"Sinking" Nations: An Overview of the World's Lowest Island Countries

One thing I like to do a lot (as my family and friends can attest) is making lists and tables of information. It brings visual order to the thoughts and concepts running through my head at a given time. Even if it’s not the most exciting content, I think it is also an efficient way to organize statistical information for readers. Therefore, I have compiled a table to display relevant information on a selection of countries threatened by rising seas. However, since rising seas pose a major long-term threat to most islands and coastal regions, the focus of this post is narrowed to a more brief and manageable survey. I will focus exclusively on countries which are wholly endangered: by that, I mean sovereign island nations or dependencies that have the lowest average and maximum elevations above sea level, and therefore the most inherent vulnerability. The data displayed in the table will include the above statistics, along with other basic information on the countries in question. As a general disclaimer, this table was compiled manually in a limited span of time, and some data (see below) was difficult to find. If anyone notices an important error or omission, or can suggest a more comprehensive source for the data in question, please let me know in comments.

Since I also enjoy looking at maps, I have provided some maps for the benefit of less geographically-inclined readers. The first map shows the Pacific Ocean, where most of these countries are located, and the second shows the northern Indian Ocean.

Kiribati, the Marshalls, Tuvalu, and Tokelau are all adjacent to each other, roughly half-way between Australia and Hawaii. The Maldives, in the Indian Ocean, are southwest of India. Several facts are already apparent. None of these islands have a whole lot of land on which to live, and even less that can sustain terrestrial food sources. Readers of my previous posts will recall, also, that small and low-lying islands such as these often have little or no native freshwater supplies, since porous coral foundations allow ocean saltwater to penetrate into the island’s groundwater (while I probably should have included information on that in the table as well, it will just as easily lend itself to a future post on that particular issue). What’s more, many of these islands are geographically remote from the economic and industrial centers of power. This results in one reality which is so obvious as to be easily overlooked: several of these nations are obscure, outside the periphery of public attention in most larger countries. The Maldives, proximal to India and a relatively popular tourist destination, is possibly less encumbered by these difficulties. Indeed, the Maldives has started leveraging these factors to work toward mitigation of, or adaptation to, the damage caused by changing sea levels. This is probably just as well, since the Maldives has the highest population of the countries surveyed here. On the other hand, most people have probably never heard of the smaller and less-populated nations of Tuvalu or Tokelau before. This is perhaps the first big barrier toward a tenable resolution: how can the plight of an entire nation become a higher priority for policy-makers, when much or most of the public does not even register that country's existence?