The Pacific Islands at First Sight Look Like Paradise. But They Could Soon Be Gone. Antonio Guterres Sent SOS

At first glance – paradise. Unfortunately, its inhabitants, instead of enjoying it, fear for their homes, their culture, their families and their lives.

“In some places, the rate of sea level rise has doubled in the last decade. Our islands are the most vulnerable,” says Suluafi Brianna Fruean, a climate activist from Samoa.

We are talking about Pacific islands that may soon disappear from the face of the earth.

– The rise in sea levels is a crisis for which humanity is entirely responsible. It is a crisis that will soon grow to an almost unimaginable scale, and then there will be no lifeboat – warned Antonio Guterres. That is why the UN Secretary General sent an SOS signal to the whole world straight from Polynesia in the Pacific.

The inhabitants of paradise islands look at data on the level of seas and oceans as an oracle. – The threat is real, because the sea level has already risen by five centimeters in the last decade, since pre-industrial times by about 23 centimeters, and it is accelerating – informs Professor Jacek Piskozub from the Institute of Oceanology of the Polish Academy of Sciences.

– Their world is already ending. Their countries, their places of residence, which are one meter above sea level, are already being flooded. We are already observing the phenomenon of climate refugees there – says Professor Piotr Skubała, ecologist, environmental ethicist from the University of Silesia.

Scientists predict that by the end of the century, the level of seas and oceans will rise by up to a meter. Also in the Baltic.

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– All port towns along our coast – all of Ustka, Kołobrzeg, are at risk. It is difficult to close them with flood embankments, because they are the mouths of rivers – says Jacek Piskozub.

The list of endangered areas in Poland is headed by Żuławy, whose inhabitants and local authorities have been fighting for years to get the central government to take an interest in the problem.

Rising sea levels worldwide could affect hundreds of millions of people. – A threat to 10 percent of the world's population – a direct one, because 10 percent, 800 million people, live in the coastal zone – warns Piotr Skubała.

1,500 scientists met at the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research Conference, where the clear conclusions were reached that the pace of change in Antarctica is unprecedented.

“I think all of this is evidence that the climate conditions we know, the ones in which we built our civilization, are coming to an end,” said Drew Gorin, author of the study from the University of California.

According to NASA, the Antarctic ice sheet is large enough to raise average global sea levels by up to 58 meters if greenhouse gas concentrations continue to rise.