Schwartzbaum 1

Climate Change, Refugees and the Torres Strait Islands

A policy report for Friends of the Earth, Australia

Adam Schwartzbaum

May 24, 2006

Introduction

For weeks you couldn’t escape the image: a lone polar bear perched on the edge of a

melting sheet of ice, looking down into the dark waters below; above, the words in large bold

print: “Be Worried. Be Very Worried.”1 In the last week of March 2006, this was the arresting

image splayed across the cover of Time magazines across the world. Inside, article after article

explained in careful detail what so many climatologists, environmental activists, and informed

citizens across the world have been saying for well over a decade: climate change is real, it is

human induced, and it is already happening.

In the United States, where politicians continue to stubbornly refuse to sign the Kyoto

Accords or make any substantial effort to curb their nation’s voluminous carbon footprint, it

appears a sea change has begun to swell amongst public attitudes towards climate change. In a

recent poll, “85% of respondents agree that global warming probably is happening. Moreover,

most respondents say they want some action taken. Of those polled, 87% believe the government

should either encourage or require lowering of power-plant emissions, and 85% think something

should be done to get cars to use less gasoline.”2 In a country that produces 25% of the world’s

carbon output every year, these numbers illustrate that Americans are finally beginning to

understand the inevitable truth: our world is getting warmer because of our oil-addicted, energy-

inefficient, unsustainable societies.

1
Time Magazine. 3 April 2006: cover.
2
Kluger, Jeffrey. “Global Warming Heats Up.” Time Magazine. 3 April 2006.
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With so much public support for action against climate change, now is the time for

environmental organizations like Friends of the Earth to capitalize on public sentiments

worldwide and push to enact real policy change to deal with the coming ecological crises. In

Australia, the country with the largest per capita production of greenhouse pollution in the

world,3 it is essential that the government begin working in earnest to address climate change.

An important area where good public policy making is currently needed is the often overlooked

issue of ecological refugees, also referred to as climate refugees. Though not yet officially

acknowledged by the United Nations and the majority of world governments, climate refugees

are a very real group of human beings who have been displaced from their native homes due to

changes in the environment directly linked to global warming and climate change. They are

Inuits fleeing an indigenous community inhabited for 4,000 years because of rising water tables

in Shishmaref, Alaska.4 They are Chinese peasant farmers, fleeing ancient cities lost to

desertification of the Gobi desert, a phenomenon that already affects 8 percent of Chinese

territory and threatens the livelihood of 170 million people.5 And they are Aboriginal Australians

on Coconut Island who have seen 60 meters of their island home consumed by the wave since

the year 2000.6

For some Australians, the problem of climate refugees is probably seen as something

remote, affecting people in other countries, but not of concern to Australian citizens. However,

this is not the case; in fact, there are already clearly documented cases of climate refugees in the

pacific islands just bordering Australia to the North, and most significantly, climate change is

3
Beazley, Kim C. “Protecting Australia From the Threat of Climate Change.” Blueprint Number Six. Sydney, 7
March 2006.
4
Arctic Change Indicator Website. “Human and Economic Indicators: Shishmaref.” 10 June 2006.
http://www.arctic.noaa.gov/detect/human-shishmaref.shtml
5
US Embassy-China. “PRC Environmental Grave Concerns.” February 1999. 10 June 2006. http://www.usembassy-
china.org.cn/sandt/svhards1.htm
6
Madigan, Michael. “Rising Seas Threaten Homes.” Courier-Mail. 5 April 2006.
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beginning to raise questions about the sustainability of at least six Torres Strait Islands like

Coconut, York, and Saibai, home to thousands of indigenous Australian citizens.7

This policy paper will explore the problems of climate change and climate refugees with

a particular emphasis on communities already in distress. Using the Torres Strait Island of Saibai

as a case study, it will focus on the strategies needed to help Torres Islanders adapt to climate

change, and suggest several action oriented responses to the looming crisis. Ultimately, our goal

should be to have climate refugees recognized alongside political and religious refugees in the

law of the United Nations, so that these people can be taken out of the shadows and be accorded

the respect and dignity their lives are worth. For the preservation of global security, for the

humane treatment of tens of millions of affected peoples all across the globe, and perhaps most

importantly, to uphold our shared value of environmental justice, this is a cause that demands our

attention and our governments’ legal recognition.

Part One: What are Climate Refugees?

In 2001, The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), a coalition of

thousands of scientists from around the world, published its Third Assessment Report (TAR), at

the behest of the United Nations. Among other things, this report states in no uncertain terms that

“emissions of greenhouse gases and aerosols due to human activities continue to alter the

atmosphere in ways that are expected to affect the climate.”8 The way this works is fairly

straightforward; a good explanation can be found in a Climate Change FAQ published by

Australian Government. It explains that

The Earth is covered by a blanket of gases which allows energy from the sun to reach the

Earth’s surface, where some of it is converted to heat energy. Most of the heat is re-

7
Madigan, Michael. “Rising Seas Threaten Homes.” Courier-Mail. 5 April 2006.
8
IPCC TAR “Climate Change 2001: The Scientific Basis.” Summary for Policy Makers. A Report of Working
Group 1.
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radiated towards space, but some is re-radiated towards the ground by greenhouse gases

in the atmosphere. This is a natural effect which keeps the Earth’s temperature at a level

necessary to support life. Human activities—particularly burning fossil fuels (coal, oil

and natural gas), agriculture and land clearing—are generating more greenhouse gases.

