Pacific Islanders fight for their lives and their countries at climate summit

At high tide, the Pacific breaches a sandbag seawall in Kribati, an island nation that
might disappear because of rising ocean levels induced by climate change.

For decades, Pacific island nations have been the canary in the coal mine for the climate crisis and they have been largely ignored as they continue to lose land to the rising oceans, endure ever-strong tropical storms and dwindling fisheries.

For residents of the Philippines, Samoa, Fiji, Tonga, the Marianas, the Cook Islands, Kribati, the Marshal Islands and other countries in the Pacific, Caribbean and around the world, the climate crisis is already here. They want action, not just lofty resolutions from world leaders meeting in Glasgow at COP26.

"We need concrete action now. We cannot wait until 2050, it is a matter of our survival," said Anote Tong, a former president of Kiribati, told Reuters

Tong has predicted his Pacific Ocean country of 33 low-lying atolls and islands was likely to become uninhabitable in 30 to 60 years' time. 

According to a United Nations report, at least 57% of the infrastructure in the Pacific Islands will be threatened by rising sea levels during this century.

In an opening speech at COP26 Sunday (Oct. 31), Samoan climate activist Brianna Fruean said world leaders have the power to make a difference.

“You all have the power here today to be better — to remember that in your meeting rooms and drafting documents are more than just black and white objects,” Fruean said. “To remember that in your words you wield the weapons that can save us or sell us out.”

The COP26 summit in Glasgow is the last chance to "keep 1.5℃ alive," a simple phrase based on average temperatures of pre-industrial times. But Australia — almost alone among advanced economies — is taking to Glasgow the same 2030 target it took to Paris six years ago. This is despite the Paris Agreement requirement that nations ratchet up their carbon emissions-reduction goals every five years.

One of the reasons why many scientists believe that climate change is caused by humans, is because the planet's environment has changed dramatically since an era of history known as the Industrial Revolution.

The Industrial Revolution was a period in history when humans started creating factories and machines to make lots of products quickly and cheaply. The burning of fossil fuels to power the industries exacerbated the changing climate.

One of the biggest challenges for this COP is the sheer volume of work and regaining the trust that took decades of work to build.

The postponement of last year's meeting due to Covid is one cause, but it's also because efforts to carry out the negotiations virtually haven't worked. Delegates were happy to talk, but refused to take decisions until they met face to face.

But also, four years of the anti-science Donald Trump administration overturning, ignoring and breaking previous international agreements, plus last year's cancellation because of COVID-19 have increased the workload of world leaders and climate experts. Whereas in 2015, the U.S. and China agreed to reduce coal emissions, the two countries now view each other with suspicion.

While the industrial nations of Europe, Canada and the United States agree with the goals of reducing carbon emissions -- at least, in word -- the giant nations of the Peoples Republic of China and India depend largely on coal to fire up their manufacturing plants and heat their homes.

The industrialized nations of G20 "are responsible for around 75% of the global contribution to greenhouse gas emissions, so a strong commitment and outcome from the G20 Rome Summit will pave the way for an ambitious and successful COP26," Henry Puna, former Cook Islands prime minister and now secretary of the Pacific Islands Forum, said in a statement.

Marshall Island beaches are already threatened by rising ocean levels.

Like other island nations, , the Marshall Islands in the Pacific rise only to a height of 6 feet above sea level. High tide or stormy seas flood the streets of its capital and eat away at the island beaches. The government has plans in place to evacuate all its people, either to nearby island nations such as Fiji where they would buy land for their 57,000 people or emigrate to the United States. It would be the disappearance of the country, the extinction of a people and the demise of their culture and heritage.

Evidence of climate change is not limited to the island nations' eroding shorelines. In the U.S., typhoons are getting stronger and more frequent, devastating coastal cities and states; drought conditions have lengthen the forest fire season in the Western U.S. and drying up reservoirs; areas like the Pacific Northwest have been hit with record-breaking temperatures, killing hundreds and taxing power systems; major cities along the U.S. coasts, like Miami, New York City, New Orleans, Boston and San Francisco are scrambling to engineer their way out of potential flooding from rising ocean levels.

The warming of the planet results in melting ice caps and warming oceans which are threatening the island nations in addition to changing weather patterns affecting  migratory patterns and food sources of fish, fowl and endangering species and threatening  fishing industries

The voice of the Pacific nations carry a moral authority greater than the size of their economies because they are in the frontline of the warming climate conditions. But health and travel restrictions have limited the number of Pacific nation leaders from attending, making it more difficult to voice their concerns at the numerous panels and working committees in the two weeks of COP26,

Guam Lt. Gov. Josh Tenorio (D) said "as indigenous people, we have called these islands home for thousands of years. We know the changes we are seeing are not normal."

He called on world leaders, as they "witness climate disasters in their backyard," to consider "how much worse it has been for islands on the frontlines."

"We have only one planet and one final opportunity to ensure its survival. We must leave a future for our children to inherit," Puna continued his statement. The climate crisis can be turned around, he said, "But only if the world takes ambitious and decisive climate action, now."