Rising sea levels are something climate change deniers simply cannot ignore anymore as five entire islands in the Pacific are now almost completely submerged.
The idea that islands could be swallowed whole had always been a fear of the far future, after all the ice caps had melted and the atmosphere was more and more difficult to breath, but in the picturesque and often paradise-like Pacific Ocean, we are losing islands much faster than previously thought.
The Solomon Islands are home to 6 major islands and around 900 smaller islands, as well as being a sovereign nation in the South Pacific. While it doesn’t look like it’s travel industry, known for scuba diving and WWII-era relics, will be affected too much any time soon, but it’s definitely something everyone there is beginning to get concerned over. While the residents of these islands had been saying that their homes are disappearing, it’s finally been confirmed that scientifically. CNN reports,
“In the past 20 years, sea levels in the archipelago have risen 7 to 10 mm (.28 to .39 inches) annually, three times the global average. According to the International Panel for Climate Change, global rises will reach 5mm annually in the second half of the century.”
Among its acclaimed diving destinations are enormous Marovo Lagoon and Iron Bottom Sound, which is littered with dozens of sunken warships. Guadalcanal, a province and one of the archipelago’s largest islands, honors fallen Allied soldiers at its U.S. War Memorial.