Global - Technology - Review

Tuvalu, once known as the Ellice Islands, consists of nine inhabited islands: a total of just ten square miles of territory. The highest point is just four metres above sea level, making the islands particularly vulnerable to the effects of rising sea levels caused by climate change. The suggestion has been made that one day the population of just over ten thousand may need to be evacuated to New Zealand. The islands have poor soil and rainwater is the only source of fresh water. People rely on subsistence farming and fishing or on government jobs. The country receives substantial foreign aid and makes money from the sale of coins and stamps. The islands’ remoteness means that only about a hundred tourists visit each year. The local cuisine uses seafood and pulaka or swamp taro, which is grown in pits of compost, the ownership of which is a source of family pride and cultural identity. Unfortunately seawater is beginning to seep into the groundwater beneath the pits – another example of the dangers of climate change. The local fakanu dance was discouraged by early missionaries and has now died out. The capital, Funafuti, is on the atoll of the same name.