Last month, Tokyo Gov. Shintaro Ishihara traveled to Fiji and Tuvalu on a fact-finding mission. Since the trip cost Tokyo taxpayers more than ¥15 million, the press was interested in just what sort of facts the governor would find in the South Seas and how they could be applied to one of the world's biggest cities.
The media took Ishihara to task last year for extravagances he charged the city during official visits abroad, so his live conference call from Tuvalu to a symposium organized by the Japan International Cooperation Agency may have been meant to pre-empt such criticism. But just to play it safe he also held a press conference after his return. The original reason for the trip was to research global warming: The Pacific Ocean is encroaching on Tuvalu's coastline, and since Tokyo is also close to the Pacific Ocean maybe there was something he could learn. However, most of his comments were didactic. Once he arrived in Tuvalu he obviously felt he should offer these simple people his sage advice, and told his hosts they could build a huge dyke around the main island and destroy one of the smaller islands to use as landfill. Since their garbage situation is also getting worse, he offered to send them some of Japan's very efficient and very compact waste incinerators.
In Tuvalu's case, such makeshift solutions are probably the only solutions since global warming and the attendant rise in sea level is not a problem that's going to be solved overnight. And if there's anything Tokyo knows about then it's landfill and incinerators. Tuvalu's waste problems are reportedly as serious as its coastline crisis, owing to greater dependency on imported foods which has resulted in an abundance of packaging refuse.