Sinking or Not? An Indonesian Approach to Prevent the Rise of Sea Levels due to Global Warming

• Author: Iin Karita Sakharina - Farida Patittingi - Hamzah Halim - Marthen Napang - Juajir Sumardi - Andi Bau' Inggit - Marcel Hendrapati
• Position: Lecturers at the Law Faculty of Hasanuddin University, Republic of Indonesia
• Pages: 143-160

Iin Karita Sakharina & Farida Patittingi &

Hamzah Halim & Marthen Napang & Juajir Sumardi &

Andi Bau’ Inggit & Marcel Hendrapati

∗

Global warming, or climate change, could be the main reason why small islands in

many areas of the Earth, including those in Indonesian territory, are sinking. Many

small Indonesian islands are between 1 and 3 metres under the surface of the sea

because of raised sea levels caused by climate change. If this situation continues, it

would affect many of the outermost islands of Indonesia, so that we should anticipate

the danger that the outermost islands would be submerged. The basepoints and

archipelagic baselines would then be replaced, among other serious consequences for

Indonesia. The Paris Climate Agreement, signed by almost 200 states in 2015, is the

main instrument for mitigating global warming through reducing the emission of

greenhouse gases. Indonesia ratified the Paris Climate Agreement, because it has a

great interest in mitigating the phenomenon that is causing the sea level to rise, which

is having a serious impact on its islands.

Keywords

Global Warming, Climate Change, Greenhouse Effect, Outermost Islands,

Basepoints, Archipelagic Baselines

∗ All the authors are lecturers at the Law Faculty of Hasanuddin University, Republic of Indonesia. Corresponding

author: Marcel Hendrapati. He may be contacted at: mhendrapati@yahoo.com / Address: Kompleks Taman Toraja,

Jalan Danau Toba No.8, Makassar, 90224, South Sulawesi Province, Republic of Indonesia.

All the websites cited in this article were last visited on April 23, 2020.

Sinking or Not?

An Indonesian Approach

to Prevent the Rise of Sea

Levels due to Global

Warming

J. East asia & int’l l. Vol. 13/No.1 (2020); 143-160

Publication type : Research Article

Section : Regional Focus & Controversies

DOI : http://dx.doi.org/10.14330/jeail.2020.13.1.07

144 M. Hendrapati et al.

1. Introduction

The US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (“NASA”) has already

launched some online software that can predict or anticipate the impact on many

cities of the world of the melting of glacier

1

With this software, people can see how to

predict the melting of a glacier into water that is globally distributed. This software

offers- for every city- any conguration regarding icebergs, glaciers or ice peaks, which

is absolutely crucial. Although Indonesia is far away from any area of ice mountains,

this does not mean that it will not be impacted by the melting of a glacier at the North

or South Pole.

2

The melting of a glacier or ice mountain due to global warming has an

impact on sea levels, and potentially causes islets or small islands across the surface

of the earth to sink.

In September 2009, a great number of icefloes and icebergs coming from the

Antarctic became visible oating in the waters around New Zealand, at a distance

of 25 km from the coastline. Then, in October 2009, giant icebergs were discovered

around Macquarie Island, Australia; some of these icebergs were 2 km wide and

others were similar in size to the Olympic Stadium in Beijing known as the Bird’s

Nest stadium.

3

In November 2009, satellite photos showed icebergs in great groups

moving from the Antarctic across the area of Auckland Island, which lies around 450

km east of New Zealand. This event was published so that all the ships navigating

in the area concerned might be careful because the existence of the icebergs could

endanger navigation.

4

A volcanic eruption occurred in the glacier area of Okjokull, Iceland on 4 April

2010. The volcanic dust that blew up, which reached a height of about 10 km, polluted

the air of a large number of European states in such a way that ying activities from

and to the European continent had to be stopped for an unlimited time, since the

volcanic dust endangered the aircraft.

5

Iceland has been commemorating the loss of

1 E. Hardoko, NASA: Ice Four Cities in Indonesia are Threatened with Being Sunk [Es di KutubMencair, Empat Kota

di Indonesia Terancam], BBC News (Indonesia), Nov. 20, 2017, available at https://internasional.kompas.com/

read/2017/11/20/17584121/nasa-es-di-kutub-mencair-empat-kota-di-indonesia-terancam?page=all.

2 Id.

3 M. Tran, Antarctic iceberg found floating near Macquarie island, GuardiaN, Nov. 12, 2009, available at https://www.

theguardian.com/world/2009/nov/12/antarctic-iceberg-floating-macquarie-island.

4 See Floating Ice Mountain Evacuated New Zealand [GunungEsTerapungHijrahkeSelandiaBaru], Kompas.com, Nov.

24, 2009, available at https://ekonomi.kompas.com/read/2009/11/24/04123493/gunung.es.terapung.hijrah.ke.selandia.

baru; D. Irvine, Massive icebergs floating towards coast of New Zealand, cNN, Nov. 25, 2009, available at http://

edition.cnn.com/2009/TECH/science/11/25/iceberg.newzealand/index.html.

5 M. Mancini, Here's The Important Difference between Global Warming and Climate Change, Sciencealert.com (Sept.