WATCH: “Kiribati: A Climate Change Reality” . A UNDP produced a film, uploaded on Youtube, 09-16-2010.
UNDP produced a film about the reality of climate change in the Pacific island of Kiribati. The film clearly shows how people’s lives are being affected right now by rising sea waters.
“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 I will be in this house, Tioram continued. That depends on how strong my seawall here can withstand high tide waves.”
At only four metres above sea level, and where 100 percent of the population lives within one kilometre of the coast, the small island nation of Kiribati is one of the countries most vulnerable to the effects of climate change and sea level rise. The country is responding by managing water resources better, monitoring groundwater quality and improving sanitation to reduce groundwater pollution.
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 future is uncertain, including the question of whether it even has a future anymore. For that reason, the Government is looking for options for relocating the population.
Kiribati: A Climate Change Reality, Youtube Video (09-16-2010)
Kiribati Conference: Voices From the South Pacific/ Part II :The Ambo Declaration; from The Climate Change Portal Of The President Of Kiribati
Kiribati’s Tarawa Climate Change Conference (TCCC) ended by giving birth to the Ambo Declaration, a resolution of grave concern on the climate crisis calling for an immediate action on climate change funds.
