Only in the lowest emission models is the Pacific not expected to rise at a rate similar to what is being observed in the Solomon Islands.
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The islands are home to some 600,000 people.
In March, James Hansen, a NASA scientist who is extremely influential in the study of climate change, estimated that seas could rise by seven meters in the coming century, a figure that would likely decimate coastal communities, if proved accurate.
They gathered historic photos of the islands dating back to 1947, and compared them to current satellite images.
Erosion of the shoreline at two locations had destroyed villages that had existed on the respective islands since at least 1935, leading to community relocation.
“Rates of shoreline recession are substantially higher in areas exposed to high wave energy”, the study said, “indicating a synergistic interaction between sea-level rise and waves”.
The study also said that between 2011 and 2014, 10 houses had been swept into the sea on one of the six other reef islands that have undergone severe erosion damage from the rising waters, which result from global warming.
Previous studies examining the risk of coastal inundation in the Pacific region have found islands can actually keep pace with sea level rise and sometimes even expand.
They found that five of the Solomon Islands vanished into the Pacific due to rising sea levels and coastal erosion. Worldwide, sea levels have been rising at about 3 millimeters (about 0.12 inches) each year ince 1993, the IPCC reported in 2007.
“This provides a bit of an insight into the future”, he said.
“The situation in the Solomon Islands is a window into what may happen – entire nations could be facing extinction”. Yup, like something out of a televised disaster movie, five islands have been swallowed by the sea and researchers say climate change is to blame.
Last month the Solomon Islands government joined 11 other small Pacific Island nations in signing the Paris climate agreement in NY.
“This support should include nationally driven scientific studies to inform adaptation planning to address the impacts of climate change in Solomon Islands”, he told ABC News.
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“The sea has started to come inland, it forced us to move up to the hilltop and rebuild our village there away from the sea”, Sirilo Sutaroti, 94-year-old chief of the Paurata tribe, told the researchers. For instance, in addition to the villages that have already been relocated, the Choiseul Province capital of Taro is about to become “the first provincial capital globally to relocate residents and services due to the threat of sea-level rise”, according to the study. The five lost islands and six eroded ones were subject to high wave energy.
