One is a tropical paradise in the South Pacific while the other is situated almost 10,000 miles away in an exposed and weather-beaten corner of the Inner Hebrides.

However, the isle of Gometra, which has just eight residents, has stood up to be counted in solidarity with Fiji - population 889,000 - to declare a climate and ecological emergency.

The only land route to Gometra was blockaded to all but pedestrians in a peaceful protest over the need for governments the world over to take urgent action over the effects of climate change.

Assisted by fellow residents and visitors to the island, which is connected at low tide by a causeway and bridge to neighbouring Ulva, Roc Sandford, the millionaire owner of Gometra, blocked the route with a boat from midday until water levels rose again at 6pm.

Gometra, west of Mull, does not attract much traffic. Landrovers and quad bikes are the only vehicles which normally attempt the eight mile route across the rough track from Ulva.

But Mr Sandford, who ditched his own quad bike two years ago and swopped his gas guzzling car for a bicycle, says Gometra’s action aims to highlight its solidarity with other islands which are sinking due to climate change.

The leaders of Fiji, Kiribati, Nauru, Micronesia, the Marshall Islands, the Solomon islands, Vanuatu, Timor Leste and Tonga declared a climate crisis when they signed an official document known as the Nadi Bay Declaration.

They claimed that developed nations, like Australia, have failed to take action to avert the horrific consequences their nations face, including the prospect of their lands being uninhabitable as early as 2030.

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With a boat in place to block the Gometra - Ulva crossing Mr Sandford, 61, who is calling for a carbon tax, said: “The boat symbolises sea level rise. Gometra is already sinking - and blocking the bridge is intended to raise the consciousness of the unfolding emergency by means of disruptive non-violent direct action.” 

For more than 25 years as the island’s owner, Mr Sandford, who, with help from a neighbouring family, farms a flock of 350 sheep on Gometra, has watched as the changing weather patterns have taken their toll on the island he loves.

The father of four said: “Islands are especially vulnerable. Gometra is already experiencing unseasonal weather extremes and sharp declines in our biodiversity. 

“Sea level rise will flood our fertile machair and our causeway to the neighbouring island of Ulva. The incipient failure of the Gulf Stream will cause unexampled extremes of cold weather.  

“Elsewhere on the world’s islands, people are dying because of climate and ecological collapse, and we affirm our solidarity with them.”

Mr Sandford added: “Gometra is off-grid and attempting to embody low-impact lifestyles, but we have much further to go and our ambition and hope is to be carbon neutral before 2025.”

He sees Gometra as a Hope Island and explained: “Hope islands are islands whose communities aim to tell the truth about the scale of the unfolding climate and ecological emergency and act as if it is true. Hope islands affirm the aspirations of Dr Sylvia Earle’s marine Hope Spots.The Argyll Coast was recently declared Scotland’s first Hope Spot.” 

The Argyll Coast Hope Spot recognises the efforts of community groups, including Friends of the Sound of Jura  and Save Seil Sound, that have banded together under the Coastal Communities Network in Scotland to raise awareness of the need to encourage protection of the country’sScotland’s unique marine ecosystems.

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Andy and Yvette Primrose, Gometra’s newest residents, said: “Island life on Gometra makes the issue of climate change a stark one.

“The sea, the land, the weather and the wildlife define every single day, so raise our consciousness and our alarm about environmental destruction.

“We try, through the way we live, to minimise the damage that we inflict, but we need to try harder and go further. We see  the calls from Extinction Rebellion as catalysts for the degree of change that is realistically needed.”

Mr Sandford said: “We affirm Extinction Rebellion Scotland’s demand for the Scottish Government - and Scottish environmental regulators SNH, SEPA, and Marine Scotland - to tell the truth and act as if it is true, and to commit to carbon neutrality by 2025, twenty years earlier than the current Scottish Government target.”

Inviting other islands to help the cause, he said: “We are following in the footsteps of other islands who have already declared a crisis, and we hope many others will join us. They can get in touch through the Isle of Gometra website if they’d like to.”