Analysis of Vulnerability in Tuvalu Island

Tuvalu, a Pacific Island country comprised of nine low-lying atolls and reef islands.
Funafuti and the other eight tiny islands that comprise the Pacific nation of Tuvalu, home to
slightly more than 10,000 people. This is widely considered to be one of the most susceptible
places on the planet to impacts of global climate change. The government of Tuvalu, which
declared a state of emergency, says the dry spell is unlikely to break until several months
onwards. The drought is chiefly attributed to La Nia, the climate phenomenon which
unleashes extreme weather across large parts of the Pacific region (Manhire, 2007). The main
problem in Tuvalu is sea level will rise up by up to 0.8 m over the next century due to climate
change, according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Most of Tuvalu is just
1 meter above the high tide mark. Entire Island have disappeared, shorelines are badly eroded
from storm surges, low lying areas are filling at high tide as water comes up through the
porous coral ground, freshwater swamps used to grow crops are being contaminated by rising
seawater and floods are more common. The Tuvaluans want their homeland to survive, in a
worst-case scenario, a mass evacuation that allows them to continue the function as a culture
and a sovereign nation. One destination that possible for the migration is Australia. As an
industrialized nation, Australia has had a role in greenhouse gas emissions, as a contributor of
the human-induced climate change (Crouch, 2008). But the problem arises when Australia
rejects migration program. This essay will explain the factors related to vulnerability and
interaction of those factors in causing vulnerability in Tuvalu.
Vulnerability, according to Adger (2006) is the state of susceptibility to harm from
exposure to stresses associated with environmental and social change and from the absence of
capacity to adapt. He believes that vulnerability to environmental change does not exist in
isolation from the wider political economy of resource use. Vulnerability is driven by
inadvertent or deliberate human action that reinforces self-interest and the distribution of
power in addition to interacting with physical and ecological systems. In the case of Tuvalu,
there are many factors caused vulnerability in Tuvalu. The main cause is global climate
change which gives a big environmental impact and other aspect of peoples life.
Lazrus (2008) mentioned global climate change influences peoples lives in a myriad
of different ways and is experienced initially and most acutely in smaller social arenas such
as the low-lying Pacific island country of Tuvalu. Livelihoods, cultural integrity, and national
sovereignty are all vulnerable to the impacts of a changing climate in Tuvalu. Political
ecology describes how the relationships that people have with their environments are shaped
by the political economy in which they are embedded. The framework offered by political
ecology can be usefully applied to climate change, especially with its emphasis on scale that
explicitly links the individual, household, community, and so on, on up to the nation and
global networks of international organizations. From an anthropological perspective,
vulnerability is essentially a political ecological concept in that vulnerability is the
conceptual nexus that links the relationship that people have with their environment to social
forces and institutions and the cultural values that sustain or contest them (Oliver-Smith
2004:10). In this sense, it is clear that the vulnerable state of populations and settlements is
as much a contributor to the cause of natural disasters as are the physical phenomena with
which they are associated (Lewis 1999:4). This insight grew out of the need to take the
naturalness out of natural hazards in recognition that vulnerability is induced by
socioeconomic conditions that can be modified by man, and is not just an act of God.

