Latest news with #MarshallIslands
RNZ News
8 hours ago
- Health
- RNZ News
Marshall Islands nuclear legacy: report highlights lack of health research
Half of the Marshall Islands' 50,000-strong population live in the capital city of Majuro. Photo: Public domain A new report on the United States nuclear weapons testing legacy in the Marshall Islands highlights the lack of studies into important health concerns voiced by Marshallese for decades that make it impossible to have a clear understanding of the impacts of the 67 nuclear weapons tests. 'The Legacy of US Nuclear Testing in the Marshall Islands,' a report by Dr. Arjun Makhijani of the Institute for Energy and Environmental Research, was released late last month. The report was funded by Greenpeace Germany and is an outgrowth of the organization's flagship vessel, Rainbow Warrior III, visiting the Marshall Islands from March to April to recognize the 40th anniversary of the resettlement of the nuclear test-affected population of Rongelap Atoll. Dr Mahkijani said among the "many troubling aspects" of the legacy is that the United States had concluded, in 1948, after three tests, that the Marshall Islands was not 'a suitable site for atomic experiments' because it did not meet the required meteorological criteria. "Yet testing went on," he said. "Also notable has been the lack of systematic scientific attention to the accounts by many Marshallese of severe malformations and other adverse pregnancy outcomes like stillbirths. This was despite the documented fallout throughout the country and the fact that the potential for fallout to cause major birth defects has been known since the 1950s." Makhijani highlights the point that, despite early documentation in the immediate aftermath of the 1954 Bravo hydrogen bomb test and numerous anecdotal reports from Marshallese women about miscarriages and still births, US government medical officials in charge of managing the nuclear test-related medical program in the Marshall Islands never systematically studied birth anomalies. The US deputy secretary of state in the Biden-Harris administration, Kurt Cambell, said that Washington, over decades, had committed billions of dollars to the damages and the rebuilding of the Marshall Islands. "I think we understand that that history carries a heavy burden, and we are doing what we can to support the people in the [Compact of Free Association] states, including the Marshall Islands," he told reporters at the Pacific Islands Forum leaders' meeting in Nuku'alofa last year. "This is not a legacy that we seek to avoid. We have attempted to address it constructively with massive resources and a sustained commitment." Among points outlined in the new report: Gamma radiation levels at Majuro, the capital of the Marshall Islands, officially considered a "very low exposure" atoll, were tens of times, and up to 300 times, more than background in the immediate aftermaths of the thermonuclear tests in the Castle series at Bikini Atoll in 1954. Thyroid doses in the so-called "low exposure atolls" averaged 270 milligray (mGy), 60 percent more than the 50,000 people of Pripyat near Chernobyl who were evacuated (170 mGy) after the 1986 accident there, and roughly double the average thyroid exposures in the most exposed counties in the United States due to testing at the Nevada Test Site. Women from the nuclear test-affected Rongelap Atoll greeted the Rainbow Warrior and its crew with songs and dances as part of celebrating the 40th anniversary of the evacuation of Rongelap Atoll in 1985 by the Rainbow Warrior. Photo: RNZ Pacific / Giff Johnson Despite this, "only a small fraction of the population has been officially recognized as exposed enough for screening and medical attention; even that came with its own downsides, including people being treated as experimental subjects," the report said. "In interviews and one 1980s country-wide survey, women have reported many adverse pregnancy outcomes," said the report. "They include stillbirths, a baby with part of the skull missing and 'the brain and the spinal cord fully exposed,' and a two-headed baby. Many of the babies with major birth defects died shortly after birth. "Some who lived suffered very difficult lives, as did their families. Despite extensive personal testimony, no systematic country-wide scientific study of a possible relationship of adverse pregnancy outcomes to nuclear testing has been done. It is to be noted that awareness among US scientists of the potential for major birth defects due to radioactive fallout goes back to the 1950s. Hiroshima-Nagasaki survivor data has also provided evidence for this problem. "The occurrence of stillbirths and major birth defects due to nuclear testing fallout in the Marshall Islands is scientifically plausible but no definitive statement is possible at the present time," the report concluded. "The nuclear tests in the Marshall Islands created a vast amount of fission products, including radioactive isotopes that cross the placenta, such as iodine-131 and tritium. Radiation exposure in the first trimester can cause early failed pregnancies, severe neurological damage, and other major birth defects. This makes it plausible that radiation exposure may have caused the kinds of adverse pregnancy outcomes that were experienced and reported. However, no definitive statement is possible in the absence of a detailed scientific assessment." Scientists who traveled with the Rainbow Warrior III on its two-month visit to the Marshall Islands earlier this year collected samples from Enewetak, Bikini, Rongelap and other atolls for scientific study and evaluation.
