October 18, 5.00am AS WATER RISES THERES NO PLACE LIKE HOME By KERRI MACDONALD ON CLIMATE CHANGE Amelia Holowaty Krales had been anxious the morning she photographed a boy in pink shorts floating in a shallow pool of coastal water, eyes closed, toes pointed up.It was the “king tide” in Tuvalu, a small archipelago in the South Pacific that is threatened by rising sea levels. But child’s debonair attitude — he appears to be soaking up the water and the land around him — stopped her. It was a moment she had set out to document: daily life on a disappearing island. “It was such a heavy day for me,” she said. “This was the season I’d been prepared for.” Hours later, the area flooded. ENERGY AND ENVIRONMENT Ms. Holowaty Krales spent 10 months in Tuvalu on a Fulbright grant. She had never been there when she proposed the project, but she was intrigued by the story. Tuvalu consists of nine coral atolls. It’s about one-tenth the size of Washington, with a population of approximately 11,000. When she arrived in October 2010, she was immediately welcomed. Before taking pictures, she spent time getting to know the tight-knit, religious Tuvaluans, many of whom speak English. “There was a lot of talk about climate change through a biblical context,” Ms. Holowaty Krales said. There was a lot of talk about climate change in general. Yet it was hard to envision a moving portrayal of something that has yet to happen. “I was trying to figure out how, in everyday life, people were affected,” Ms. Holowaty Krales said. She soon learned. A farmer who has been tending the same plot of land for decades told her that it is getting hotter, drier and harder to grow crops. (Tuvalu is rich with banana, papaya, pulaka, taro and coconut.) The coast is eroding. During high tide, salty water bubbles up through the ground, into croplands. Water is not potable, not even in the capital city, Funafuti. Fishing and weather patterns are changing. “The traditional wet season was basically a drought the whole time I was there,” Ms. Holowaty Krales said. “The normal patterns are not as reliable as they used to be.” Ms. Holowaty Krales, who received a master’s in photojournalism from Ohio University and lives in Brooklyn, tried to capture the intense attachment people feel for their tiny nation. Peeking through a cross on cement wall on a quiet Sunday evening, she caught a woman in white, palms extended to her sides. “It was just wonderful to be there,” said Ms. Holowaty Krales, “and feel this stillness of being there.” Although it’s hard to say when the ocean will bury Tuvalu, the government, which has been vocal in climate talks, believes that Tuvaluans will need to leave in less than 50 years. For them — and for now — Tuvalu is home. “People are concerned,” Ms. Holowaty Krales said. “A lot of people have said to me that they will leave when they have to but they don’t want to leave ahead of the necessity.” Amelia Holowaty Krales Researchers testing the quality of flooded water outside a community meeting place in Funafuti, the capital of Tuvalu. Jan. 20, 2011. On Tuesday morning, Green, the energy and environment blog of The Times, features a first-person account by Ms. Holowaty Krales, along with a look at a recent report about climate change concerns in Tuvalu.
Posted on: Thu, 11 Sep 2014 06:50:46 +0000
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