Environmental, Ecological and Biodiversity Factor in Vulnerability
Tuvaluans live on islands that are extremely sensitive to impacts from climate change.
Sea level rise in the vicinity measured 2 +/-1mm/yr over the five decades from1950 to 2001.
Ralston et.al (2004) explained the main cause for rising sea levels is the expansion of water
due to an increase in water temperature and is thus a mere physical phenomenon. Additional
factors are the thawing of mountain glaciers and the ice covering in Greenland. The industrial
activity in this global world, which is also producing the high rate of pollution, causes earth
temperature increases and allows the glaciers melt. Further, atoll coastal hydrology is such
that seemingly small amounts of sea level rise have disproportionately great effects on
coastlines. The results are coastal erosion, saltwater inundation, and salinization of freshwater
resources and agricultural areas. Sea level rise compromises the fragile, porous structure of
atolls leaving them more vulnerable to wave energy and disrupting the integrity of a thin,
uneven layer of freshwater that floats on the more dense seawater.
The second thing to concern for Tuvalu vulnerability is about the ecosystems. Healthy
ecosystems are extremely important because subsistence agricultural production as well as
cash crop agricultural production is essential to the economical, societal, and dietary welfare.
About 80 percent of the population 15 years and older participate in agricultural production
and fishing. The remaining population generally has paid jobs either in the public or private
sector on urban Funafuti or Vaitupu. Besides this, Tuvalu's population nourishes itself on
pulaka, coconuts, pandanus fruit, and bananas. Many of these resources are endangered
(some are becoming scarce) due to climate change, newly established commercial fishing,
and overexploitation. Higher climatic temperatures and the increase of carbon dioxide (CO2)
have strong effects on crop productivity and biodiversity. Some of the ecosystems will face
difficulties coping with the changes because they are already vulnerable. The big powers
have left their mark on Tuvalu in other ways, too. The massive airstrip that runs the spine of
Funafuti is out of all proportion to the land that surrounds it. The runway, built in the second
world war by US forces, used materials from a series of "borrow pits" dug deep into the
earth, puncturing the freshwater lens. The pits remain open wounds, filled with a useless mix
of natural water, salt water and piles of waste. On the water's edge are dozens of misshapen
shacks that house the country's poorest people: a toxic, dystopian contortion of an island
paradise (Manhire, 2007). The increase of both, the solid and liquid wastes, is threatening to
contaminate the underground drinking water and the adjacent sea water, which would
increase algal cover, algal blooms, and coral loss. For many tropical islands, coral reefs are
among the most important natural resources. Scientists have found, however, that of the
existing sum of living coral reefs, which is about 255,000 - 1,500,000 km2, 58 percent are
thought to be at risk from human activities, both climate and non-climate related. Due to their
low tolerance for temperature change, some species already are living at their thermal limits
and, within the next few decades, as a result of sea-surface-temperature increase, "the thermal
tolerance of reef-building corals will be exceeded" and the incidence of bleaching will "rise
rapidly" (Ralston et al, 2004).

Political Factor in Vulnerability
Government of Tuvalu has migration program to escape the droughts, remoteness,
poverty and fragility. The Tuvaluans preferably want their homeland to survive. If migration
is finally taken, they want a mass evacuation that allows them to continue to function as a
culture and sovereign nation as it was. The Tuvalu government has long called for
industrialised countries to drastically curb carbon emissions, and to compensate parts of the
world that are bearing the brunt of climate change. The government appealed to Australia and
New Zealand to take in Tuvaluans if rising sea levels should make evacuation necessary. As
an industrialized nation, Australia has had a role in greenhouse gas emission. Australia has a
long association with Tuvalu-AusAID is a major contributor. Australia has turned down
Tuvalus appeals for a migration program, but the Federal Government is reviewing how to
deal with a range of nations facing climate change disaster. While it has so far rejected
request for a migration channel, as Tuvalu slips beneath the waves Australia may yet open its
doors to the children of climate change (Crouch, 2008). However, Tuvaluans want to stay in
their homeland even if it was difficult and expensive. Even if Australia has accepted the
migration demand, the Tuvaluans are still worry if they will get the equity in their new land.

Social Factor in Vulnerability
The loss of land runs counter to the rising need for permanent houses and
infrastructure of an increasing population. There is a widespread perception in popular media
that the risks to people in Tuvalu are such that they necessitate migration that the
vulnerability they face by remaining in the islands is greater than the risk of culture loss (and
other place-based assets) should Tuvalu become a nation of climate refugees. The
implications of this perception are many, including disempowering Tuvaluans and
discouraging investment in effective and efficient, in situ adaptation efforts (Lazrus, 2008).
Most of the previously mentioned adverse effects of climate change overstrains atoll
countries like Tuvalu. They do not have the capacities to react and adapt in an adequate
manner. This results from a combination of different factors including limited access to
capital and technology, human resources and technology or simply relates to the size of the
country. In many cases the only possible option is migration, both internal and external.
Many Tuvaluans already have to move to Fongafale on Funafuti - a narrow sliver of sand and
palm trees measuring just 2.8 square kilometers (1.1 square mile) - from outer islands. By the
end of 1999, Funafuti was the home to 40 percent of the total population, giving the area a
population density of 347 people per square kilometer. This internal migration, coupled with
the expected population increase of up to 26,000 by 2050 (UNFCCC, 1999), is anticipated to
increase the demand for the already less available land and resources. It is expected to result
in the overexploitation of both the land and the sea for resources, force an importation of
food, and therefore increase solid waste pollution. The resulting changes or damages to the
ecosystems, would only intensify Tuvalu's vulnerability toward the effects of inundation,
flooding, and erosion (UNFCCC, 1999).