Greater concentrations of greenhouse gases will trap more heat and raise the Earth’s

surface temperature.9

Over the past century, concentrations of Carbon Dioxide in the atmosphere have

increased from 250 parts per million (ppm), a level sustained for nearly 400,000 years, to about

370 ppm, and is currently increasing at a rate of about 1.5 ppm a year. This in turn has caused the

earth to warm by an average of 0.6 degrees Celsius.10 This is unprecedented warming not seen in

thousands of years, and is best illustrated by this first graph, a now famous chart known as “the

hockey stick.”

9
Department of the Environment and Heritage, Australian Greenhouse Office. Climate Change Q&A. Canberra:
2005.
10
Athanasiou, Tom and Paul Baer. Dead Heat: Global Justice and Global Warming. New York: Seven Stories Press,
2002.
 Schwartzbaum 5

Compare this graph to the one below, illustrating levels of CO2 in the atmosphere over

the past 400,000 years:

By comparing these two charts, it is obvious that increasing levels of CO2 in the

atmosphere due to our use of fossil fuels, about 120 ppm higher than they have ever been in the

past 400,000 years, corresponds directly to the global increase in average surface temperature.

Similar increases of greenhouse gas concentrations have been observed with Nitrous Oxide,

Methane, and Sulfate aerosols deposited in Greenland ice.11 Again, as levels of greenhouse gases

in the atmosphere increase, more heat is trapped, temperatures rise, and climate is affected. This

is the trend commonly known as global warming.

Practically, global warming has and will continue to exert a profound influence on the

climate all over the world. The IPCCs Third Annual Report paints a somewhat grim picture of

the future. Massive disruptions in climate will likely affect every ecosystem and human

community on earth, some quite profoundly. Human influences will continue to change

11
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. “Indicators of Human Influence on the Atmosphere During
Industrialization.” <http://www.grida.no/climate/ipcc_tar/slides/02.01.htm>. 18 May 2006.
 Schwartzbaum 6

atmospheric composition throughout the 21st century. By 2100, models project CO2 (carbon

dioxide) concentrations to increase somewhere between 90 - 250% above pre-industrial

concentrations. The globally averaged surface temperature is projected to increase by 1.4 to 5.8

degrees Celsius from 1990 to 2100. Compare this to the fact that our last ice age was on average

only 5 degrees Celsius cooler than Earth is now!12

As temperatures rise and more ice melts at our poles and in permafrost, global mean sea

level is projected to rise by an average 5mm per year over the next 100 years. This is primarily

due to thermal expansion and the loss of mass from global ice deposits. More water means global

average precipitation is projected to increase, though at regional scales both increases and

decreases are projected, meaning there will be droughts in some places, floods in others. Some

extreme weather events, e.g. droughts, floods, heat waves, avalanches, and windstorms, are

projected to increase in frequency and/or severity, depending on the place. Generally, Hurricanes

and Cyclones, as well as earthly climate patterns like El Nino and La Nina, are expected to

increase in intensity and destructive force.13 More will die in floods and storms.

Still other changes threaten human health. In a globally warmed world, tropical and

swampy areas increase in size, causing indirect changes in a range of disease vectors like

malaria-carrying mosquitoes. Water-borne pathogens may spread easier, while water quality, air

quality, and food availability and quality will all suffer. In most tropical and subtropical regions,

potential yields of cereal crops are projected to decrease for most temperatures increases.

Climate change will exacerbate water shortages in many water scarce areas of the world. These

detrimental impacts to health will occur particularly in lower income populations, and

predominantly within tropical and subtropical countries. And it is not only humans that will

12
Athanasiou, Tom and Paul Baer. Dead Heat. Seven Stories Press: Canada, 2002. P34.
 Schwartzbaum 7

suffer; ecological productivity and biodiversity will be altered by climate change and sea-level

rise, with an increased risk of extinction of some vulnerable species.

Populations that inhabit small islands and/or low-lying coastal areas are at particular risk

of severe social and economic effects from sea-level rise and storm surges. Once they begin to

go under, it is not likely that they will be resurrected anytime soon. A recent article in the journal

Science predicts a six meter rise in water levels by the year 2100 if we continue at current levels

of carbon output.14 That’s enough water to flood every major coastal city from Shanghai to New

York City. Because of the long timescales on which the deep ocean adjusts to climate change,

Global mean surface temperatures and rising sea level from thermal expansion of the ocean are

projected to continue for hundreds of years after the stabilization of greenhouse gas (ghg)

concentration (even at present levels).15

Vanished land mean vanished homes; therefore, it is not surprising that as scientists learn

more and more about the specific affects these changes in climate will have on ecosystems, some

have also begun to think critically about how they will change the lives of real human beings,

and the challenges these disruptions present to the global community. For over two decades,

Oxford Professor Norman Myers has written extensively about peoples displaced from their

homes due to changes in climate. In an article written for the Royal Society, Myers gives an

excellent definition of this modern crisis:

There is a new phenomenon in the global arena: environmental refugees. These are

people who can no longer gain a secure livelihood in their homelands because of drought,

soil erosion, desertification, deforestation and other environmental problems, together

with the associated problems of population pressures and profound poverty. In their

