{"id":366083,"date":"2025-02-14T16:25:09","date_gmt":"2025-02-14T15:25:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=366083"},"modified":"2025-02-14T16:25:10","modified_gmt":"2025-02-14T15:25:10","slug":"no-bbc-a-small-panamanian-island-is-not-drowning-due-to-climate-change","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=366083","title":{"rendered":"No, BBC, a Small Panamanian Island is Not Drowning Due to Climate Change"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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From ClimateRealism<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n


By Anthony Watts<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The BBC\u2019s recent article \u201cClimate change: The Panama community that fled its drowning island<\/strong><\/a>,\u201d claims that the island of Cart\u00ed Sugdupu in Panama is being swallowed by rising sea levels due to climate change. This is false. The reality is that the island\u2019s inhabitants are not being forced to relocate because of rising oceans, but due to overcrowding, poor infrastructure, and a lack of resources\u2014issues that have nothing to do with climate change. Furthermore, real-world examples and peer-reviewed research contradict the idea that small islands are disappearing due to rising seas. Instead, many islands are growing, adapting, and naturally shifting over time. The BBC\u2019s report is misleading at best, deliberately deceptive at worst.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cart\u00ed Sugdupu is one of Panama\u2019s San Blas Islands, home to the indigenous Guna people. The BBC\u2019s article, painting a picture of climate-induced displacement, completely ignores the fact that the island is severely overcrowded, with more than 1,000 people packed into a tiny space of just 0.028 square miles. That\u2019s a population density higher than New York City! The primary reason the residents are moving is not rising sea levels, but poor living conditions, lack of fresh water, and a shortage of space\u2014issues that have been pressing for decades.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Instead of addressing these fundamental concerns, the BBC presents the relocation as a direct result of climate change, despite the absence of evidence that rising seas are responsible. The sea level around Panama has been rising at an average of about 1 to 3 mm per year, a rate consistent with natural post-Little Ice Age trends, a rate that has not increased during the recent period of climate change. As such, there is no indication of an impending climate catastrophe as described in Climate at a Glance<\/em><\/a>. At this pace, it would take centuries before Cart\u00ed Sugdupu would face submersion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some new islands are even emerging. For example in the article San Blas Reborn: New Islands Emerge Amidst Climate Change Hysteria<\/strong><\/a> it has been reported:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Off the coast of Maoqui in the Dutch Cays, a new island is gradually taking shape. What started as a mere speck of land, approximately 5 meters by 8 meters, has grown over the past decade to a remarkable 40 meters by 80 meters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The BBC article implies that small islands like Cart\u00ed Sugdupu are being swallowed by the ocean, yet fails to mention peer-reviewed research demonstrating that most islands are stable or even expanding. A 2018 study published in Nature Communications<\/em> examined 101 Pacific and Indian Ocean islands and found that 88 percent were either stable or increasing in size (Kench, Ford, and Owen, 2018)<\/a>. The processes that shape islands\u2014sediment accumulation, reef growth, and dynamic land movement\u2014mean that atolls and low-lying islands are not passive victims of sea level rise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tuvalu is a perfect example. Despite years of claims that the country would disappear, its total land area has actually grown by 2.9 percent over four decades. Similar observations have been made for islands in Kiribati, the Maldives, and the Marshall Islands. If these islands are growing or maintaining their size despite sea level rise, why would Cart\u00ed Sugdupu be uniquely doomed? The BBC refuses to acknowledge this inconvenient reality.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The real reason for the relocation of Cart\u00ed Sugdupu\u2019s residents has nothing to do with climate change. Instead, it comes down to basic infrastructure challenges:<\/p>\n\n\n\n