RNZ News
5 days ago
- Politics
- RNZ News
These Pacific Islands are building walls to stop rising seas. Will it work?
By Doug Dingwall and Adel Fruean , ABC News A seawall under construction at Ebeye in Marshall Islands. Photo: Supplied: Hall Contracting The sea used to wreak havoc as it crashed into Simeona Tapeneko's village in Samoa. Water would flood the houses in Lauli'i, on the north coast of the country's most populated island, overwhelming an old seawall built offshore. "Many things - including our homes - were severely damaged," Tapeneko said. "The waves also destroyed the graves of deceased family members." When builders laid the last rock of a new seawall there in May, ending six months of construction, Lauli'i breathed a collective sigh of relief. Tapeneko said the $1.9 million wall, funded by the New Zealand government, would protect the homes from storm surges. "Families are happy and feel secure with its height," he said. Simeona Tapeneko has seen rising sea levels damage his village. Photo: ABC News / Adel Fruean It's one of many Pacific Island communities building seawalls to defend themselves against rising sea levels. One of Marshall Islands' most populated islands, Ebeye, is buttressing its coast with a wall of rock shipped from Dubai and funded by the World Bank and Green Climate Fund. New seawalls also protect low-lying atolls in Tuvalu, and more will appear in Kiribati, Tonga, Solomon Islands, Fiji and other island nations, many with funding from the Australian government and international development organisations. They're a source of hope for countries grappling with sea level rise - which scientists say will continue even if the world limits global temperature rises to 1.5C above pre-industrial times. Coastal engineers say places like the Netherlands have long used engineering to hold back the sea from low-lying lands - and that the Pacific could do the same. But researchers in climate change adaptation say seawalls are usually a costly, short-term fix in a region with limited money. "A seawall along an eroding coastline is really only a stopgap measure, because we know that [sea level rise] is projected to continue well beyond the end of this century, perhaps by about another 200 or 300 years," Patrick Nunn, a University of Sunshine Coast climate scientist, said. Lauli'i residents feel safer now the village has a new seawall. Photo: ABC News / Adel Fruean Not far from the shores of Lauli'i, its old seawall sits mostly submerged in water. Leota Vaimauga, a village chief, estimates it lasted for 10-15 years before it was overwhelmed by the sea. And while he's relieved the village has a new seawall, he expects Lauli'i will need to replace it in another decade, depending on the weather and the stability of the new barrier. Climate adaptation researchers say seawalls have a clear downside that makes them hard to sustain in rural areas. "You have to keep elevating them, have to keep extending them, and so they're very economically costly," Jon Barnett, a climate adaptation researcher at the University of Melbourne, said. "They're an all-or-nothing strategy that really needs to be considered well in advance and thought through." Most seawalls in rural coastal areas are funded and built by local communities, and have been too expensive to maintain, researchers say. Professor Nunn calculates that on average, the structures will collapse after 18 to 24 months. Photo: Supplied / Hall Contracting A study he co-authored in 2021 describes the Pacific's rural coastlines as "littered with the remains of collapsed seawalls". Climate adaptation researchers also say seawalls have side effects, like diverting erosion to other parts of the coast, forcing waves to scour the seafloor at their seaward side, and pooling water on their landward side. Professor Nunn said rural villages in the Pacific's higher volcanic islands could better use the labour and resources spent on seawalls on a longer-term solution - relocating further inland and upslope. But he said seawalls can offer important psychological benefits for communities losing land to rising seas. They also provide time for them to consider whether to relocate, researchers and coastal engineers say. It's something Queensland University of Technology climate change adaptation researcher, Annah Piggott-McKellar, observed in one Fiji village that relocated after building a series of seawalls. "Land is… a way of life. It's a part of who people are," she said. "So trying everything that's possible before making that decision to move is important." But Dr Piggott-McKellar said there was also a risk that seawalls give false hope. "Having that realistic conversation and understanding of what a seawall might be there to do is going to be important." Leota Vaimauga says Lauli'i's old seawall no longer protects the village. Photo: ABC News / Adel Fruean For the Pacific's low-lying atolls, new seawalls come with fanfare. In Marshall Islands, 65,000 tonnes of rock shipped from the United Arab Emirates will form a new 1.81 kilometre barrier on the seaward side of Ebeye island. Hall Contracting, which is building the multi-million-dollar seawall, said it was due to be completed by December. "The houses in Ebeye are built right up against the ocean … in large storm events those houses can be affected," company chief executive and director Cameron Hall said. "This seawall will protect them." Hall said seawalls have an important role to play for Pacific Island nations as sea levels rise. "Civil engineering is a powerful thing. In my opinion, there's no reason why [it] should be confined to developed countries," he said. "It's a problem that developed nations have created … and if there's an engineering solution, why wouldn't we do it for them?" The work is logistically challenging, requiring builders to move machinery to remote atolls, and source material for the seawalls. In Tuvalu, Hall Contracting dredged sand from the lagoon by the capital Funafuti to build seven hectares of new or "reclaimed" land protected by a seawall of sandbags. It also constructed a seawall of interlinked