Global Warming… should we be concerned? What is this phenomenon? As Palauans and islanders, are we in danger from the Global Warming or Climate Change? Do we need to address this issue whether our island home is threatened or not? Do any fellow Palauans know what this phenomenon is in relation to our future? Are the recent weather conditions that have devastated other parts of the world, not to mention the loss of lives, have anything to do with this phenomenon? Are we seeing or experiencing any damaging effects caused by this event on our home turf?
Jump into the canoe as I take you on a journey from the beginning stages of how I came to understand this phenomenon that eventually made me a believer of the destructive effect of Climate Change.
Fifteen years or so I had no idea what Global Warming or Climate Change was until just recently. At the time myself and friends’ ambition was to make money and ways to reach that end. As a Palauan the island offered resources toward that goal and I quickly grabbed it with my fellow loyal friends and colleagues with gusto. The course we took was not an easy one and as young and beginning entrepreneurs we encountered many obstacles having to rely on our wits and slight expertise in climbing the mountain side.
We discovered that one of the island’s resources which are the corals was a great way to make money. There was a lot to be made from the culturing of corals over fifteen years ago and with Palau devoid of laws regulating the aquarium aspect of the trade we were in complete bliss with plans of expanding the technology throughout Palau. Four years into the production, we were stopped short from a law enacted without at the very least interviewing us young Palauans involved in the trade.
I still vividly remember a former government official in high position telling me to my face across the President’s conference table… “you are making too much money.” My reply was,… “Mr. President, are you asking us this question,… because if one is in business not to make money than we are certainly in the wrong business?”… wherefore the top man reacted immediately saying something to the effect that the individual did not mean what was said.
Eventually, with all matters put aside, we closed shop on December 15, 1995 due to the difficulty of meeting the law’s directives resulting in signing the last paycheck and releasing nine locals and sending most of the 22 foreigners working for the company back to their homeland. The big boss absorbed loans and credits from six of the nine locals before releasing them including all the company debts amounting to more than 80 thousand US dollars.
We got lost, especially the top brasses, and a couple of us came close to taking that dangerous step thus walking into the light but luckily such demise was prevented from becoming so by a colleague who made frequent home visits and able to talk us out of such dire action. Slowly we pulled ourselves back from the brink of disaster by going back to what we know best in the tourism and publication aspect of our field for the next five years. By November 1999, the big bossman informed those that were still loyal that the debt is and was paid in full.
For those who are familiar with the Japanese Samurai legend of the 40 ronins, compress their years into ours from 1996 to 1999 and you will at least grasp the destitution each of us went through. Committing the last act of a desperate man was never far away and always at the periphery of our vision. Without the strength of each of our loyal friends we would probably be underneath six feet of dirt today.
By the beginning of this century, luck struck us and we were approach by a loyal friend of Palau who was stricken by the change for the worse Palau Island was experiencing. This individual agreed to support us as a non-profit if we can convince him that what we do in terms of culturing corals can indeed help with nature itself and somehow bring back what Palau has lost during the years he has visited the island.
For the last five years we have gained extensive knowledge into the coral world through the non-profit organization. We also discovered that corals are in an equal level with the rain forest as gathered from scientific reports. Viola,… Global Warming and Climate Change came into the picture and the end result is not a pretty sight.
Although Palau has less land, its surrounding waters contains a wide-ranging area suitable for the culturing of corals that can help with the Climate Change by discharging Oxygen into the air to negate the Carbon Dioxide build-up trapped within the earth’s atmosphere causing what is termed as the Green House Effect resulted from the high temperature increase caused by this phenomenon. From this technology, Palau can make a difference and impart to the world and the rest of the countries her part in the fight against Global Warming, not to mention the struggle to save herself from the approaching rising of the tides.
The question now is “what are corals?” To quote Barnes, R.D., 1987; Lalii and Parsons, 1995… “Corals are anthozoans, the largest class of organisms within the phylum Cnidaria. Comprising over 6,000 known species, anthozoans also include sea fans, sea pansies and anemones. Stony corals (scleractinians) make up the largest order of anthozoans, and are the group primarily responsible for laying the foundations of, and building up, reef structures. For the most part, scleractinians are colonial organisms composed of hundreds to hundreds of thousands of individuals, called polyps.”
“Coral reefs are among the most diverse and productive communities on Earth. They are found in the warm, clear, shallow waters of tropical oceans worldwide. Reefs have functions ranging from providing food and shelter to fish and invertebrates to protecting the shore from erosion. Through symbiosis with unicellular algae (zooxanthellae), reef-building corals are the source of primary production in reef communities,” (Richmond 1993).
No one doubts that the Earth is the most beautiful planet in our solar system. Various shades of brown, green and white encased in turquoise blue – it is our EARTH, our HOME and our MOTHER. So far, it is the ONLY PLANET in our solar system where water exists in a liquid form. Water covers more than 70% of the total planet, more than 362,000,000 square kilometers (140,000,000 square miles).
