I can see evidence of climate change.
The water has moved up and taken away all the coconut trees and damaged ancestral burial grounds in Nasoki.
All the coconut trees have fallen down and the tide has eaten up the land. The burial ground has been eroded by the high tide.
Once, we saw skulls. So we buried them [in another area]. But the tide is eroding it again.
In the past, the waves [didn’t] come up to that place, but now we see that it reaches our grave, the plants have been uprooted.
This is evidence of the effects of climate change that are coming. This has been discussed widely in Fiji.
When we experience a cyclone, and when we have tidal waves, it really affects our beaches.
In the past, cyclones occur, maybe, once a year. In some years, we do not experience any cyclones at all. For example, Cyclone Winston [2016] did not do much damage to our land. But what we are worried about is that within the last two or three years, the cyclones have brought tidal waves to our land, uprooting plants and destroying our beaches.
Tevita Bula says he has seen the waves reach the upper-parts of the beach. This never happened when he was a child. Source: Dateline
We are worried about is how fast the waves are reaching the upper parts of our beaches.
I believe that the climate has really changed because when I was growing up, the water only reached the lower part of the beach. Now, it has reached this upperparts. That is a big distance – it has eroded the places where the forest starts, where the houses stand at this time.
To all Australians – those that do not believe in climate change, for me, I have evidence of this phenomenon. Climate change is real, because of where the waves have reached. When I was young, this place is always clean, but now the trees are uprooted.
I can see evidence that climate change is real, it’s causing a lot of damage to our land.
If I meet Scott Morrison, I will tell him that climate change is real.
As told to Will Reid, translated by Tepola Raicebe