hexagonal concrete blocks along part of the coast at Nanumea, another Tuvalu atoll. It's all part of Tuvalu's coastal adaptation project, funded by the Tuvaluan and Australian governments and the Green Climate Fund, aiming to keep the nation inhabitable. But a group of Nanumeans is championing a proposal to save their home for the longer-term. Local engineer Truman Lomi has worked on a concept for the Nanumea Salvation Seawall Project for years. It involves building a barrier around the entire island - rather than just a section. He said the barrier would protect the entire coast from large, powerful waves. For now, it requires funding for a feasibility study. The Ebeye seawall will protect the island using rocks from a large quarry in the UAE. Photo: Supplied: Hall Contracting His granddaughter Ashleigh Chatelier, a member of the Nanumea Salvation Seawall group, said the project also carried a message about Tuvalu's ability to adapt to climate change. "We're not helpless. We are resilient, we have the skill set, we have the tools," she said. "Unfortunately, we are restricted in terms of the funding of this project, but the reality is that this is a community-led resilience project and it essentially has come from the roots of Nanumea." Countries have long used engineering to protect, or reclaim, land from the sea. In the Netherlands, dams and dykes keep vast, low-lying areas from flooding. The Maldives, in the Indian Ocean, has reclaimed land from rising seas, although at huge financial and environmental costs. "An engineering solution is possible," Francois Flocard, coastal engineer at the University of New South Wales' Water Research Laboratory, said. "It's [about] understanding, as a community and as a society, where does it make sense to be applied?" Professor Barnett says there are other options for communities where seawalls are too costly to build and maintain. One is to try restoring and conserving ecosystems in a way that lets islands respond naturally to sea level rise. "That doesn't mean they're going to be easy to live on," he said. "Shorelines are going to change, the topography of islands is going to change. Some bits are going to erode, some bits are going to grow. "But the adaptation options there are probably much cheaper." Reclaimed land at Tuvalu's capital, Funafuti. Photo: Supplied: Hall Contracting The massive Afsluitdijk is more than 32 kilometres long and has protected the Netherlands for 90 years. Photo: SANDER KONING / KONING PHOTOGRAP / AFP Some Pacific Island nations are also creating nature-based barriers, using mangroves, sloping rock walls and vetiver grass to block rising seas. In some ways, Professor Barnett said, all action is good action compared to the paralysis on climate change adaptation in some countries. Leaders in countries like Tuvalu are being told there is only decades until their nations are uninhabitable, he said. "There's no rule book. No country's ever had to face this problem before. Now, what do you do?" Professor Barnett said. "You've got to protect the capital. You have to have an airport. You have to have a hospital. You have to have schools. "It seems perfectly reasonable to engage in the kinds of urban defensive strategies." -ABC
The Guardian
7 days ago
- Business
- The Guardian
Rolls-Royce and feather crown among King Charles's coronation gifts
King Charles received coronation gifts ranging from a luxury Rolls-Royce to a feather crown and two hand-woven coconut leaf hats, according to an official register. The Rolls-Royce Cullinan Series II, thought to be worth at least £300,000, was given by the king of Bahrain, Hamad bin Isa al-Khalifa. As an official gift to Charles as head of state, the car will become part of the Royal Mews to be used on official occasions and not private use, sources indicated. The Bahraini king also handed over a decorative clock. The feather crown was a present from Amazonian Indigenous leaders, and the traditional South Pacific coconut leaf hats were from the president of the Marshall Islands. There were plenty of trees, too, from tree saplings given by the Swedish royal family to a Tirolean pine tree from the Austrian president. Other coronation gifts included a table with decorative drawer and a model ship from the emir of Kuwait; a decorative pot from the sultan of Brunei; and from the then US president, Joe Biden, a leather folder containing printed letters between Queen Elizabeth II and President Eisenhower inviting him to the UK, with a photograph of the visit. The late Queen Elizabeth received a trio of brooches among other gifts for her platinum jubilee; a white gold, platinum and diamond brooch from the Goldsmiths' Company, a diamond and platinum brooch from the Freemasons, and a platinum pearl and diamond brooch from the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic. The jewellery will become part of the royal collection and may be worn by other members of the royal family. Two lamp-posts outside the Houses of Parliament in the form of bronze sculptures of heraldic beasts were presented by both houses for the jubilee. China's president, Xi Jinping, sent a large cloisonné ornament in the design of a zun, a wine vessel used in ancient Chinese rituals, with motifs and patterns symbolising royalty and good fortune. The Royal Australian Air Force in 2021 sent the queen a practical gift of six dog jackets of varying sizes. Joe and Jill Biden, on the occasion of having tea at Windsor Castle, contributed an engraved specially commissioned Tiffany sterling silver box and a floral brooch. Gifts received by Queen Camilla included lapis lazuli gemstones from the former president of Afghanistan Hamid Karzai, and a brooch from the crown prince of Kuwait. This is the first official gifts register to be published in the king's reign and dates back to 2020. Normally the list is published on the royal family website annually, but the Covid pandemic, the death of the late queen, and the coronation led to delays. Gifts cannot be sold or exchanged and eventually become part of the royal collection, which is held in trust for successors and the nation.
