an infant mortality rate of 45 to NZ's 5
http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SP.DYN.IMRT.IN

Kiribati has a TB rate of 497 to NZ's…

Rebecca Williams

Fri, 25 Sept 2015 20:43:49 +1200

_Washing my hands of PA_

That was quick.

linger

Fri, 25 Sept 2015 19:12:45 +1200

Except that the mechanism that the study requires for atolls to be reshaped:
when waves wash over them during storms or tsunami, depositing sand in the process
is not consistent with continuous human habitation of low-lying islands, a fact the researcher somewhat coyly glosses over by suggesting
life on those…

Tinakori

Fri, 25 Sept 2015 19:07:01 +1200

It's also not a slam dunk that Kiribati is mortally threatened by climate change.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/environment/9963480/Pacific-atolls-resilient-to-rising-seas-study

linger

Fri, 25 Sept 2015 18:59:18 +1200

… and which argues for the residents of Kiribati as a community, and quite explicitly not for Mr. Teitiota as an individual.

Russell Brown

Fri, 25 Sept 2015 18:35:48 +1200

Mr Teitiota was an overstayer and allegedly a violent man. Two strikes. Worse than that, he acted in his own self-interest, a charge never leveled against white migrants caught in a dilemma. Washing my hands of PA.

I fear you've missed the point of the post, which does not actually…

andin

Fri, 25 Sept 2015 17:49:22 +1200

The people of Kiribati don’t want to leave yet, and need our help to stay and to adapt to the changing climate with dignity for as long as they can.
There will be those who will want to move away, be somewhere else, for whatever reason legal or not.
Until…

harry rickit

Fri, 25 Sept 2015 16:56:04 +1200

Barry -

Fri, 25 Sept 2015 16:32:41 +1200

I think all that you say is true, but...

I have rarely heard someone speak for a people and find that it applies to 100% of them. Some observations:

1. Mr Teitiota may have other reasons for wanting to stay in NZ but it doesn't mean that he is not…

Bart Janssen

Fri, 25 Sept 2015 16:01:05 +1200

I am also very concerned about climate change, however news reports (RNZ) this week said that Mr Teitiota was an overstayer who had been fired from his job for assault on a woman at his place of work. According to the report the police warned him officially but did not…

RuralJohnny

Fri, 25 Sept 2015 15:17:50 +1200

The lesson for New Zealanders to learn from this episode is that someone had to be first to claim climate refugee status, and whilst that claim may be fallacious, it is only premature – it will happen again. Are we as a country doing anything now to plan for when…

James Littlewood*

Fri, 25 Sept 2015 15:12:09 +1200

Thank God. I wondered if it was something like that. Thanks tons Suzy for this thoroughly reasoned piece.

Maybe if the NZ Govt had been keeping up to date with its refugee obligations (or even – imagine – extending them), then Mr Teitiota might not have had the rising tide…

Thalia KR

Fri, 25 Sept 2015 14:52:50 +1200

Thank you, this is very helpful.

Public Address

Fri, 25 Sept 2015 14:52:50 +1200

Discussion from blog post.