Kiribati likely doomed by climate change: president
source: http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20080605/sc_afp/nzealandclimateenvironment_080605091135;_ylt=Ao_...
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- JanforGore
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The president of the low-lying Pacific atoll nation of Kiribati said Thursday his country may already be doomed because of climate change.
President Anote Tong said communities had already been resettled and crops destroyed by sea water in some parts of the country, made up of 33 coral atolls straddling the equator.
Tong was one of several international figures in New Zealand's capital to promote action on climate change for World Environment Day.
Although scientists are still debating the extent of rising sea levels, Tong told a press conference that changes were already obvious in his country of 92,000 people.
"I am not a scientist but what I know is that things are happening we did not experience in the past," Tong said.
"We may be beyond redemption, we may be at the point of no return where the emissions in the atmosphere will carry on to contribute to climate change to produce a sea-level change that in time our small low-lying islands will be submerged," he said.
"Villages that have been there over the decades, maybe a century, and now they have to be relocated.
"Where they have been living over the past few decades is no longer there, it is being eroded."
He said at international meetings others had argued that measures to combat climate change would hurt their countries' economic development.
"In frustration, I said, 'No, it's not an issue of economic growth, it's an issue of human survival.'"
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Not an issue of economic growth, or political haggling one way or the other to get votes in an election year... it is an issue of human survival. So clear, so concise, so true. Why then can't humanity as a whole get it? How much longer do we need? When it hits home?
President Anote Tong said communities had already been resettled and crops destroyed by sea water in some parts of the country, made up of 33 coral atolls straddling the equator.
Tong was one of several international figures in New Zealand's capital to promote action on climate change for World Environment Day.
Although scientists are still debating the extent of rising sea levels, Tong told a press conference that changes were already obvious in his country of 92,000 people.
"I am not a scientist but what I know is that things are happening we did not experience in the past," Tong said.
"We may be beyond redemption, we may be at the point of no return where the emissions in the atmosphere will carry on to contribute to climate change to produce a sea-level change that in time our small low-lying islands will be submerged," he said.
"Villages that have been there over the decades, maybe a century, and now they have to be relocated.
"Where they have been living over the past few decades is no longer there, it is being eroded."
He said at international meetings others had argued that measures to combat climate change would hurt their countries' economic development.
"In frustration, I said, 'No, it's not an issue of economic growth, it's an issue of human survival.'"
~~~~~~~~~
Not an issue of economic growth, or political haggling one way or the other to get votes in an election year... it is an issue of human survival. So clear, so concise, so true. Why then can't humanity as a whole get it? How much longer do we need? When it hits home?
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- groups:
- Green, Earth and Science
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- tags:
- Green, Earth and Science, Environment, Global Warming, 5 more