14
Kluger, Jeffrey. “Global Warming Heats Up.” Time Magazine. 3 April 2006.
15
Davissen, Jane and Stephanie Long. “Impacts of Climate Change on Small Island States.” Friends of the Earth
Australia. June 2003. <http://www.foei.org/publications/pdfs/island.pdf>. 18 May 2006.
 Schwartzbaum 8

desperation, these people feel they have no alternative but to seek sanctuary elsewhere,

however hazardous the attempt. Not all of them have fled their countries, many being

internally displaced. But all have abandoned their homelands on a semi-permanent if not

permanent basis, with little hope of a foreseeable return.16

It is a fact that global climate change is producing irreversible changes to entire cultures

and homelands. Myers estimates that, by 1995, 25 million people had already been displaced due

to environmental problems, and his conservative projection for number of environmental

refugees by the year 2050 is an astounding 200 million people.17 The reality of environmental

refugees poses enormous challenges to Australia, both in its domestic policies towards internally

displaced peoples, as well as international policies towards its 7 million Pacific Islander

neighbors.

Part Two: Torres Strait Islands: Australian land in crisis

At a recent White House press conference, President George W. Bush went on record

saying “We -- first of all, there is -- the globe is warming. The fundamental debate: Is it

manmade or natural.”18 Whether one acknowledges the overwhelming scientific consensus that

climate change is human induced or clings to the minority belief that present warming is a

natural event, the truth is that, as President Bush stated, “the globe is warming.” One’s personal

opinions make no difference in regards to practical policies that must be implemented to deal

with the severe weather events human societies are already experiencing in a globally warmed

world. With the impact of Cyclone Larry and Hurricane Katrina in 2005 alone, and with special

16
Myers, Norman. “Environmental Refugees: A Growing Phenomenon of the 21st Century.” The Royal Society.
Oxford: 2001.
17
Myers, Norman. “Environmental Refugees: An Emergent Security Issue.” 13th Economic Forum. Prague: 22 May
2005.
18
Bush, George W. “President Discusses Democracy in Iraq With Freedom House.” Hyatt Regency Capital Hill.
Washington DC, 29 March 2006. <http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2006/03/20060329-6.html> 26 May
2006.
 Schwartzbaum 9

regard to the botched response to the latter, it is obvious to people of every political persuasion

that our governments must come up with responsible policies in preparation for massive natural

disasters that threaten the lives of hundreds of thousands of their citizens.

For the Australian government, global warming poses multiple challenges. One region

of the country with a unique set of circumstances is the nearly one hundred Torres Strait Islands

that lie off the coast of the Northern Territories, above the Cape York Peninsula. For thousands

of years, they have been the home to a group of indigenous peoples of Papuan and Aboriginal

Australian descent known commonly referred to as the Torres Strait Islanders. Known to

Europeans as early as 1606, these islands became a regular seaway with the founding of the first

colony in 1788. Unlike the mainland Aborigines, conquest did not deprive them of their land or

deprive them or their traditional means of subsistence. Rather, as anthropologist Jeremy Beckett

notes, “through a coincidence of commercial and government policies, they were confined to

their islands as a labour reserve, dependent on certain commodities yet able if need be to

maintain themselves by subsistence activities.”19

These islands exhibit a considerable variety of resources and physical features, of which

there are four major types. On the Eastern end of the Strait, within sight of the Great Barrier

Reef, is the first type: small, high volcanic islands with relatively fertile soil and dense

vegetation. These include the Murray group, Darnley, and Stephens Islands. The second type,

found to the west of the first type and collectively known as the Central Islands, are small,

vegetated sand cays built up on coral reefs, consisting of Yorke, Coconut, Aureed and Waraber

Islands. The Western Islands are large, high islands covered with mounds of basaltic rocks, but

lightly vegetated in open areas and mostly well watered. Like some of the Central islands, these

islands enjoy the protection of extensive mangrove swamps that ring their mainland. They
19
Beckett, Jeremy. Torres Strait Islanders: custom and colonialism. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1987.
 Schwartzbaum 10

include Prince of Wales, Thursday Island, Yam Nagir, Moa, Badu, Mabuyag, and Dauan.

Finally, the fourth set of islands are large, low lying swampy islands formed in the same manner

as the adjacent Papuan coast. Alluvian soil carried down by the great rivers of the Papua New

Guinea have collected over time to form these delicate ecosystems, where vegetation is sparse

save for the extensive mangrove swamps. On the Australian side of the border, these include the

islands of Boigu and Saibai, an island we will look at more closely in the following section.20

Climate change already poses a serious threat to the continued habitability of these

delicate natural ecosystems. Rising water tables and hotter weather will pose enormous

challenges for swampy low lying island communities perched atop ancient coral reefs and giant

heaps of alluvial soil. Marine and Atmospheric Research by the CSIRO provides a general

overview of the likely impacts of global warming on these natural ecosystems, as well as human

livelihoods and communities in the Torres Strait Islands. Our first task is to understand precisely

what the specific effects of global warming will be in this area.21 First, “temperatures in the

