The tiny Island nation of Tuvalu far out in the Pacific Ocean with it’s highest point on the capital, Funafuti being mere meters above sea level, is at the frontline of a world facing the threat of global warming.
Also facing the crippling problems of water shortage, erosion, a poisoned water table, minimal inhabitable and arable land as well as the myriad social and health problems associated, Tuvalu and it’s approximately 10,000 people lay at the mercy of the slowly but surely rising ocean that surrounds the various islands on the atol.
In 2011 and 2012, Dean Sewell and Andrew Quilty were sent to Tuvalu to cover stories looking at water shortage, global warming and the ‘borrow pits’ that were dug during WWII by the US Military in order to construct the runway that is still used to this day but which have left giant scars that have turned to domestic dumping grounds in Funafuti’s already scarce land.
