Caritas Australia has launched their new report on the State of the Environment in Oceania – Hungry for Justice, Thirsty for Change http://www.caritas.org.au/hungryforjustice
The report brings together stories from across the Pacific of the current environmental challenges people are facing.
Important information in the report includes:
- The most significant trend in Oceania in 2015/2016 has been widespread hunger and thirst that is a result of severe weather events, successive emergencies, and ongoing climatic changes.
- Sea level rises no longer just affecting low-lying atolls, but also causing migration on larger volcanic islands
- Hospitals, cemeteries, gardens and water sources are being inundated by the ocean
- Communities are often not fully recovered from one disaster when the next one arrives
- The situation would be even worse if it were not for the resilience of Pacific Islanders and targeted humanitarian assistance
- Pacific nations have led the way in ratifying and implementing Paris agreement. It’s time for Australia to stand with the Pacific.
- Despite their resilience, Pacific nations and communities need financial support (‘climate finance’) from industrialised countries to adapt to the impacts of climate change. This should be on top of Australia’s existing development assistance.
- Climate change risks undoing many of the positive achievements of Australia’s development assistance of recent decades
Caritas has also uploaded summary fact sheets at the above link, and two short videos on sea level rise (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_lzXtKVgR2g ) and food and water (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DvF6HI5hzdE ).