A chain of islands off the coast of West Africa is on the brink of disappearing amid rising sea levels.
What’s happening?
Nyangai Island is one of seven inhabited islands that comprise the Turtle Islands in Sierra Leone. The island was once home to over a thousand residents and three villages, but in the last decade, much of Nyangai’s surface area has disappeared under the rising ocean.
Caledonian Record reports that two-thirds of the island has vanished and only 300 inhabitants remain.
Those left behind are living in severely cramped conditions and lack basic infrastructure. Homes are regularly lost to floods, and there’s very little space left to rebuild. Soon, the island will be uninhabitable, and a local climate expert predicts the other islands will be gone within 10-15 years: “The entire archipelago will go, it’s just a question of time.”
The remaining inhabitants have little hope that their homes can be saved. A community leader and longtime resident, Amidou Bureh, said: “Our worry is the water, that the water will destroy us.”
Why are rising sea levels such a concern?
Compounding the tragic fate of Nyangai is the sense of injustice. The fishing community has had almost no part in creating the conditions that have led to the crisis unfolding before their very eyes. The planet-heating pollution from dirty energy is accelerating the loss of sea ice, causing coastal erosion and leading to the disappearance of entire island communities worldwide.
Watch now: Giant snails invading New York City?
Worse still, rising ocean temperatures create ideal conditions for increasingly frequent and severe extreme weather events. It’s no longer a matter of whether people will be displaced; it’s already happening, but of how many. Even in the best-case scenario, people will be forcibly displaced at a level not seen since World War II.
What’s being done to protect vulnerable communities?
Unfortunately for the residents of the islands, their plight is largely falling on deaf ears. A USAID program attempted to slow down the erosion by planting mangroves, but this had little effect, according to Mongabay. Now, with foreign assistance all but gone, even those token efforts will cease.
With a GDP per capita of just $915, Sierra Leone has limited capacity to handle the population displacement. A global crisis requires a unified response, and that’s possible through awareness, collective, and individual actions. Accelerating the adoption of clean energy will at the very least slow down the rise and buy valuable time for the world’s most vulnerable communities.
Join our free newsletter for good news and useful tips, and don’t miss this cool list of easy ways to help yourself while helping the planet.
