A recent scientific study has launched an alarm that directly concerns the cultural heart of the Easter Island, the turn of the Nui. According to projections, by 2080 the raising of sea level could submerge key areas of the island, including the famous Ahu Tongariki, the platform with fifteen imposing Moai aligned towards the ocean. These monuments, recognized as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, risk being transformed into a seasonal peninsula, periodically reached by the waves.
The change is already underway
If for science these are future scenarios, for the inhabitants of the island, reality is already evident. The same residents denounce that in Ahu Tahai, the ceremonial platforms are giving in due to the increasingly aggressive tides. Climate change is therefore not a distant threat, but a concrete phenomenon that erodes day after day the ancestral memory of the island.
A cultural and spiritual threat
The value of the Ahu goes beyond the architectural aspect. The platforms on which the Moai arise are also burial places of the ancestors, connection points between the material and spiritual dimension. For this reason, the risks related to the sea do not only represent a physical loss, but also a cultural trauma for the population. Seeing the threatened Ahu is equivalent to losing “a part of oneself.
We already think about how to protect them
The team of researchers, led by Noah Paoa, originally from Rapa Nui, made a high resolution digital twin on the eastern coast, using computational models to simulate the impact of the waves in different climatic scenarios. The results are clear: not only Tongariki, but at least 51 cultural sites risk suffering irreversible damage.
The discussion on solutions oscillates between concrete hypotheses, such as the construction of a frangifutti or the transfer of monuments and the urgency of greater international awareness. Beyond the defense works, the local community asks respect for the island and for its millenary cultural heritage.
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