Al Jazeera
28-05-2025
- Business
- Al Jazeera
Fight for the Pacific – Episode 2: Fallout Zone
In Fallout Zone, we explore the intensifying geopolitical tensions between the United States and China in the South Pacific and expose the region's ever-growing strategic importance. We travel to Hawaii, where a significant US military presence has had far-reaching implications not only on the region's environment but also on Indigenous communities of Hawaii. The US presence has increased the cost of living to such a point that many of the state's native people struggle to make a living. Tia Marie Masaniai, a Hawaiian activist, embarks on a journey to her ancestral homeland and explains why most locals reject the very notion of Hawaii being a US state. The legacy of US nuclear testing has always been under scrutiny. In the Pacific idyll of the Marshall Islands, we meet Mina Titus, who tells us of the lasting impact of US actions in her homeland – and while there is little visible evidence of the nuclear testing today, the long-lasting health implications linger on. We conclude in Kaitoke Aotearoa, the Maori name for New Zealand, where Indigenous communities are implementing methods of food sovereignty. By producing and growing their food, they aim to rely less on imports, move to a more sustainable and healthy way of life, and reclaim land that was once colonised. Fight for the Pacific, a four-part series, showcases the Pacific's critical transformation into a battleground of global power. This series captures the high-stakes rivalry between the US and China as they vie for dominance in a region pivotal to global stability. The series frames the Pacific not just as a battleground for superpowers but also as a region with its unique challenges and aspirations.
Fox News
22-05-2025
- Politics
- Fox News
US tests launch of nuclear-capable ICBM Minuteman III in show of force
Print Close By Stephen Sorace Published May 22, 2025 The U.S. Air Force conducted a routine launch of an unarmed intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) that is capable of carrying a nuclear warhead on Wednesday morning, the military said. The LGM-30G Minuteman III missile was launched from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California at 12:01 a.m. Pacific Time, the Air Force said. The unarmed missile, equipped with a single Mark-21 High Fidelity Re-Entry Vehicle, traveled 15,000 mph to a test range near the Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands, located about 4,200 miles from the launch site, the military said. "This ICBM test launch underscores the strength of the nation's nuclear deterrent and the readiness of the ICBM leg of the triad," Gen. Thomas Bussiere, commander of Air Force Global Strike Command, said in a statement. TRUMP UNVEILS 'GOLDEN DOME' MISSILE SHIELD, BLINDSIDES KEY SENATORS The "triad" refers to the three different types of nuclear weapons delivery systems that the U.S. military can use to launch nuclear attacks. The systems are land-based ICBMs, submarine-launched ballistic missiles and nuclear-capable strategic bombers. The Air Force said the test was routine and "not a response to current world events," adding that more than 300 similar tests have been conducted in the past. IRAN'S KHAMENEI SAYS AMERICANS SHOULD AVOID TALKING 'NONSENSE' IN NUKE TALKS "This test launch is part of routine and periodic activities designed to demonstrate that the United States' nuclear deterrent remains safe, secure, reliable and effective in deterring 21st-century threats and reassuring our allies," the Air Force said. The Minuteman weapon system is a program that first became operational in the early 1970s, and has received enhancements over the course of nearly 60 years, the military said. CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP The Air Force now plans to replace the aging Minuteman with the modernized Sentinel system. Print Close URL
