Yearbook 2010
According to
COUNTRYAAH, Tuvalu and other low-lying island nations in the Pacific
are not sinking as fast as scientists have previously
claimed. The islands are growing instead, according to a
geological study presented in the scientific journal Global
and Planetary Change in June. The study, made by researchers
from New Zealand and Fiji, is based, among other things, on
aerial photographs and satellite images taken on 27 islands
over 60 years. The study shows that most of the islands have
retained their former lands and some have even grown.
Several of Tuvalu's islands have grown, as have islands in
Kiribati and the Micronesia Federation. This could have been
done by sediment and debris from corals creating new land
surface.
Researchers have previously said that Kiribati and other
low-lying island nations will be uninhabited in the 2050s.
According to the new study, it may instead take at least 100
years for residents to move. All researchers seem to agree
that the islands, especially Kiribati, the Micronesian
Federation and Tuvalu, are threatened by rising sea levels,
but the views fall apart as to how acute the threat is. The
researchers behind the current study point out that even if
the islands remain longer than previously thought, they may
not be habitable in the long term.
In the parliamentary elections held on September 16, 26
candidates competed for the 15 seats. Everyone was running
as independent candidates because there are no political
parties in Tuvalu. The turnout was reported to be high. Ten
of Parliament's 15 members were re-elected. On September 29,
Parliament elected Maatia Toafa as new prime minister with
eight votes to seven for opposition candidate Kausea Natano.
The former prime minister, Apisai Ielemia, did not stand for
re-election but remained in parliament. Toafa, who had
previously been prime minister from 2004 to 2006,
immediately appointed a new government that included all
newly elected members of parliament. One of them was former
diplomat and Tuvalu's permanent UN representative Enele
Sopoaga, who was considered a national hero during his work
at the Copenhagen Climate Conference in December 2009 when
he was spokesman for the Association of Small Island Nations
(AOSIS). Enele Sopoaga, who was appointed Foreign Minister
and Deputy Prime Minister, was also Tuvalu's representative
at the 2010 Climate Conference, held in Mexican Cancún in
November – December. Sopoaga criticized the United States
and other Western countries for not taking sufficient
responsibility for the environmental degradation they have
been guilty of.
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