Impact is real

Steuart Young questions the impact of climate warming on Pacific islands (Letters, 27 April). There are numerous examples of the adverse impact of warming on those who leave the faintest footprint on the environment.

In 2005, the United Nations declared the approximately 100 residents of Tegua, part of the Torres Strait Islands in the South Pacific, to be the first climate change refugees in that year. The flooding which forced their evacuation to higher ground was caused by rising sea levels and increasingly severe storms.

The island republic of Kiribati lies halfway between Hawaii and Australia. It comprises 32 low-lying atolls and one raised island. Most of its population has already moved to one island, Tarawam, after the rest of their land disappeared beneath the ocean. 102,697 people still need to be relocated as soon as possible. And, for those for whom selfinterest is the only consideration, the Seychelles beaches, popular with tourists from Europe and the USA, are disappearing under water. Tourism, an important part of their economy, will be adversely affected when they all go. Visitors are already having to squeeze into the small beach areas which remain.

This is happening now, not at some projected date in the future. Donald S Murray’s moving poem (Letters, 27 April) captures the essence of our “dumb indifference” to the unwitnessed world with an eloquence not usually promcouncil; inent in the climate debate. Thank you, Mr Murray. CAROLYN TAYLOR

Wellbank Broughty Ferry

Dundee