Sea level rise and taro on Tuvalu

A short article in Orion magazine talks about how "global warming is coming first for the Tuvaluans ... suddenly the spring high tides are washing across the island of Funafuti, eroding foundations and salt-poisoning crops in the fields. Tuvalu ... is drowning. Tuvaluans have begun to work out plans for evacuating the population over the course of the next decades as the sea rises."

The article includes a picture of a taro plant accompanied by this caption:

"In recent years, taro plants, a food staple, have become weakened, the leaves damaged by salt as rising seas infiltrate groundwater tables. Increasingly, Tuvaluans rely upon imported food."

Clearly, reliance on imported foods is not primarily a consequence of increased salinity affecting local crops, but it is interesting to see such a statement in the popular press.