Terrifying photos show how the island completely disappeared in just five years – world news

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In the second part of the Mirror NextGen International project, two young people from the Solomon Islands interview climate activist Gladys Happo, who has witnessed the disappearance of an island due to coastal erosion.

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Gladys Happo talks about the International Mirror Project NextGen

Every year Gladys Happo traveled by boat through the turquoise waters, excited to visit her grandparents on the island of Cali. It was once home to many families and had a rich ecosystem full of life.

But due to coastal erosion, there is hardly any evidence of the island’s existence, except for a lone tree trunk sticking out of the water.

“I honestly still can’t believe it today,” says Gladys, 26. “Every time I come back, it’s as if he wasn’t there at all.

“I started documenting various observations of climatic events from a very young age, particularly the island of Cali which was the home of my grandparents.

“In 2009, I noticed that she was much younger than she was during my childhood.

Gladys crowned Miss Solomon Islands for her campaign for climate (

picture:

Andrew Burrow)

By 2014, it was completely submerged under water. There’s that stump sticking out of the ocean. It was heartbreaking.”

Watching the island disappear has prompted Gladys to sound the alarm about how the climate crisis is spreading in her country.

She was crowned Miss Solomon Islands 2019/2020 for her campaign and also received an accolade from the Queen, the Commonwealth Points of Light Award, for her work on climate change at home and around the world.

“This personal loss has propelled Kaley into my journey as an international climate advocate, and that’s why I’m doing it today, for my people and my country,” Gladys says.

In December 2009, Gladys took this photo of Kali (

picture:

Gladys Happo)

“Kale was a really big island where it was home to not only my grandparents but all these different types of flora and fauna. It had a whole ecosystem of mangroves, turtles would come and lay their eggs there, it was really beautiful.

“By 2014, we had lost Cali and four other islands in the Solomon Islands itself.”

The rate of sea level rise in the South Pacific nation is nearly three times the global average.

This is what was left of Kale when the Gladys came back in 2014 (

picture:

Gladys Happo)

And while this cannot be blamed solely on global warming, people in the Solomon Islands are feeling the effects.

“It makes us more vulnerable, especially when we have so many low-lying communities and islands,” says Gladys, who works as a pharmacist in the capital of Honiara.

These islands have many communities that still live there and don’t know where to go.

Teenagers on Solomon Island ask world leaders to tackle the climate crisis

“They struggle to move on and despite all this, they still stay and try to adapt

In different ways, but the rise in sea levels really affected not only their gardening lands, but also their water supply.

“It also destroys sites like cemeteries, which is very sad I think.” The resilient Solomon Islands people are adapting to climate change using simple and traditional methods.

The beauty queen is devastated by the loss of Kali (

picture:

Andrew Burrow)

They build houses on stilts high above the water’s surface if they cannot move and build stone walls to protect them from the sea.

“We’ve also seen communities plant mangroves to help prevent further erosion but also to encourage the mangrove ecosystem to thrive, because that’s where many rural people get their protein,” Gladys says.

“What we do is mostly very simple traditional coping methods, but I think we can certainly benefit from having access to more support and more funding to get the most out of the new technologies or approaches that are available to help our community.”

The Daily Mirror’s NextGen International project builds on the success of our UK initiative, giving young people a voice and spreading the stories that matter to them.

Now the project is global, focusing on the climate emergency and enabling young people in six countries to tell their stories of how they have been affected by the crisis.

In the first part of our series, supported by Save the Children, teenagers from the Solomon Islands in the South Pacific write about their experiences with climate change, from rising seas to hurricanes and floods destroying their homes and agriculture.

Other countries participating in the project are Afghanistan, Nigeria, Brazil, Nepal and Mongolia.

The Mirror has received funding from the European Grants for Development Journalism, with support from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

The activist wants to make clear that her citizens are not victims but combatants on the climate front lines.

She explains, “Nobody here cries every day because we wake up having to walk through really high tide or inclement weather or canoe farther than we used to to get water to drink.

“We do it because there is no other way. In that sense, I see our people as fighters and that is the spirit in which I believe everyone should fight for climate justice.

Gladys, also a UNICEF Ambassador, works with children in the Solomon Islands (

picture:

Gladys Happo).

“And I think the international community shouldn’t portray our people as victims, but rather accept where the damage started and try to correct it instead of looking at us and saying, ‘OK, but we can’t do much more because that’s where they live.'”

The issues are not unique to the Solomon Islands, where Germany suffered floods that killed 200 people last month, while deadly heat waves caused wildfires in Greece and Turkey.

devastating floods in Germany

picture:

County government Cologne/AFP via Ge)

Scientists fear that human climate disruption is already making extreme weather worse than they expected. It’s a bleak picture, but Gladys says she is encouraged and inspired by young people who are adding their voices to demand action on global warming.

“I definitely think there is hope for a better future,” she says. “I know there are a lot of young people now who are coming out, talking more about these issues.

Rather, they are making very important changes not only in society but at higher levels with governments.

Because of that, I also encourage more young people to come and join this fight with us because it is our future that we are fighting for.

“And we need to fight for it otherwise no one else will.”

To help build a better world for children affected by climate change and other crises, donate to Save the Children’s emergency fund Some names have been changed for protection purposes A tornado destroyed my home on New Year’s Eve on Solomon Island Teens ask world leaders to tackle the climate crisis.

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