It took climate change to bring the dead back. Rising sea levels of the Pacific Ocean washed ashore skeletons of 26 soldiers who were killed in the Marshall Islands during World War II.
Marshall Islands’ Minister of Foreign Affairs Tony de Brum reveals the skeletons, most likely of Japanese soldiers, were recovered on the isle of Santo.
“There are coffins and dead people being washed away from graves; it’s that serious,” de Brum says to reporters gathered during the United Nations climate talks in Bonn, Germany, on June 6.
He also does not discount the possibility that there could be more skeletons found.
"These last spring tides in February to April this year have caused not just inundation and flooding of communities but have also undermined regular land, so that even the dead are affected," says de Brum.
He reveals they have requested the assistance of the U.S. Navy in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, to identify where these skeletons could be from as well as to assist in repatriation efforts.
There were no indications of broken bones or of war wounds on these recovered skeletons, however. He emphasizes deaths may have been from suicide. Japanese forces occupied the Marshall Islands before the U.S. forces drove them out during World War II.
In the following years, the islands were subjected to dozens of tests of nuclear weapons. Besides human skeletons, undischarged bombs and other military equipment were, in fact, also washed aground recently.
The Marshall Islands make up a remote archipelago between the Philippines and Hawaii. They are among the most vulnerable areas to sea level changes, with the islands sitting only 2 meters, or 6.5 feet, above the water. Changes in the currents and winds in the Pacific mean the sea levels in this region have climbed faster than the recorded world average since the '90s.
The latest report (pdf) from the United Nations Environment Programme, “Emerging Issues for Small Island Developing States,” also shows that the rising sea level in the Pacific region, especially around the Marshall Islands, was recorded to be at a greater rate than anywhere else in the world. Recorded rate of sea level rise was 12 millimeters (.47 inch) annually between the years 1993 and 2009, as opposed to the global average of only 3.2 millimeters (.13 inch).
According to scientists studying climate change, global warming has been causing the sea levels around the world to rise by about 19 centimeters or about 8 inches in the past century, which in turn has intensified the impact of high tides and storm surges. Ice caps and glaciers are also melting and water is expanding as it warms.
De Brum also said during the meeting that the rising tides have been pushing salt water onto the land, which often destroys harvests and vegetation.
The U.N. climate change meeting in Bonn gathered 170 nations. If there’s any good the recent meeting brought, de Brum says it's that most of the nations have slowly comprehended the magnitude of environmental threats facing these island states.
"We think they are (getting the message) but not quickly enough to climate-poof some of our more vulnerable communities," he says.
