Is it too late to save all the little islands?

TORONTO, Canada (PINA Nius) — The Pacific island nations of Nauru, Kiribati and Tonga have a combined population of about 190,000. While you weren’t looking, they all joined the United Nations.

It is no wonder you missed the news.

When the UN press office recommended they hold a press conference announcing their official entry into the global community, the delegations replied something to the effect of: “Thank you for the suggestion but, er, we’re a bit shy.” These are not normal politicians. But they weren’t joining the UN for normal reasons.

All three of the countries are in imminent danger of disappearing. Climate change is causing waters to rise, protective reefs to die and storms to become more frequent and serious.

Already, entire islands have been submerged, fresh water supplies have been infiltrated by salt water and weird weather has destroyed crops.

And it is not just Nauru, Kiribati and Tonga. Recently, they joined about 40 other members of the Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS) for a Special Session at the UN-convened to examine the state of the world’s tiniest and most vulnerable nations. Delegates came from places as far-flung as the Marshall Islands and Sao Tome and Principe.

For two days, places you didn’t even know existed (Tokelau anyone?) took center stage. Barbados described how one recent hurricane caused around 100 coffins to float out of a coastal cemetery. Last year, in the Maldives and Seychelles, nearly half of all the coral reefs, some over 1,000 years old, died from high water temperatures. Meanwhile, Mauritius experienced its worst drought in recorded history.

But the members of AOSIS were not at the UN to complain. They were there to try to find answers. One of their main problems is global warming caused by the relentless increase in greenhouse gases. Add that to worldwide logging, which is decreasing carbon dioxide-absorbing forests and you get a bad situation made appalling. Recent El Niño years compounds an already intolerable situation.

The small countries themselves are doing their best. They are always among the first to sign international pollution-control treaties, such as the Kyoto Protocol. Many are exploring alternative power sources, such as solar or wave energy. Some are trying out promising, exciting artificial reef-building technology. And almost all have enacted serious environmental legislation.

While larger countries bicker and posture over details (or, in the case of the United States, go back on promises), the members of AOSIS get on with trying to save the world.

During the UN Special Session, two three-hour chunks were put aside for AOSIS to agree on the wording of a statement. Old UN hands thought six hours might be enough, although other meetings of this kind have dragged on into the early morning hours. AOSIS got the job done in about an hour and then broke early for dinner. These are not normal politicians.

And their requests to the international community weren’t the normal, bland bleatings, either. Yes, there were the expected calls for the cutting (or at least stabilizing) of CO2 emissions. And they pleaded that countries like Japan not ship hazardous waste through their waters.

But Palau upped the ante by asking that energy prices be raised to accurately reflect the (in-part environmental) true cost of fossil fuel use.

Mauritius argued it was unfair to expect them to submit to World Trade Organization rules since the rules were made without their input. It would be like a school bully saying: “The rule today is, you give me all your money. And if you don’t abide by the rule, I’ll punish you by taking all your money in fines.”

And St. Lucia questioned the entire nature of the globalized economy.

They talked with the candor and urgency not of people who had nothing to lose, but of people who had everything to loose.

Small islands are often called the “canaries in the coal mines” on environmental issues. But the point of the coal miner’s canary was that, when the canary started to die, the miner had a limited amount of time to hightail it out of the mine.

Well, the canaries are dying but there is nowhere for us to run. If waters rise high enough to submerge the Maldives, you can say goodbye to much of Bangladesh and Mississippi (though, perhaps, this is what George Bush, the U.S. President is hoping for by rejecting the Kyoto Protocol; natural disasters may not be good for people but they are certainly good for business).

If the temperature gets much higher, there is risk of widespread crop failure in Central Asia.

The cries of the small island states are not the normal, dull political speeches. But these are not normal times. If only our politicians were more abnormal.