The capital that will be underwater — Tuvalu's atoll, climate emergency and lagoon paradise
Funafuti is the capital of Tuvalu, a Pacific nation of nine coral atolls whose highest point is 4.5 metres above sea level — making it one of the most climate-vulnerable countries on earth, expected to become uninhabitable within decades as sea levels rise. Visiting Funafuti feels like being at the end of the world: a narrow strip of coral reef barely 20 metres wide in places, the Pacific Ocean on one side and the Funafuti Lagoon on the other, a runway that doubles as the main road and football pitch, and communities living precisely as they have for centuries, fishing the lagoon by outrigger…
Tuvalu (formerly the Ellice Islands) was administered by Britain as part of the Gilbert and Ellice Islands colony until the Ellice Islanders voted to separate and achieved independence as Tuvalu in 1978. The country is one of the last places on earth to be settled by Polynesian navigators (around 3,000 years ago), using stellar navigation to cross thousands of miles of open Pacific. Funafuti Atoll was used as a major US naval base during World War II — the lagoon sheltered hundreds of ships and the airstrip built by American forces is still the only runway. The WWII wreck of a Consolidated PB…