Pacific Island Nation Buys Ocean-Rise Insurance
The low-lying Pacific nation of Kiribati has purchased 8 square miles of land in Fiji, about 1,200 miles away, in the event its population of 103,000 needs to be relocated because of rising sea level.
Other island nations that face the same threat are considering similar purchases abroad.
“We would hope not to put everyone on [this] one piece of land, but if it became absolutely necessary, yes, we could do it,” Kiribati’s President Anote Tong told The Associated Press.
Kiribati is said to already be suffering some effects of rising sea level, including the contamination of fresh water supplies, the destruction of crops and buildings and the swamping of an entire island.
Tong has so far been unsuccessful in his attempts to receive compensation from the industrialized nations he says are responsible for the rising tide.
The many islands of the Kiribati archipelago lie only a few feet above sea level, making them among the most vulnerable to ocean rises resulting from climate change.
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