Northern Territory will increase as the rest of the world warms. A ‘middle-of-the-road’ estimate

is that temperatures will increase by approximately 1.3-1.8°C by 2050 (Figure 1) and 2.6-3.6°C

by the year 2100. However, warming both above and below this range is possible.As

temperatures rise, the oceans will warm and glaciers and ice caps will melt.” This will contribute

to a sea-level rise of somewhere between 9 and 88 cm, with some scientists projecting a rise in

sea level of up to six meters by the year 2100.22 Finally, global warming will also “likely change

the variability of climate, including potential increases in the frequency or severity of extreme

20
Beckett, Jeremy. Torres Strait Islanders: custom and colonialism. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1987.
21
The information below comes from the CSIRO website, which has published projections for the effects of climate
change on the nearby Cape York Peninsula. http://www.dar.csiro.au/sharingknowledge/files/capeyorkv1_2006.pdf
22
“By one recent measure, several Greenland ice sheets have doubled their rate of slide, and just last week the
journal Science published a study suggesting that by the end of the century, the world could be locked in to an
eventual rise in sea levels of as much as 20 ft.”
Kluger, Jeffrey. “Global Warming Heats Up.” Time Magazine. 3 April 2006.
 Schwartzbaum 11

weather events,” with more intense cyclones posing a serious threat to island communities, in

addition to “extreme heat days and heat waves, extreme rainfall events, and more intense or

prolonged droughts,” all potential consequences of climate change in Australia. Climatologist

Kerry Emanuel’s recent study, published in the journal Nature less than a month before

Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans, reconfirms what many already intuited: hurricanes

are becoming more powerful because of climate change. In the period of time in which man has

used fossil fuels to power civilization, “the power of the storms doubled.”23

Some of the effects of these changes on human societies in the Torres Strait Islands are

obvious. The most terrifying is the possibility that rising water levels could completely

overwhelm these islands, especially low lying ones like Coconut and Saibai Islands,

necessitating a massive evacuation of their citizens to mainland Australia. Such an event would

be traumatic, but not unprecedented; there has already been one full evacuation of at least two

Pacific Islands known as the Tulun or Carterets Islands due to climate change,24 and dozens of

families have fled the large island of Tuvalu due to rising water tables as well.25 Citizens of

islands inundated by rising waters are the most glaring example of how climate change is turning

people into refugees, and appropriate policy responses to such a cataclysmic event will be

explored further in the following section. However, barring the total destruction of at least some

23
Kluger, Jeffrey. “The Man Who Saw Katrina Coming.” Time Magazine. 8 May 2006.
24
“The Kilinailau Islands—also known as the Tulun Islands, or the Carteret Atoll—which lie four hundred miles
from the coast of Papua New Guinea, are tiny, low, and impoverished. Their fate, thanks to global warming, has
long been a foregone conclusion. In 1995, most of the shoreline of Piul and Huene washed away, and the island of
Iolasa was cut in half by the sea. Saltwater intrusion has now reached the point where islanders can no longer grow
breadfruit, and have to rely on emergency food aid. Last month, Reuters reported that the decision had finally been
made to give up. The islands’ two thousand residents are being relocated, at the expense of the Papua New Guinean
government, to the slightly higher ground of Bougainville Island, some sixty miles to the southwest.”
Kolbert, Elizabeth. “The Talk of the Town: Comment, Global Warming.” The New Yorker. 12 December 2005.
<http://www.newyorker.com/talk/content/articles/051212ta_talk_kolbert> 25 May 2006.

25
Price, Tom. “The Canary is Drowning: Tiny Tuvalu Fights Back Against Climate Change.” Global Policy
Forum. 3 December 2002. <www.globalpolicy.org/nations/micro/2002/1203canary.htm> 25 May 2006
 Schwartzbaum 12

of the lower lying of these islands in rising waters, other more immediate challenges face these

human communities.

The most immediate threat is to human health. In a comprehensive report on the effects

of climate change in the Northern Territory, CSIRO explicates these challenges succinctly:

There is likely to be more heat stress, more flood-related injuries, more diarrhoeal
admissions to hospitals, and greater risk for Dengue fever, but little change in malaria
transmission provided existing bio-security measures are maintained. The adverse health
impacts of climate change will be greater in lower income populations, especially the
elderly, sick and those without access to good housing including air conditioning and
adequate fresh water supply.26

Global warming has a direct effect on the spread of certain diseases. For example, an average of

624 diarrhoeal admissions is recorded among Aboriginal children at the Alice Springs hospital

each year, with a peak between March and May. A warming of 0.5-1.0oC by 2020 would lead to

a 3-5% increase in diarrhoeal admissions, while a 1.0-3.5oC warming by 2050 would lead to a 5-

18% increase.”27 As recently as 8 June 2006, there were 16 confirmed cases in the

Cairns/Mission Beach area in the latest outbreak of the disease28, which continues to afflict

Australian citizens every year. Finally, warming is also expected to increase the number of cases

of Ross River Virus, a widely distributed disease in Australia easily transmitted by several kinds

of mosquitoes that afflicts an average of 4500 Australians a year with “epidemic polyarthritis,

which consists of arthritic symptoms that persist for several months or years and can be severe

and debilitating.”29 Documented proof of health effects due to increased warming that has

