Rising sea levels have washed the remains of at least 26 Japanese World War II soldiers from their graves on a low-lying Pacific archipelago, the foreign minister of the Marshall Islands said on Friday.
“There are coffins and dead people being washed away from graves. It’s that serious,” Marshall Islands Minister of Foreign Affairs Tony de Brum told reporters on the sidelines of UN climate change talks in Germany.
Putting the blame on climate change, which threatens the existence of the islands that are only 2m above sea level at their highest, De Brum said: “Even the dead are affected.”
Twenty-six skeletons have been found on Santo Island after high tides battered the archipelago from February to April, he said, adding that more may be found.
Unexploded bombs and other military equipment have also washed up in recent months.
“We think they are Japanese soldiers,” De Brum said. “We had the exhumed skeletons sampled by the US Navy in Pearl Harbor [in Hawaii] and they helped identify where they are from, to assist in the repatriation efforts.”
Climate scientists say global warming has raised average world sea levels by about 19cm in the past century, aggravating the impact of storm surges and tides.
Glaciers and ice caps are melting and water also expands as it warms.
A UN study on Thursday said that changes in Pacific winds and currents meant sea levels in the region had risen faster than the world average since the 1990s.
He said that many of the 170 nations meeting in Bonn were slowly understanding the extent of threats faced by island states.
Rising tides wash salt water onto the land, often ruining vegetation and crops such as breadfruit and coconuts.
“We think they are [getting the message], but not quickly enough to climate-proof some of our more vulnerable communities,” De Brum said.
Measures include raising homes on stilts, rebuilding roads and docks, and even abandoning some atolls.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese
RIVER TRAGEDY: Local fishers and residents helped rescue people after the vessel capsized, while motorbike taxis evacuated some of the injured At least 58 people going to a funeral died after their overloaded river boat capsized in the Central African Republic’s (CAR) capital, Bangui, the head of civil protection said on Saturday. “We were able to extract 58 lifeless bodies,” Thomas Djimasse told Radio Guira. “We don’t know the total number of people who are underwater. According to witnesses and videos on social media, the wooden boat was carrying more than 300 people — some standing and others perched on wooden structures — when it sank on the Mpoko River on Friday. The vessel was heading to the funeral of a village chief in