Kiribati to Begin Climate Change Migration in the Next Five Years

February 19,  2016 – The government of Kiribati has been banking land in Fiji to relocate the entire nation in the next five years. Kiribati is in the mid-Pacific and consists of 33 coral atolls. Known for one of the great island battles between Japan and the United States, Tarawa, in the Second World War, the country has become the first victim of climate change.

There is only so much that coastal walls and floating islands can do to keep rising sea level at bay.  Stated President, Anote Tong, “what happens to the polar bears will also be happening to us.” The 100,000 citizens of Kiribati will be resettled on 20 square kilometers of land in Fiji, 2,000 kilometers away from.

Kiribati on average lies 2 meters above sea level. Tong hopes his people will be able to adapt to a new life on Fiji because rising sea levels have had an insidious impact on the nation. For every inch (2.54 centimeters) of sea level rise, the islanders have lost 10 square feet (0.93 square meters). The freshwater aquifer is being destroyed as ocean water encroaches. So even before Kiribati vanishes into the Pacific, its citizens will have to leave because there will be no potable water to drink and salt will have made the soil incapable of growing food crops.

Fiji, the first nation to ratify the Paris agreement on climate change, has welcomed the Kiribati people giving them a place to live and a future. It is hoped that the experience these islanders go through because of climate change will be the last of its kind. But many other low lying Pacific and Indian Ocean nations face a similar dire future.

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