The disappearing islands
Nature

The disappearing islands

Robert Harding

This year World Environment Day (5th June 2014) focusses on the world’s most vulnerable islands. As the climate warms and polar ice caps melt, rising sea levels are threatening these beautiful low-lying paradises. Some island populations are already having to move to higher ground, and governments are trying to buy land in other countries to migrate their citizens. Here are some of the islands whose futures hang in the balance:

Tuvalu, Pacific Ocean (age fotostock/Robert Harding)

fishing boat at Tuvalu, Pacific ocean

The Solomon Islands, South Pacific (Louise Murray/Robert Harding)

Aerial view of the Solomon Islands, Melanesia, South Pacific, Pacific

Maldives, Indian Ocean (Sakis Papadopoulos/Robert Harding)

Aerial view of desert island with seaplane, South Male atoll, Maldives, Indian Ocean, Asia

Marshall Islands, Pacific Ocean (Andre Seale/Robert Harding)

Marshallese boys smiling underwater and coconut trees lining the shore of Majikin Island, Namu atoll, Marshall Islands, Pacific

Palau, Micronesia, Western Pacific Ocean (Tony Waltham/Robert Harding)

Seventy Islands (Ngerukewid Islands Wildlife Preserve), forest-covered limestone rock, protected as a Nature Reserve, so can only be seen from the air, Palau, Micronesia, Western Pacific Ocean, Pacific

Papua New Guinea, Pacific Ocean (Michael Runkel/Robert Harding)

Young boys fishing near Samarai, the old capital, Papua New Guinea, Pacific

Fiji, Pacific Ocean (Robert Francis/Robert Harding)

Aerial view of penninsula with fringing reef near Savusavu on the south coast of Vanua Levu, Fiji

The Cook Islands, South Pacific (Robert Harding Productions)

Silhouette of palm trees and desert island at sunrise, Rarotonga, Cook Islands, South Pacific

Kiribati, Micronesia (Douglas Peebles/Robert Harding)

Christmas Island, Kiribati, Micronesia

Tonga, Pacific Ocean (Marka/Robert Harding)

oceania, tonga, archipelago of vava'u, islands

Vanuatu, Pacific Ocean (Michael Runkel/Robert Harding)

Tourist wandering along the turquoise water and white sand at the Champagne beach, Island Espiritu Santo, Vanuatu, South Pacific, Pacific

Read more about World Environment Day and the threatened islands here

error: All Images and Video is copyrighted and available to license from www.robertharding.com