26
Hennessy, K., C. Page, J. Bathols, K. McInnes, B. Pittock, R. Suppiah and K. Walsh. Climate Change in the
Northern Territory. Climate Impact Group, CSIRO Atmospheric Research, School of Earth Sciences, Melbourne
University. Melbourne: CSIRO, 2004. p10.
27
Ibid. p54.
28
“Outbreak Update.” Queensland Government. 8 June 2006. 15 June 2006.
http://www.health.qld.gov.au/dengue/outbreak_update/current.asp
29
Hennessy, K., C. Page, J. Bathols, K. McInnes, B. Pittock, R. Suppiah and K. Walsh. Climate Change in the
Northern Territory. Climate Impact Group, CSIRO Atmospheric Research, School of Earth Sciences, Melbourne
University. Melbourne: CSIRO, 2004. p54.
 Schwartzbaum 13

already occurred should be evidence enough for government to take these threats to human

health seriously.

CSIRO has identified at least four additional sector based issues affected by climate

change in the Northern Territory. These include water resources, agriculture, livestock and

fisheries, ecosystems, and settlements and infrastructure. Each of these sectors will likely be

affected in the Torres Strait Islands. Water resources may become scarcer, with greater

evaporation stressing already water-scarce areas, and salt water intrusion poses a serious threat to

freshwater systems. For Torres Strait Islanders in particular, threats to fisheries place much of

their traditional economy at serious risk. Delicate and rare ecosystems like mangrove areas and

coral reefs are particularly at risk of destruction due to rising sea levels for the former and heat

induced coral bleaching for the latter. Their destruction would seriously disturb the way of life

for many indigenous peoples who rely on these ecosystems for sustenance. Finally, increased

extreme weather events like cyclones and flooding will put a greater stress on settlements and

infrastructures. In the Torres Strait Islands, this kind of destruction has been recently experience

on several islands overwhelmed by the King’s Tide just this year.

Torres Strait Islanders themselves have already begun to notice significant changes to

their environments due to climate change. At a recent workshop entitled “Sharing Knowledge”

held in Darwin on March 29th, 2006, indigenous peoples from these islands shared their

observations and expressed concerns about the changes they are currently experiencing. Citizens

noted that water spouts have become less common since the 1970s, and that the Kings Tides that

haven’t happened since the 1940s returned in 2005-6. Seaweed distribution and quantity has

changed, as well as shifts in the range of bird life, especially on the NW mud islands. Bird

migration patterns have been reduced, while new birds are arriving on the Islands just during the
 Schwartzbaum 14

rain season, raising concerns about bird flu. Torres Strait Islanders expressed concerns that

climate change may be exacerbating problems with traditional subsistence due to over-fishing

and depletion of stocks. Islanders complained that no serious attempts have been made to deal

with sea-level rise and erosion in Torres Strait, and wondered why foreign aid is given to other

nations but not extended to the Islanders, who are Australian citizens. They also expressed

concerns that decisions made without the consultation of indigenous communities can force

unwelcome lifestyle changes upon them. They challenged Westerners to hear their worries about

the land, as well as work with natives to develop “natural protection from climate change that

doesn’t conflict with traditional ways of life.”30

Let us turn now to the Island of Saibai, one island that recently experienced near

unprecedented flooding due to resurgent Kings Tides. An exploration of this event will provide

us with a concrete example of the way in which global warming is affecting human communities

presently. Furthermore, Saibai’s past dealings with catastrophic climate events provides a

historic example for ways of dealing with overwhelming climate challenges. Ultimately, we can

use this example to draw ideas for adaptation, as well as prepare a policy that will be practical

and just in the event that these islands are permanently overtaken by the rising waves.

Part Three: Saibai

On January 27 and 28 2006, Torres Strait Islanders across the Straits panicked as a fierce

Kings Tide swept across low lying areas in many of the Islands, rising 0.3 meters above the

HAT, or Highest Astronomical Tide.31 Occurring naturally twice a year, once in the spring and

again in the summer, King tide is a common term referring to tide levels that are the highest for

30
“Sharing Knowledge.” CSIRO Marine and Atmospheric Research. 13 June 2006. 15 June 1006.
http://www.dar.csiro.au/sharingknowledge/files/environmentalobservations_tsi.pdf
31
“Fact Sheet, 2006 Kings Tide In Torres Strait.” Queensland Environmental Protection Agency. 7 March 2006. 15
June 2006. http://www.epa.qld.gov.au/publications/p01864aa.pdf/2006_King_Tides_in_Torres_Strait.pdf
 Schwartzbaum 15

the year. Usually, they reach levels near HAT, but this January, the waters reached terrifying

levels. Entire streets and homes were inundated with water, as frightened citizens scrambled to

higher ground. Photographs taken by victims of the flooding depict buses surrounded by waves

and entire homes sitting in pools of water. Islanders claim that at least 2000 Islanders are in

danger of losing their homes. On Yorke Island, the church has been threatened by sea waters

coming 100 meters inland. On Coconut Island, natives have watched more than 60 meters of

land disappear into the ocean in the past six years. And on Saibai Island, residents watched in

horror those two days in January as the sea washed through residential areas, filling bedrooms

and kitchens with salty water.32

Islanders have identified the six most vulnerable islands - Poruma, Yorke, Warraber,

Yam, Saibai and Bogui - and discussion has already begun about what to do in the event that

these islands are completely submerged in rising seas. For an idea of how such issues have been

dealt with in the past, Saibai Island remains extremely instructive. Immediately after the end of

the Second World War, overwhelming tides of unprecedented heights flooded most of the island,

instigating most of the people of Saibai Island to leave their traditional home and establish a new

settlement on the Cape York Peninsula. A native man named Bamaga Ginau lead a group of 25

people to survey land on Cape York to determine whether a land base could be established that

would meet the traditional needs of their community. In 1946, the islanders established a

temporary settlement at Muttee Heads, 48 kilometers from the top of Cape York. For four years,

this small town grew as islanders worked together to move additional families off the island.

