Kiribati’s former president Anote Tong faces climate change’s implications head on and see hope, even as islands become an early warning system for the international community.
Susan Llewelyn Leach writes for Cities of the Future:
For the island nations of the South Pacific, climate change is a reality that is already causing people to migrate. The rise in sea level has made some low-lying islands uninhabitable, and in the case of Kiribati, over half the population is now crowded onto one main island, according to Anote Tong, the former president.
Indeed, an estimated 12 million people around the world have already been displaced by climate change. In the case of Kiribati’s population of approx. 116,000, the challenge is an existential one. Within a century the country will be underwater.
“Do we go or do we stay?” asks former president Tong, a tireless campaigner for the survival of his nation. But is staying even an option? He thinks so, but getting to that position has been a long road.
FULL STORY: When the waters are rising…
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