Eyes On The Tide

What would you do if your town began to sink under the waves?

- Judy Walkerart

The Pacific Ocean covers almost a third of the Earth. Scattered around its rim are many groups of islands. In recent years, the people of these islands have noticed tides getting higher and storms getting worse. And they wonder—is their world about to change?

Rising Tides

As the climate warms, the huge ice sheets at the North and South Poles are melting, releasing water into the oceans. That makes the ocean higher, like when you add water to a bath. Warmer water also takes up a bit more room than cooler water, so as the oceans warm they rise even more. Scientists expect that if the planet continues to warm, sea levels around the world may rise 1 to 4 feet (0.5 to 1.5 m) or more by 2100.

That may not sound like much, but it’s alarming news for islanders and anyone else who lives near the coast.

Island Life

The Solomons are a group of 1,000 small islands in the South Pacific. Some are flat coral islands barely taller than the waves. Others are high volcanoes or big rocks sticking out of the sea. But all have noticed that the sea around them is getting higher. At high tide, water flows into houses and over roads that used to be dry. Beaches are vanishing. Five of the Solomon Islands have disappeared beneath the waves since 1947.

The islanders’ world is changing in other ways too. It’s often too hot to work in the garden during the day. Bad storms seem to come more often. As the sea levels rise, salt water seeps up through the ground, getting into wells and killing trees and crops .

Islands get most of their fresh water from rain, collecting in ponds. But weather patterns are changing. Often it doesn’t rain for months, then too much comes at once.