Continued high tides began making the water supplies brackish, eventually coercing the majority

of residents to leave Saibai by 1949. Without government assistance, these determined Islanders

used their own resources and hard work to organize boats to bring citizens to the new settlement,
32
Madigan, Michael. “Rising Seas Threaten Homes.” The Courier-Mail. 5 April 2006.
 Schwartzbaum 16

and worked together to establish a livable society at the temporary site of Muttee Heads. In 1947,

the Torres Strait Islanders held elections to represent them to the Department of Native Affairs

and the government. With legitimate leadership speaking in a unified voice, the Islanders were

able to acquire land from the government that was theirs under native title. Finally, in 1950, they

made the final move to Bamaga, which remains a thriving community to this day. In a book

recently published by the Bamaga City Council to commemorate the historic move, the support

of the Australian government is called “essential for the provision of land, capital and expertise

in a range of areas. When combined with the determination of the Saibai Islanders to create their

own community, it proved to be a successful partnership.”33

We can learn much from this partnership between the government of Australia and

Torres Strait Islanders; from its great success, and also from where it fell short. On the positive

side, the migration of Torres Strait Islanders from Saibai to Bamaga, and their successful

establishment of a new settlement wholly owned and controlled by natives with the blessing of

the government, is a wonderful instance of the Settle government acknowledging the rights of

these indigenous peoples to their own land and working with them to assure that their traditional

way of life was preserved. The Department of Native Affairs listened to the concerns of the

indigenous people, allowing them to survey the land of Cape York and chose a site that would be

more appropriate for them, rather than an inappropriate area imposed upon them by bureaucrats

or politicians. Once the site was chosen, the DNA worked with the Australian government to

grant land titles to the natives, assuring the autonomy of the Saibai community despite the loss of

their traditional homeland. This cooperation set a historical precedent for communities including

Saibai itself now dealing with similar environmental concerns to those faced by Torres Strait

33
Ober, Dana, Joe Sproats and Rik Mitchell. Saibai to Bamaga: the migration from Saibia to Bamaga on the Cape
York Peninsula. Townsville: Joe Sproats & Associates, 2000.
 Schwartzbaum 17

Islander in the late 1940s. The refugees of that period were an early example of environmental

refugees, and though their movement was not motivated by climate change, they nonetheless

prove a precise example of how entire communities can be forced off their native land because of

extreme weather events. Now, with climatologists clearly linking rising sea levels to climate

change, and unprecedented flooding once again threatening the lives of hundreds, if not

thousands of Australian citizens, the government must once again meet its obligations to its

people by providing for the safe settlement of these people on Australian soil should their

traditional homes be permanently swept up in the rising seas.

We can also learn much from the limitations of the mid-century expedition, and identify

areas where government should take further steps to ensure the safety of its citizens. In the

original journey from Saibai to Bamaga, the movement was entirely locally motivated and

orchestrated. Saibai natives were forced to use their own ingenuity to scrap together vessels for

transporting families to the mainland, often in hazardous conditions that nearly resulted in

fatalities. Tales of broken masts, encounters with cyclones while sailing to the peninsula, and

decrepit boats patched together by families are a testament to the local character of this move,

and emphasize just how independent the Islanders needed to be in order to successfully complete

their mission. While the bravery and ingenuity of these natives is admirable, it also reminds us of

how dangerous and difficult a task it is to move an entire community from an island community

to a mainland settlement. In our modern world, such risks could easily mitigated with the support

of the federal and state governments, which could easily provide safe passage for Torres Strait

Islanders on military or commercial vessels should such a move be necessary, and help

coordinate a faster and more efficient journey.

 Schwartzbaum 18

Such a coordinated plan requires that the Australian government begin preparations now

for the event that water permanently renders the most vulnerable islands in the Torres Strait

Islands uninhabitable. Beyond that, strategies for adaptation must be developed to ensure that

Islanders on the more stable Islands to ensure that erosion and extreme weather events do not

devastate those communities as well.

Part Four: Solutions and Conclusions

Immediately following the recent Kings Tide, the six at risk communities finalized

applications to the State Emergency Service for disaster relief after the flood devastation.

Furthermore, in light of the destruction of Cyclone Larry, the worst cyclone on record to strike

an Australian coast since 193134, Torres Shire Mayor Pedro Stephens demanded “a centralized

disaster co-ordination plan in case islands are flooded simultaneously.”35 At the present moment,

the Australian government has no predetermined, detailed plan to deal with such a catastrophic

event. For Friends of the Earth, this is an area where determined and focused policies could make

an enormous difference for the lives of thousands of Australian citizens. Intensive lobbying by

FOE and other environmental organizations can help put the appropriate pressure on government

authorities to begin preparations in the event of such a disaster. The plight of the Torres Strait

Islanders also presents an enormous opportunity for FOE to present the issue of climate refugees

in a local context to a national audience.

