Latest news with #AnnikaHammerschlag
Al Jazeera
7 days ago
- General
- Al Jazeera
Photos: World court set to hear Vanuatu's case on climate obligations
When John Warmington first began diving the reefs outside his home in Vanuatu's Havannah Harbour 10 years ago, the coral rose like a sunken forest – tall stands of staghorns branched into yellow antlers, plate corals layered like canopies, and clouds of darting fish wove through the labyrinth. 'We used to know every inch of that reef,' he said. 'It was like a friend.' Now, it is unrecognisable. After Cyclone Pam battered the reef in 2015, sediment from inland rivers smothered the coral beds. Crown-of-thorns starfish swept in and devoured the recovering polyps. Back-to-back cyclones in 2023 crushed what remained. Then, in December 2024, a magnitude 7.3 earthquake shook the seabed. What remains is a coral graveyard – bleached rubble scattered across the seabed, habitats collapsed, and life vanished. 'We have come out of the water in tears,' said Warmington, who has logged thousands of dives on this single reef. 'We just see heartbreak.' A sea turtle nibbles on what remains of the once vibrant reef at Havannah Harbour, off the coast of Efate Island, Vanuatu [Annika Hammerschlag/AP Photo] That heartbreak is becoming more common across this Pacific island nation, where intensifying cyclones, rising seas, and saltwater intrusion are reshaping coastlines and threatening daily life. Since 1993, sea levels around Vanuatu's shores have risen by about 6mm (0.24in) per year – significantly faster than the global average – and in some areas, tectonic activity has doubled that rate. On Wednesday, Vanuatu will have its day in the world's highest court. The International Court of Justice (ICJ) will issue an advisory opinion on what legal obligations nations have to address climate change, and what consequences they may face if they do not. The case, led by Vanuatu and backed by more than 130 countries, is seen as a potential turning point in international climate law. The opinion will not be legally binding, but could help shape future efforts to hold major emitters accountable, and secure the funding and action small island nations need to adapt or survive. It comes after decades of frustration for Pacific nations that have watched their homelands disappear. In Tuvalu, where the average elevation is just two metres (6.6ft), more than a third of the population has applied for a climate migration visa to Australia. By 2100, much of the country is projected to be under water at high tide. In Nauru, the government has begun selling passports to wealthy foreigners – offering visa-free access to dozens of countries – in a bid to generate revenue for possible relocation efforts. Vanuatu has already sought opinions from other international courts, and is pushing for the recognition of ecocide – the destruction of the environment – as a crime under the International Criminal Court. Not all of these effects can be attributed solely to climate change, said Christina Shaw, chief executive of the Vanuatu Environmental Science Society. Coastal development, tectonic subsidence, volcanic eruptions, deforestation, and pollution are also contributing to ecosystem decline. Children play on Pele Island [Annika Hammerschlag/AP Photo] 'Vanuatu's environment is quite fragile by its very nature in that it is young with narrow reefs, has small amounts of topsoil, and is impacted regularly by natural disasters,' she said. 'But we do have to think about the other human impacts on our environment as well.' The damage is not limited to homes, gardens, and reefs – it is reaching into places once thought to be untouchable. On the island of Pele, village chief Amos Kalsont sits at his brother's grave as waves lap against broken headstones half-buried in sand. At high tide, both his brother's and father's graves sit just a few arm's lengths from the sea. Some homes and gardens have already been moved inland, and saltwater intrusion has tainted the community's primary drinking water source. Now, the community is considering relocating the entire village – but that would mean leaving the land their grandparents cleared by hand. Many in Vanuatu remain committed to building something stronger and hope the rest of the world will support them. Back in Havannah Harbour, John Warmington still dives the reef he considers part of his family. While much of it has gone, he and his wife Sandy have begun replanting coral fragments in the hope of restoring what remains.