When the water is exceedingly deep or very cold or terribly polluted or that the water current is not adequate for the survival of their growth, it limits the expanse of area of growth therefore corals can only grow in less than 0.1%”. The effect of the EL Nino and La Nina, especially in the between years 1996 to 1998, decimated the Corals by nearly fifty percent. Studies showed that this phenomenon will occur more often in the future than in the past due to Global Warming. This year 2007 we are probably faced once again with the El Nino.
Climate Change… what is climate change? On the United States Environmental Protection Agency it defines climate change as “any significant change in measures of climate such as temperature, precipitation or wind lasting for an extended period.” Used interchangeably with global warming, climate change is the preferred terminology by the National Academy of Sciences because it clarifies the possibilities of other changes apart from rising temperature.
To quote What’sOn & Expat weekly newspaper for international readers volume XXVI No. 6 (February 11-17, 2007),… “Climate Change is an effect brought about by the greenhouse effect, a consequence wherein the burning of fossil fuels and certain gases such as carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide trap the heat within the earth’s atmosphere instead of the heat radiating back to space.”
The paper went on to quote the United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon saying in a statement that “it is the poor in Africa and developing small island states and elsewhere who will suffer the most, even though they are the least responsible for global warming.” Al Gore’s film “an inconvenient truth” brought to the public’s attention that the earth’s temperature is on the rise and at an alarming rate at that.
Palau President Tommy E. Remengesau, Jr., during the 2002 World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg, South Africa, in his address said… “Palau as a Pacific Island Nation, is proud of and humbled by the splendor with which we have been graced. However, we find ourselves increasingly isolated and vulnerable to the impacts of globalization. Like most small developing island nations, we are working diligently to take our place as a member of the global economy. However, we lack the tools and the capacity that larger nations have to bridge the gap from developing to developed status. This vulnerability is further intensified by the adverse impacts of climate change. As an additional challenge, we are, by our very nature, economically isolated from the global community and have limited access to the resources needed to bridge this gap.”
President Remengesau, Jr., also stated to the assembly that… “Clearly, there has been some progress over the past few years in the international community to recognize the unique challenges and vulnerabilities of the small island developing countries, to move away from the fictional notion that economies such as ours operate under the same conditions as those of the developed world. We have been studied, analyzed, dissected, and finally reported on to higher bodies. We are thankful. We are now defined. It is now time to move forward, and put into place the appropriate mechanism to allow us to fully implement the recommendations that have been made. What we need are no longer suggestions and recommendations. What we need are tools – tools that only you can give us.”
We are behind this young leader in a bold venture toward our part in helping with the reduction of the Global Warming effect. We are short of the tools we need to tackle and push forward the bold scheme we have in mind in an effort to help with the lessening effect of the Global Warming, a phenomenon that effects mankind, especially the small islands.
The small islands scattered within the great oceans are in the forefront of disappearance and fighting for their very lives. President Tommy E. Remengesau, Jr., aptly spoke to the assemblage in the Johannesburg World Summit saying that,… “It is well past time for the developed nations to recognize that their industrial activities have had, and will continue to have, a great and real impact on other. In 1997 and 1998, Palau lost at least one-third of its coral reefs due to climate change related weather patterns. We also lost most of our agricultural production due to drought and extreme high tides. Please do no tell us that these were theoretical scientific losses. They were the losses of our resources and our livelihoods. Eventually they will be the loss of our cultural existence as well.”
The President went on to say in his speech at Johannesburg,… “Let us underline our efforts here in Johannesburg not because the eyes of the world are upon us but because there is a genuine love of the earth in all of us. Standing here together today, we can change and better our destiny. We can overcome the greed of past centuries and fulfill the needs of all of our children”
Scientists are probably unable to determine which parts of the world will become wetter or drier or they can make a good estimation, but there is likely to be an overall trend toward increased precipitation and evaporation, more intense rainstorms, and drier soils as have been recently witnessed. Unfortunately, many of the potentially most important impacts depend upon whether rainfall increases or decreases, which cannot be reliably projected for specific areas.
Still, many of the islands and atolls scattered within the oceans and terrestrial coastlines will be submerged in the years to come. The island people are faced with a life and death situation where our very existence is balanced on a tight wire. Our young President stated in his closing speech that… “Yet our destinies may very well be the window to your own future and the future of our planet. Listen to us – hear our alarm. We are under attack – not by our enemies, but by our friends. We do not blame you. We only seek your assistance, for your own good as well as ours.”
Whether Global Warming is real or not,… whether you are a believer or unbeliever,… at least let us put aside our differences for the time being and work together before we lose both the canoe and the turtle. Or for that matter,… make an effort to do away Angaur’s well-known idiom… “ou kululau ra metemellang”… and fulfill the needs of all of our children today and tomorrow.
By JeRome Temengil
