Nicky Park, AAP Sydney Morning Herald 10 Nov 10;
Dimitry Murdoch's family has been living on the low-lying islands of Kiribati for generations.
The prospect that his children may be forced away, as their homeland disappears, is a sadness he can barely express - but it's a reality in this collection of atolls in the central Pacific, none more than three metres above sea level.
Rising sea levels, salt water inundation and severe coastal erosion are forcing the 100,000 people of Kiribati to retreat steadily from the shoreline, and island leaders fear they are running out of time.
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"I don't think there's a future for Kiribati, I don't think there will be a country in about 20, 30 years from now," said Mr Murdoch, taking a break from his duties as a delegation assistant at the Tarawa Climate Change Conference (TCCC) on Wednesday.
"It does make me sad, it is a concern."
Mr Murdoch, 20, said he had seen the sandy coast erode, homes flood, crops fail to grow in salty soil and fresh water supplies diminish.
Villagers were constantly moving their homes further inland and building barriers of stones to escape the rising tides, he said.
"I think we're at this stage, going out of the country should be considered as the best option," he said.
The president of Kiribati, Anote Tong, on Wednesday said Kiribati must prepare for all possible eventualities as climate change threatened the nation.
"One of which may be the need to relocate our people", he told ABC radio.
Earlier, Mr Tong told reporters, We are running out of time, and as long as the global community continues to debate, it might be too late for some countries.
"For some of our local communities it is too late.
"We've had to move them because we cannot protect them so we've had to move them somewhere else.
"How much longer will that somewhere else be there, until we are actually going beyond our shores?
On Island Of Kiribati, At-Risk Nations Sign Climate Declaration
NPR 10 Nov 10;
Fifteen countries signed a declaration today in Tarawa, the capital of the tiny island nation of Kiribati, recognizing the increasingly dire situation faced by small island countries due to climate change. The Ambo Declaration, named for the village where Kiribati's Parliament House is located, is the final product of the Tarawa Climate Change Conference — a gathering that Kiribati President Anote Tong hopes will spotlight how vulnerable his nation is to any rise in sea levels and severe weather.
A main goal of the conference was to put a human face on climate change before much larger United Nations climate talks in Mexico later this month. The people of Kiribati showcased their traditions, gathered for speeches and had pre-school children do a climate change poetry slam.
In his opening remarks, Tong called climate change the greatest moral challenge facing humanity today. He talked about villages in Kiribati that have been forced to move because of coastal erosion.
"We face unending claims for assistance to rebuild homes and to repair damages by unusually high tides, which we, of course, do not have the resources to do," he said.
That was another goal of the conference: to goad developed countries into providing funds for climate change adaptation projects — sea walls, for example — in places like Kiribati.
Australia, New Zealand and Japan pledged to sign the Ambo Declaration, as did several small island states including the Maldives, Fiji, and the Marshall Islands. After some disagreement, China also came on board. This was a triumph for Kiribati, which has had strained relations with China since becoming friendly with Taiwan.
At the start the of the conference, delegates from the U.S., European Union, United Kingdom and France all said they couldn't actually agree to or sign anything. They stayed quiet as other delegates here debated the issue.
Tong said he was "not surprised, but I remain disappointed" by those nations' actions. "I would have liked to see firmer commitment."
Brian Reed is NPR’s first Above the Fray Fellow. He's reporting in the Pacific nation of Kiribati and will be filing some dispatches while he's off in one of the most remote countries on earth. Click here for his other dispatches.