Yahoo
22-07-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Vanuatu carries hopes of nations threatened by climate change to world court
The Pacific island nation of Vanuatu is living with the everyday catastrophe of climate change. On Wednesday, backed by more than 130 countries, Vanuatu will get its day in the world's highest court. (AP Video by Annika Hammerschlag. Produced by Julián Trejo Bax)
Japan Today
24-05-2025
- Japan Today
These trees exist in only one place on Earth. Now climate change and goats threaten their survival
A dragon blood's tree overlooks a natural infinity pool within Homhil Protected Area on the Yemeni island of Socotra on Sept. 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Annika Hammerschlag) By ANNIKA HAMMERSCHLAG On a windswept plateau high above the Arabian Sea, Sena Keybani cradles a sapling that barely reaches her ankle. The young plant, protected by a makeshift fence of wood and wire, is a kind of dragon's blood tree — a species found only on the Yemeni island of Socotra that is now struggling to survive intensifying threats from climate change. 'Seeing the trees die, it's like losing one of your babies,' said Keybani, whose family runs a nursery dedicated to preserving the species. Known for their mushroom-shaped canopies and the blood-red sap that courses through their wood, the trees once stood in great numbers. But increasingly severe cyclones, grazing by invasive goats, and persistent turmoil in Yemen — which is one of the world's poorest countries and beset by a decade-long civil war — have pushed the species, and the unique ecosystem it supports, toward collapse. Often compared to the Galapagos Islands, Socotra floats in splendid isolation some 240 kilometers (150 miles) off the Horn of Africa. Its biological riches — including 825 plant species, of which more than a third exist nowhere else on Earth — have earned it UNESCO World Heritage status. Among them are bottle trees, whose swollen trunks jut from rock like sculptures, and frankincense, their gnarled limbs twisting skywards. But it's the dragon's blood tree that has long captured imaginations, its otherworldly form seeming to belong more to the pages of Dr. Seuss than to any terrestrial forest. The island receives about 5,000 tourists annually, many drawn by the surreal sight of the dragon's blood forests. Visitors are required to hire local guides and stay in campsites run by Socotran families to ensure tourist dollars are distributed locally. If the trees were to disappear, the industry that sustains many islanders could vanish with them. 'With the income we receive from tourism, we live better than those on the mainland,' said Mubarak Kopi, Socotra's head of tourism. But the tree is more than a botanical curiosity: It's a pillar of Socotra's ecosystem. The umbrella-like canopies capture fog and rain, which they channel into the soil below, allowing neighboring plants to thrive in the arid climate. 'When you lose the trees, you lose everything — the soil, the water, the entire ecosystem,' said Kay Van Damme, a Belgian conservation biologist who has worked on Socotra since 1999. Without intervention, scientists like Van Damme warn these trees could disappear within a few centuries — and with them many other species. 'We've succeeded, as humans, to destroy huge amounts of nature on most of the world's islands,' he said. 'Socotra is a place where we can actually really do something. But if we don't, this one is on us.' Across the rugged expanse of Socotra's Firmihin plateau, the largest remaining dragon's blood forest unfolds against the backdrop of jagged mountains. Thousands of wide canopies balance atop slender trunks. Socotra starlings dart among the dense crowns while Egyptian vultures bank against the relentless gusts. Below, goats weave through the rocky undergrowth. The frequency of severe cyclones has increased dramatically across the Arabian Sea in recent decades, according to a 2017 study in the journal Nature Climate Change, and Socotra's dragon's blood trees are paying the price. In 2015, a devastating one-two punch of cyclones — unprecedented in their intensity — tore across the island. Centuries-old specimens, some over 500 years old, which had weathered countless previous storms, were uprooted by the thousands. The destruction continued in 2018 with yet another cyclone. As greenhouse gas emissions continue to rise, so too will the intensity of the storms, warned Hiroyuki Murakami, a climate scientist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the study's lead author. 'Climate models all over the world robustly project more favorable conditions for tropical cyclones.' But storms aren't the only threat. Unlike pine or oak trees, which grow 60 to 90 centimeters (25 to 35 inches) per year, dragon's blood trees creep along at just 2 to 3 centimeters (about 1 inch) annually. By the time they reach maturity, many have already succumbed to an insidious danger: goats. An invasive species on Socotra, free-roaming goats devour saplings before they have a chance to grow. Outside of hard-to-reach cliffs, the only place young dragon's blood trees can survive is within protected nurseries. 'The majority of forests that have been surveyed are what we call over-mature — there are no young trees, there are no seedlings,' said Alan Forrest, a biodiversity scientist at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh's Centre for Middle Eastern Plants. 'So you've got old trees coming down and dying, and there's not a lot of regeneration going on.' Keybani's family's nursery is one of several critical enclosures that keep out goats and allow saplings to grow undisturbed. 'Within those nurseries and enclosures, the reproduction and age structure of the vegetation is much better,' Forrest said. 'And therefore, it will be more resilient to climate change.' But such conservation efforts are complicated by Yemen's stalemated civil war. As the Saudi Arabia-backed, internationally recognized government battles Houthi rebels — a Shiite group backed by Iran — the conflict has spilled beyond the country's borders. Houthi attacks on Israel and commercial shipping in the Red Sea have drawn retaliation from Israeli and Western forces, further destabilizing the region. 'The Yemeni government has 99 problems right now,' said Abdulrahman Al-Eryani, an advisor with Gulf State Analytics, a Washington-based risk consulting firm. 'Policymakers are focused on stabilizing the country and ensuring essential services like electricity and water remain functional. Addressing climate issues would be a luxury.' With little national support, conservation efforts are left largely up to Socotrans. But local resources are scarce, said Sami Mubarak, an ecotourism guide on the island. Mubarak gestures toward the Keybani family nursery's slanting fence posts, strung together with flimsy wire. The enclosures only last a few years before the wind and rain break them down. Funding for sturdier nurseries with cement fence posts would go a long way, he said. 'Right now, there are only a few small environmental projects — it's not enough,' he said. 'We need the local authority and national government of Yemen to make conservation a priority.' © Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
