Asia Pacific Viewpoint, Vol. 44, No. 2, August 2003 ISSN: 1360-7456, pp89– 107 © Victoria University of Wellington, 2003. Published by Blackwell Publishing. Losing ground? Tuvalu, the greenhouse effect and the garbage can John Connell Abstract: Greenhouse-induced sea-level rise (SLR) threatens coral atolls and particularly the few atoll states, such as Tuvalu. This central Pacific island microstate has minimal economic development options, and has increasingly perceived emigration and remittances as a development strategy, despite restricted opportunities. Internal migration, in search of wage employment, has brought almost half the national population to Funafuti atoll, with negative local environmental consequences. Short-term scientific data show no evid- ence of SLR in Tuvalu, but the Government of Tuvalu has argued that there is visual evidence of SLR, through such consequences as increased erosion, flooding and salinity. Global media have increasingly emphasised a doomsday scenario, with Tuvalu as synecdoche and symbol of all threatened island environments. Environmental problems of diverse origin have been entirely attri- buted to distant processes causing SLR, in terms of ‘garbage can anarchy’ or a ‘conspiracy narrative’, and thus to distant causes. The Tuvalu Government has consequently sought compensation from, and migration opportunities in, distant states. The construction of apparently imminent hazard has potential domestic political and economic advantages, but environmental costs. Keywords: Pacific, Tuvalu, greenhouse effect, economic develop- ment, migration, media Sections of the international media remain unrestrained in bolstering Tuvalu’s insistence that it is already having climate change floods. In February a three- man BBC team, two print journalists and a Japanese TV crew were hopefully present in Funafuti for a routine spring high tide to be presented globally as actual proof of inundation. The tide was high as normal for that time of year, and Author: John Connell, Division of Geography, University of Sydney, NSW 2006, Australia. Email: jconnell@mail.usyd.edu.au