Kiribati

Do you remember Kiribati? You are forgiven if you do not. But you may remember that you stayed awake all night to greet the New Millennium. Kiribati was the first place on the planet upon which the sun of the new millennium dawned. This occurred because the island of Kiribati which once lay astride the International Date Line moved the line eastwards unilaterally in 1995.

Kiribati is a complex of 33 atolls that make up the former Gilbert Islands. They occupy a vast area in the Pacific Ocean, stretching nearly 4,000 km from east to west, more than 2,000 km from north to south. The islands straddle the Equator.

Many of the atolls are inhabited; most of them are very low-lying and at risk from rising sea levels.

Now, however, the atolls are in the front-line in the battle against climate change. While we in the West may feel comfortable and complacent in regard to the projected impact of global climate change. Who cares if the sea rises a meter or two! It will not impact upon us who are lucky enough to live in places that more secure from marine devastation.

And, yet, think of the impact of the Tsunami in Sri Lanka, Phuket, and Banda Aceh.

Kiribati is one of the countries that clearly runs the risk of literally being wiped off the map because of rising sea levels. This is something that we should care about. Just recently, a partner organisation of the Edmund Rice Centre in Sydney forward some photographic evidence of the devastation caused by recent storms. It presages what is to come. We cannot remain complacent in the face of this threat to island homes. How many millions of people are likely to be made homeless in future years if climate change is not reversed? The time for action, as the recent Stern Report starkly informs us, is now.

See photos of recent devastation on Kiribati