On Australia's Northernmost Island, Seawall Failing, Roads Washing Away - "Island Is Being Eaten"
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Boigu elder Dennis Gibuma says the situation is worsening every season. “Our seawall is no longer any good,” he says. “When the high tide and strong winds come together, it breaks. We pray we don’t lose our homes. We don’t want to leave this place.”
Masig Island, to the south-east of Boigu, is less than three kilometres long, and just 800m across at its widest point. Also known as Yorke Island, the low-lying coral cay is steadily being lost to the waves. “The island is being eaten,” says Songhi Billy, an engineering officer on Masig. “This is a big issue. I kind of feel hopeless in a sense. Our land is part of us.
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Fisherman Joseph Billy says his community is losing land every year. “Last five year, every year, I have moved my shed back from the beach another few metres. We used to have a road that went all around the island but now it is broken. We will lose our land eventually.”
Sea levels around the world are expected to rise between 75cm and 1.5m by the end of the century, depending on greenhouse gas emissions. According to the Australian Department of Environment and Energy, a rise of just 50cm would increase the risk of flooding around Australia by 300 times – making a once a century flood likely to occur several times a year. In some areas of Australia, flooding risk would rise much more – up to 10,000 times.
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https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/jul/13/the-island-is-being-eaten-how-climate-change-is-threatening-the-torres-strait