The immediate focus of Friends of the Earth should be the effective implementation of

policies within the Torres Strait Islands that will assure the preservation of communities that can

be saved and the orderly and safe evacuation of communities that cannot be recovered if and

when rising seas overwhelm them. In discussions with Alan Tate from Cambiar, a business

34
Australian Bureau of Meteorology. Summary of Severe Tropical Cyclone Larry. 16 June 2006.
http://www.bom.gov.au/weather/qld/cyclone/tc_larry/
35
Madigan, Michael. “Rising Seas Threaten Homes.” The Courier-Mail. 5 April 2006.
 Schwartzbaum 19

designed to dealing with climate change and trying to get the country moving on a government

and corporate level, he identified three different areas that the government needs to move on

immediately if it is to properly address the challenges of climate change in the Strait. These areas

are Education, Adaptation, and Preparation/Evacuation.36

On the most basic level, the government needs to develop an education and

communications campaign to inform the islanders of the reality of their situation now and in the

future. A good strategy for effectively implementing this policy would be to create an indigenous

resource of people who can go into their own communities and speak the language in a way the

islanders can respect. Creating indigenous capacity and giving them resources builds on the

natural strengths of local communities, who know the most about the land and the specific ways

in which it is being affected by changes in climate. It also makes adaptation easier, as

government can work with an educated populace to decide where resources need to be spent and

for what purpose. This will increase efficiency and also assure that the process of adaptation and,

if necessary, evacuation, will be one lead by peoples within Torres Strait Island communities,

rather than imposed upon them by government officials in Canberra and the mainland Northern

Territory. A good place to begin would be the Torres Strait Regional Authority,37 a government

infrastructure already in place and designed to govern this region while preserving its unique

culture and autonomy. Working with officials from this Authority, the state and federal

government could develop an education program that would suit the specific needs of individual

island communities. Friends of the Earth should encourage the government to move forward with

such an educational scheme and establish contacts within the Torres Strait Islands that can

independently lobby for such a measure within their own communities.

36
Tate, Alan. Telephone Interview. May 2006.
37
http://www.tsra.gov.au/www/index.cfm
 Schwartzbaum 20

The second and perhaps most complex area for action is Adaptation. In Chapter four of

the important government publication Climate Change – An Australian Guide to the Science and

Potential Impacts, an analysis of the “Vulnerability of Aboriginal and Islander Communities”

ends with this statement:

The present social circumstances of indigenous peoples provide a poor basis on which to
build adaptation responses to climate change threats. Thus, policies that aim to improve
resilience to climate change impacts could encompass efforts to reduce relevant social
liabilities such as poverty, poor education, unemployment, and incarceration, and support
mechanisms that maintain cultural integrity. Adaptive strategies could pursue economic
development of these communities while sustaining the environments on which these
populations are dependent (Howitt, 1993). Strengthening communication between
indigenous communities, scientists, health workers and decision-makers is essential
(Baker et al., 2001).38

Obviously, this is a heavy burden for any one organization to take on. The position of indigenous

peoples in Australia is a complex one, with a long and troubled history. For Friends of the Earth,

strategies for adaptation need not be as ambitious as to “reduce relevant social liabilities such as

poverty, poor education, unemployment, and incarceration,” but there are small, concrete goals

which concentrated lobbying could help further. These include plans to immediately build up sea

walls defenses of the islands, and to freeze construction and make sure it fits in with impacts in

the future. FOE should also establish a policy that supports the long term management of erosion

on the cay Islands of the Torres Strait Islands. This means coming up with “credible, strategic,

costed options that are achievable and backed up by science, so that communities have a good

basis for obtaining funding for the implementation of works and procedures to address the

coastal erosion problem in a long-term and sustainable fashion.”39 FOE can help this process

along by urging members to lobby government for the implementation of specific programs and

38
Pittock, Barrie ed. Climate Change – An Australian Guide to the Science and Potential Impacts. Canberra:
Department of the Environment and Heritage, 2003. http://www.greenhouse.gov.au/science/guide/
39
Parnell, Kevin. “Management of Coastal Erosion and Inundation.” Sharing Knowledge: A Workshop on Climate
Change Impacts and Adaptation Strategies For Northern Australian Indigenous Communities. Darwin, Northern
Territory, Australia. 29-31 March 2006.
 Schwartzbaum 21

procedures that will identify areas that need reinforcing and ensuring government provides a

protocol for obtaining the necessary funding to make sure those areas are strengthened quickly.

Finally, the Australian government needs to make preparations in the event that rising

seas completely submerge Torres Strait Islands like Saibai and Coconut Island. The Primary

focus must be on logistics. Government officials must being formulating strategies now for

dealing with a large amount of refugees from these islands, with logistical plans for transporting

refugees from the islands, temporary housing, and ultimately working with indigenous

communities to determine where new settlements could be created under native title, as the

government did when confronted with a similar problem in the late 1940s in Saibai. Importantly,

any new settlement must take into account indigenous claims to land rights, and ensure there are

mechanisms to help preserve the cultural integrity of these communities as well. Without proper

planning, the Australian government is gambling with the lives of thousands of its citizens. As

we saw in Hurricane Katrina in the United States, even the world’s greatest superpower can be

humbled by catastrophic weather events, and inadequate planning is a recipe for humanitarian

disaster.

