Kiribati - A Climate Change Reality

Boobu Tioram, a resident of the Pacific island of Kirabati, took time out from reinforcing a seawall in front of his newly built house to speak with UNDP about what climate change has meant to his way of life.
I have moved three times, every three years I have moved, he said, standing on the beach a few metres from his home. Tioram gestured toward a point about 20 metres into the sea, and explained that his first house once stood on a spot now covered in swelling ocean waves. Each time he has moved farther inland, and each time the sea has followed.
Im not sure how long Ill be [in this house], Tioram continued. That depends on how strong my seawall here can withstand high tide waves.
UNDP believes that it is the developing world that stands to lose the most, and which is already losing out, as the effects of climate change edge toward the catastrophic. As climate negotiations open in Copenhagen, worlds away from this tiny Pacific nation consisting of 33 low lying atolls, it is important to keep in mind that for the people of Kirabati, and other poor island and coastal nations, funds for adaptation and not only prevention must top the international to-do list.
Carbon trading will be of no special consequence to us, so there has got to be some very special provisions for the victims, said Kirabati President Anote Tong. Not the potential victims, but the victims, because we are the victims, so there has to be some very deep soul searching.
Kirabati is no more than four metres high at its highest point, and 100 percent of the population lives within one kilometre of the coast, making this nation one of the most vulnerable to the effects of global warming. Its future is uncertain, including the question of whether it even has a future anymore.
The scientific research shows that by 2100 its almost certain that well have more than a metre of sea level rise, said Karen Bernard, a UNDP programme specialist in natural disaster reduction and transition. On a flat island like Kirabati that mount of sea level rise comes very far inland.
Its a very serious situation, Bernard continued. For that reason, the Government is looking for options for relocating the population.

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[MrHiphopmundial]

dope!! multikulti reggae-hiphop video in 3 languages about global change !!

/watch?v=a5tdtrvR7Fg

[rolficus]

stupid people even without the industrial revolution the so called green house effect will continue its a cycle the earth goes through every thousands of years the elite of this world know this and use this as a backdrop to demand more of our taxes thea earth is actualy cooing down a few degrees in 50 years the ice shelves will have frozen over again and lapped up alot of the ocean all i am saying is dont give into these carbon tax scams

[Bekah Mallette]

Wow, this is crazy. I can't believe it.

[KingSalsa19]

We need to help these people. They can't build boats or stilts so we need to save them. Darwin knew what he was talking about.

[L Harrison]

Very good point.



[lidelbeer]

i would love to go there on my holidays



[cathy ruatu]

I from there and half my family members live there.HOW SAD IS THAT.But I've been living in New Zealand for SIX YEARS.

[Melanie C]

This is happening to all the low lying atolls in the Pacific: Kiribati, the Marshall Islands, the Maldives. The ocean shelf is very different around an atoll than around an island like Hawaii or New Zealand. The same thing that protects atolls during tsunamis make them suspect to changes in tidal patterns. Not only are the ocean levels rising and changing the soil erosion patterns, but the carbonation of the oceans is also killing the coral.

[Anterea Taan]

i used to live there 7 years ago when i was 9 but now im in New Zealand, maybe more people will do the same like me but it will be sad leaving, and im still kinda sad

[laurejon]

If Global Warming theory was factual the US would not be expending billions of dollars and sacrificing hundreds of thousands of lives in military exploits simply to get their hands on the fossil fuels around the world.

Get with the programme, its peak oil time and Global Warming is a setup to throw people off the scent. In the next fifty years anyone who does not control fossil fuels is going to be out of the game.

[gallowr1]

No, that was because the continental glaziers of the Ice Age were melting. Yes, global warming, but for a different and more natural reason. Nice try.