"Chill Waters, Arid Land: Climate Change Arrives on Easter Island"

"EASTER ISLAND, Chile - Ludovic Burns Tuki first felt the chill of climate change while diving in the waters around his home on Easter Island, locally known as Rapa Nui, a remote land mass in the South Pacific famed for its distinctive ancient stone statues.

The Polynesian diver has swum in these waters all his life, but found himself recently needing to wear a wet suit as water temperatures have dropped around the island, which sits isolated some 3,700 kilometers (2,299 miles) west of continental Chile.

“We are facing a problem that is becoming a reality. In the years that I have been a diver, I have seen changes that are affecting us all along the coasts,” Burns Tuki, who heads the local environmental association Mesa del Mar, told Reuters."

Marion Giraldo reports for Reuters March 27, 2019.

Source: Reuters, 03/29/2019