Recently, five reef islands in the remote Solomon Islands disappeared due to sea-level rise and coastal erosion. Six more islands have been severely eroded.
According to the study conducted by a group of Australian scientists, published in Environmental Research Letters, structures on the islands are consistently washed into the sea, and residents who have lived on the islands for a century have been forced to flee.
This study claims to be the first scientifically proven evidence of the disappearance of islands in the world's oceans as a result of rising sea levels. Previously, such reports were considered "anecdotal," as they lacked specific criteria for scientific research.
The study revealed that some territories are disappearing at a faster rate than anticipated. While the average sea-level rise was projected to be 3 to 5 mm annually in the Solomon Islands, research has shown that the actual rate is over double, up to 7 to 10 mm annually.
Many scientists assert that the fate of the Solomon Islands is the tip of the iceberg of what can be expected on coastlines and islands around the world, looking toward the first half of the 21st century. Some argue that there is little chance now to avoid the rise of oceans, as it would require steep and immediate cuts in carbon emissions around the world, especially in developing countries.
Additional factors indicating a global ocean-level rise include tectonic movements and wave energy that damages shorelines. According to the study, islands with shorelines unprotected from open-ocean waves will suffer more dramatic damage.
This global environmental disaster most deeply affects the local inhabitants of archipelagos like the Solomons, where residents are forced to abandon homes established in the beginning of the 20th century by missionaries. Inhabitants of the islands effectively become environmental refugees, and must move or perish, relying on what little resources available to them.
Under the current sea-level dynamic, Taro, the capital of Choiseul Province, one of the nine provinces making up the Solomon Islands, is expected to become the first provincial capital on Earth to relocate residents and services in response to the impact of rising oceans.
