Pacific nations are likely to lose their coral reefs this century as global warming heats sea temperatures and raises water levels, Green peace said in a report published Friday.
The environmental group argues that global warming, which is largely manmade, is heating the sea and in turn leading to coral bleaching, which occurs when coral turns white and dies.
Higher sea levels are also threatening atoll nations, the group said in their report, released in Kiribati to coincide with a meeting of leaders from 14 Pacific island countries on Kiribatis Tarawa atoll.
"Coral reef ecosystems are especially susceptible to climate change and recent predictions have suggested that coral reefs will be seriously degraded by the changing conditions of the worlds tropical oceans," the report said.
Loss of the reefs will have "a devastating impact on the cultures and economies of the region", the environmental lobby group reported.
Green peace lobbies every year at the summit to seek stronger Pacific support to deal with global climate warming and assistance for other environmental programmes.
Host nation Kiribati, and its neighbor Tuvalu, were identified as the most vulnerable states, followed by the Cook Islands, Palau, Tonga, French Polynesia, Nauru, New Caledonia, Vanuatu, the Solomons, Fiji and Samoa.
The report, "Pacific in Peril", was written by a group of university professors, economists and environmental economists based in the Pacific and Europe.
They label the socio-economic impacts as being "so profound that they dwarf any strategic issue currently confronting a major peacetime economy".
"National leaders and international organizations must be persuaded to have in place development planning responses to extend the horizon and allow the necessary fundamental policy changes to occur."
A major decline in the conditions of the corals was now a distinct possibility within 30 to 50 years with 13 Pacific nations facing increasingly "bleak conditions" by 2020, they argue.
"The specter of losing coral reefs from tropical coastlines within the next 30 to 50 years has begun to focus public interest and attract enormous social, political and scientific comment," they say in their report.
While scientists have yet to quantify the implications of reef loss, they say it will impact on subsistence living, human welfare, tourism and fishing.
"For some societies, the issue may be a regrettable loss of a favorite dive location or holiday destination.
"For many others, however, the loss of coral reefs strikes at the heart of the survival of entire societies and cultures."
It is estimated that gross domestic product in the countries who lose their atolls could be reduced by between 40 and 50 percent.
They estimate the value lost by climate change in the Polynesian and adjacent nations at between 4 billion and 5 billion US dollars -- AUCKLAND (AFP)
© 2000 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
