Collapse the Distance: Tuvalu
FUNAFUTI, TUVALU
The first Polynesian outriggers are thought to have brought early inhabitants to the archipelago that is now Tuvalu some 3,000 years ago. Sustained by an intimate knowledge of the sea, and by the harvest of fish and coconut, Tuvaluans have lived a life of relative abundance on these atolls of thousands of years.
But all that's changing. A low-lying island nation, Tuvalu sits on average just two meters above sea level. Because of Tuvalu's small land mass and vulnerability to rising sea levels, it has been identified by the United Nations as the country most at risk of losing sovereignty due to climate change. Now faced with rising sea levels and a warming climate, a younger generation of Tuvaluans will be forced to consider the possibility of another migration. It's not a migration of their own choosing; but rather, it has been made necessary due to changes in our climate that are rendering their lands increasingly dangerous and difficult to inhabit.
The above photographs show Tuvaluan children playing in the ingredients of climate adaptation infrastructure on Funafuti, the capital island. They leap from artificial mounds of sand, which have been dredged from the lagoon to build up the island's landmass, and plunge into the frothing, rising tides.
Photographs: Forest Woodward