Economic Factor in Vulnerability
The next factor is economic condition. Tuvalu's GDP is so tiny about $37m (23m)
that a line item on the budget measures the sale of national stamps and coins to collectors.
Lameko, who is hanging pieces of tuna to dry on a washing line outside his house, says that
with the few crops the islands rely on coconuts, breadfruit and pulaka (or swamp taro)
failing, people are being forced to dig into any savings to purchase expensive imported foods.
Health and Food Security Factor in Vulnerability
There are also public health aspects which impact vulnerability in Tuvalu. Based on
the news written by Manhire (2007), the hospital faced an outbreak of gastroenteritis and it is
prepared for a spate of waterborne diseases. Numerous tropical islands are encountering a
prevalence of diseases spread by insects to human beings and water-borne diseases, many of
which are sensitive to the warming and flooding of water. In the Pacific, outbreaks of dengue,
for instance, are on the rise. Malaria and dengue are sensitive to the warming and flooding of
water, while other illnesses could prevail as a consequence of a dysfunction of sewage and
water systems caused by flooding. Health risks will be intensified by insufficient health care
facilities. There will be a possibility for the people of Tuvalu to suffer other kind of disease,
like skin problem because people are not bathing as usual or they could also suffer
dehydration because of the high temperature and lack of water as well. A great threat to food
security is the rising sea level, which leads to the salinization of the soil and ground water.
This is detrimental to taro (pulaka) and other crops because of their low capacity to take in
salt.

The Interaction of Factor in Vulnerability
Adger (2006) states vulnerability is manifest at multiple scales. Those factors
mentioned above are the exposures which allow vulnerability took place in Tuvalu.
Environmental change due to global climate change is the natural hazard, it can harm the
ecosystem. The rising temperature in the world results sea level rises and drought in the land.
Due to sea level rises, it results coastal erosion, saltwater inundation, and even salinization of
freshwater resources and agricultural areas. For long term effect, the land will be sink,
disappear with its civilization and culture. No difference with everything happen on the
ground, biodiversity undersea is also endangered.
Subsistence agricultural production as well as cash crop agricultural production is
essential to the economical, societal, and dietary welfare. Tuvalu's population nourishes itself
on pulaka, coconuts, pandanus fruit, and bananas. Many of these resources are endangered
(some are becoming scarce) due to climate change, newly established commercial fishing,
and overexploitation. The corps is not able to grow with salty water. The land is lack of
potable water because their water resource is drying out, and contaminated by sea water as
well. Those conditions has caused economic problem for Tuvaluans. The Tuvaluans rely on
the agriculture and fishing activity for their life. But then their livelihood is being destroyed
by the climate change. They could not have made living; they could not have earned money.
Because of the endangered food supply, people have to spend more money to buy expensive
imported food, which is probably unaffordable for some poor people. This problem in food
security will also threaten public health. Pregnant women and children are possible to suffer
undernourishment. There is also gastrointestinal infection and waterborne diseases outbreak.
Some part of the land is slowly drowning by the sea water rising; this is a kind of
inverse relation between population growth and available space. Population growth means
there should be provision of housing which also needs land to build, while the land is not
growing, it is reduced instead. The solution offered for this social problem is migration to
elsewhere, Australia for example. But so far, Australia always rejects the demand of
migration. There will be a problem even if they actualize this migration program, political
problem as the result. It will remain question for Tuvaluans, how the equity within law and
all aspect of civic life will be then. Tuvaluans are afraid if they will be get discrimination, and
for sure their culture will have not existed anymore since they have to adapt to their new
place. There should be communication between government, Tuvalu people, and related stake
holder to reach understanding for making the decision about Tuvalus future.
The interaction among those factors will be pictured with this diagram















Global Climate Change
Sea Water Rises
Ecosystem
Damage
Inverse relation population
growth and available space
Migration negotiation
problem
Income reduces
Threat in food security
Outbreak of disease
Biodiversity Lost
References
Adger, W. N. 2006. Vulnerability. Global Environmental Change 16(3), pp. 268-281

Crouch, Brad. 2008. Tuvalu Climate Change SOS. Accessible at:
http://media.adelaidenow.com.au/multimedia/2008/10/tuvalu/tuvalu-perthnow.html

Lazrus, Heather. 2008. Perspectives on Vulnerability to Climate Change and
Questions of Migration in Tuvalu.pdf

Manhire, T. 2011. Tuvalu drought could be dry run for dealing with climate change.
The Guardian, Monday 17 October 2011
UNFCCC (Eds., 1999): Tuvalu Initial National Communication Under the United Nations
Framework Convention of Climate Change; http://unfccc.int/resource/docs/natc/tuvnc1.pdf.

Ralston, Holley et al. 2004. Climate Change Challenges Tuvalu. Berlin: Germanwatch.