Island Nation Considers Abandoning Ship, Going Mobile

At a meeting of Pacific Island governments last week, Tong said he was looking at a number of options to save his people from the rising tides, including manmade floating islands.

Quoted in The Guardian, President Tong said, "If you're faced with the option of being submerged, with your family, would you jump on an oil rig like that? And [I] think the answer is 'yes'."

John Vidal of The Guardian uses the Kiribati proposal as a jumping-off point to look at several manmade islands around the world, and also a couple of floating island designs such as Belgian architect Vincent Callebaut's "Lilypad" concept and Bangkok architects S+PBA "floating wetropolis."