Tuvalu Hopes Metaverse Will Help It Survive Climate Change
While the rest of the world pumps out carbon emissions, it’s the tiny Pacific nation of Tuvalu that pay the price. As sea levels rise, it’s facing a question of survival. So it’s now trying to create a backup nation. Louise Watt reports from Tuvalu’s capital Funafuti.
Transcript
00:00 28-year-old construction manager Angela Tofulor is constantly worried about the health of
00:05 her daughters.
00:06 They live in Tuvalu, one of the lowest-lying countries on earth.
00:11 And the road in front of their home is regularly flooded with dirty water - a result of seawater
00:17 bubbling up through the porous ground.
00:21 Sometimes it goes right up and then it floods inside the church, sometimes it reaches the
00:27 house and also the preschool.
00:29 And there's little she can do to stop it.
00:35 In the years to come, Tofulor and her family could lose not just their house and their
00:39 neighbourhood but their entire country.
00:43 Tuvalu, with a population of less than 12,000, is one of the world's smallest nations - just
00:50 26 square kilometres across its nine atolls.
00:54 And waves are eroding its coast.
00:57 This concrete base of a World War II anti-aircraft gun used to stand on land.
01:03 Now it's about 20 metres from shore, showing how sea levels have already risen.
01:08 Scientists estimate that the whole of Tuvalu could be submerged by the end of the century.
01:14 And so the government is trying to address that by creating a digital copy of the country,
01:20 meaning it would be the first nation to exist in the metaverse.
01:25 Tuvalu has already used land survey data and drone footage to create a virtual copy of
01:31 its smallest island.
01:33 And despite difficulties with internet connectivity, it now wants to bring it to digital life.
01:40 We're looking at not just recording, digitising our culture and our history, but presenting
01:45 it in a way that is attractive and it's appealing to people.
01:50 And this is where we want to use platforms like the metaverse, for example, to be able
01:56 to recreate both a virtual copy of the physical territory, but also uploading artefacts, people
02:06 in that space telling stories and even teaching the language.
02:11 Kofe says it's the responsibility of the government to prepare for a worst-case scenario.
02:17 And by migrating into cyberspace, Tuvalu will still be able to offer its people a shared
02:23 existence, even if they have to abandon their territory.
02:28 But the government is also reclaiming land.
02:31 And some here believe that should be the focus, rather than a digital future.
02:36 We have to physically do something more concrete to maintain Tuvalu on the map in a way of
02:44 looking at developments of raising up Tuvalu instead of fully relying on a digital world.
02:51 Worried about climate change, many Tuvaluans are already emigrating.
02:56 Which for mother of three Tofaloa, underscores the need for a back-up digital nation.
03:03 If everyone moves out of this island, if it's gone, at least we have our culture and identities
03:09 to carry with us.
03:11 So when we go, we not only just go and live in strange islands or strange countries, but
03:17 at least we have an area of our own that looks exactly like home.
03:21 And we practice everything that we have learned here and we take it with us.
03:40 It's Tuvalu's National Day and people are recording what they can of the festivities.
03:45 A heritage passed down through songs and dance, now being preserved in digital memory.
03:54 So Tuvaluans can hold on to their shared identity as they strive to exist against the rising
04:04 seas.
04:06 Lain Wang and Louise Watt for Taiwan Plus.
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