Tony Wheeler and Peter Bennetts: Time & Tide: The Islands of Tuvalu

By BARBARA HARRIS

On the tiny Pacific Island country of Tuvalu a person without land is known as a fakaalofa - a person deserving pity.

Pity the poor Tuvaluans then whose land, formed from nine low-lying coral atolls, is on the global warming frontline and in danger of being swallowed by the sea. Already small islets with their roads and bridges have disappeared.

In this collaborative effort with the Government of Tuvalu, Lonely Planet Publications co-founder Tony Wheeler and photographer Peter Bennetts document this fragile nation's story.

Thirty years ago scientists began warning of man-made global warming caused by greenhouse gas emissions. The estimated sea level rise in the southwest Pacific is 2mm a year.

Scientists believe that in the next 50 to 100 years rising sea levels will poison plants and kill coral reefs, making Tuvalu's 10,000 people environmental refugees.

Bennetts' regular visits to Tuvalu and contact with the late Prime Minister Ionatana Ionatana were the catalyst for this book, which aims to show that even if the troubled nation does not survive then its culture will. A culture inherited from the original settlers - Samoan, I-Kiribati, Tongan and Tokelauan.

These are a people who have endured much, from Peruvian slave traders (in the 19th century, islanders were kidnapped to work in phosphate mines) to the temporary influx of American troops who turned the main island, Funafuti, into a military base during the Second World War.

Bennetts' images are a stunning record of a vulnerable but determined people who, despite the odds, have built a viable economy.

It's important to realise their fate is also linked to ours because, after years of lobbying, our Government says if the islands become uninhabitable, New Zealand will help to accommodate some Tuvaluans.

Lonely Planet

$39.95

ISBN 1864503424 (Available December 17)