Rising seas blamed as flooding hits Pacific islands
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Low-lying Pacific islands are among the worst affected by climate change, with some at risk of being completely submerged by rising seas.
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The landscape of Palau (VCG)
Storms and tidal surges caused widespread flooding in the South Pacific on Wednesday, with rising seas caused by climate change blamed for the deluge.
Flooding was reported in the Marshall Islands, Solomon Islands, and the Federated States of Micronesia, with reports that remote parts of Vanuatu were also affected.
President David Panuelo said in a statement that "(the) government of the Federated States of Micronesia has been made aware of extensive saltwater inundation across the nation's islands as a result of ongoing king tides and storm surges."
"The government has received numerous requests from citizens asking for support."
On his account, climate researcher Murray Ford attributed the flooding in the Marshalls to a combination of bad weather, high tides, a La Nina weather pattern, and a long-term rise in sea levels, widely linked to global warming.
"An event like this would have been relatively innocuous in the 1990s, but the sea level is notably higher today than back then," the Auckland University academic told AFP.
Low-lying Pacific islands are among the worst affected by climate change, with some at risk of being completely submerged by rising seas.
The islands are also threatened by increasingly powerful cyclones, and droughts and flooding are becoming more common throughout the region as weather patterns shift from extreme to extreme.
