Cartoon illustrating how we should get rid of our rubbish in such a way that won't have environmental impacts.
Climate change is impacting on food security and biosecurity in the Pacific region by degradation of
food production areas (sea level rise, salinity, drought), devastation caused by extreme weather
events (cyclones, flooding) and impacts on recovery time such as replacement of lost crop
germplasm and the need to import food substitutes. The aim of this project was to identify the key
impacts of climate change on the unique cropping systems in four small Pacific nations (Tonga,
Vanuatu, Kiribati and Tuvalu). Information was collected by the development of a questionnaire
The Pacific Islands region is experiencing climate change. Key indicators of the changing
climate include rising carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, rising air and sea temperatures,
rising sea levels and upper-ocean heat content, changing ocean chemistry and increasing
ocean acidity, changing rainfall patterns, decreasing base flow in streams, changing
wind and wave patterns, changing extremes, and changing habitats and species distributions.
Currently, the most vulnerable areas include low islands (atoll islands and other
There is no doubt that our climate is changing. This will
pose huge challenges to nations, organisations, enterprises,
cities, communities and individuals. Developing
countries will suffer most from the adverse consequences
of climate change, and some highly vulnerable regions
and people are already being affected.
There is increasing agreement that if temperatures rise
by no more than 2 °C the earth’s integrity can be preserved
and many of the potentially grave consequences
of climate change could be avoided. This threshold is
Warming of the climate system is unequivocal,
as is now evident from observations of
increases in global average air and ocean temperatures,
widespread melting of snow and ice,
and rising global average sea level.”
At the first United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change
(UNFCCC) Conference of the Parties (COP) held in Berlin in 1995, Atiq
Rahman of the Bangladesh Centre for Advanced Studies gave an
impassioned speech to the delegates and warned, “If climate change makes
our country uninhabitable . . . we will march with our wet feet into your
living rooms.”1 Climate change related impacts such as floods, tsunamis,
hurricanes, and drought have already caused millions of people around the
Every person has the following fundamental duties to himself and his descendants and to others to protect the Republic of Vanuatu and to safeguard the national wealth, resources and environment in the interests of the present generation and of future generations (Art. 7d, Constitution of the Republic of Vanuatu).