To put it bluntly, the situation of Torres Strait Islanders is one which requires more

attention and work than Friends of the Earth can provide alone. In the areas of Education,

Adaptation and Preparation/Evacuation, major efforts need to be made by members of the

government, scientific community, Torres Strait Islanders, and other sectors of Australian

society, in order to effectively meet the challenges that face Islanders in the Northern Territory. I

believe the area where FOE policy can make the greatest impact is by publicizing the plight of

the Torres Strait Islanders, and using it as an instructive example of how people across the world

can and will be affected by rising sea levels and other effects of climate change. FOE must
 Schwartzbaum 22

publicize these realities, specifically those affecting Australian citizens, and then use public

support to leverage the Australian government to adopt a unified policy that specifically lays out

the rights of climate refugees within Australia as well as acknowledging the rights of all climate

refugees across the globe.

At the present time, the United Nations definition of a refugee is woefully inadequate. In

the Convention and Protocol Relating to the Status of Refugees published by the U.N. in 1951, a

refugee is defined as

any person who… As a result of events occurring before 1 January 1951 and owing to
well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality,
membership of a particular social group or political opinion, is outside the country of his
nationality and is unable or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to avail himself of the
protection of that country; or who, not having a nationality and being outside the country
of his former habitual residence as a result of such events, is unable or, owing to such
fear, is unwilling to return to it.40

Ten years later, this definition was amended, so that “the term ‘refugee’ shall, except as regards

the application of paragraph 3 of this article, mean any person within the definition of article 1 of

the Convention as if the words ‘As a result of events occurring before 1 January 1951 and ...’

‘and the words’... ‘a result of such events’, in article 1 A (2) were omitted.”41

It has been forty five years since this protocol has been updated, and its time is long

overdue. As mentioned before, scientists have been arguing for decades that changes in climate

are forcing millions of people to leave their native lands in search of more livable climes.

Climate refugees are much like the refugee who “not having a nationality” has no home to turn

to. In the past, citizens lost their nationality as entire nations were destroyed or restructured as

the result of massive disruptions due to war. In the modern world, more states face imminent

destruction from the threats of climate change than from invasion by a foreign foe. Luckily, in

40
United Nations. General Assembly. Convention and Protocol Relating to the Status of Refugees. New York:
United Nations, 1951, 1967.
41
ibid
 Schwartzbaum 23

this issue, Friends of the Earth have common sense on their side; even a child would find it

obvious that citizens of countries totally submerged by rising water would need the aid of the

global community in providing a place of safe refuge. Therefore, lobbying the Australian

government and the United Nations to make this change in definition is essential is tens of

millions of potential climate refugees across the world are to be helped by the normal channels of

foreign aid.

In truth, the formal acknowledgement of environmental or climate refugees is much more

than a humanitarian issue; it is fundamentally tied to the important notion of environmental

justice. The argument for this is fairly straightforward. Over the past two centuries, industrialized

nations of the Global North have used and abused our global commons, the atmosphere, in order

to create and sustain their enormously consumptive habits and economies of scale. It is clearly

documented that with the rise of fossil fuel burning energy and manufacturing industries,

greenhouse gas concentrations have risen to heights unseen in at least 400,000 years, and caused

a rise in average surface temperature of nearly 0.7 degrees Celsius. While the Global North has

benefited enormously from these developments, members of the Global South (and, increasingly,

those in the North as well) have already begun to reap the ill effects of this unlicensed growth.

Nowhere is this clearer than in the South Pacific, where Islands like Tuvalu, the Catarets, and

Australia’s own Torres Strait Islands are literally going underwater. The members of the Global

North owe a Carbon Debt to the members of the Global South, who have used a disproportionate

amount of our atmosphere for their own development, and are yet reaping the worst of its costs.

It’s a simple case of distributive justice. Industrialized nations have greedily used far more than

their share of the earth’s resources, and now, as climate change destroys the homes of millions of

people the world over, it is only just and fair that those some nations make some restitution, by
 Schwartzbaum 24

acknowledging climate refugees for what they are- not poor opportunists looking to make a

quick buck in more advanced countries, but fellow human beings forced to make desperate

journeys to find the most basic of human goods: shelter and food.

It is ironic that as the world economy becomes more globalized, our environmental

struggles also begin to take on a globalized character. For it is not just Australians that must face

the challenge of climate refugees; climate change will change the lives of people on every

continent on our planet, and force tens, if not hundreds of millions of people to seek a new home.

Friends of the Earth must mobilize its membership to force the issue, and make the Australian

government acknowledge the problem in its own country, as well as around the world. It must try

to make inroads with the mainstream media, and present this as an issue of importance not just to

the radical left, but to people of every political persuasion. Democracy is a wonderful tool for

making profound change for the better, but it can only function properly if organizations like

FOE assure that the majority of Australians recognize the plight of climate refugees like the

Torres Strait Islanders. This is an issue whose time has come; it is now up to us to assert real

leadership in guaranteeing that we meet the challenges on the horizon with honesty, courage, and

commitment.