Tuvalu: The Island Nation Selling Its Domain to Fund Its Survival
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Tuvalu is a Pacific atoll nation of 11,000 people on nine islands averaging 2 metres above sea level — among the most vulnerable places on earth to sea level rise. The country generates significant revenue from a source that has nothing to do with its geography: the .tv domain suffix. Because Tuvalu's country code happens to be the same as the abbreviation for television, tech companies pay substantial sums to register .tv domains, and Tuvalu receives a percentage of every .tv domain sale worldwide. The country's digital footprint is larger than its physical one.
Funafuti, the capital and most populous atoll, was an important US military base during World War Two and the lagoon still contains the wrecks of aircraft and equipment from that period. The land area of all of Tuvalu combined is 26 square kilometres. The exclusive economic zone — the ocean over which Tuvalu has sovereign rights — is 900,000 square kilometres. The country is overwhelmingly ocean.
The Tuvaluan government has been at the forefront of climate negotiations for decades, arguing with a moral urgency that comes from existential proximity. Tuvalu has signed migration agreements with Australia and other countries to provide options for relocation if the islands become uninhabitable. The country is simultaneously trying to adapt — building sea walls, raising land levels artificially — and preparing for the possibility that adaptation may not be sufficient. The question of what nationhood means when the territory disappears beneath the sea is one Tuvalu is asking in practical terms.
