Support our non-partisan non-profit newsroom 💜 Donate now

Kiribati: Island nation deals with the consequences of climate change

Lizzie O'Leary Nov 26, 2013
HTML EMBED:
COPY

Kiribati: Island nation deals with the consequences of climate change

Lizzie O'Leary Nov 26, 2013
HTML EMBED:
COPY

Where do you see yourself in 2030?

For most, the first answer to mind won’t have anything to do with fleeing your homeland to escape from drowning. But for the more than 103,000 people who live on Kiribati, escaping rising waters might be their only option for survival.

Kiribati is a an island-nation in the Pacific Ocean that, in recent years, has seen the waters rise due to global climate change. In some areas, it has already overtaken small huts and warehouses. 

Jeffrey Goldberg recently visited the islands and says the people speak about the dire situation rather poetically. 

“The people who live in these places say some variation of the theme of, ‘In the past the ocean would come in and it would go out’,” Goldberg says. “And one day the ocean just stayed.”

Goldberg writes about the country’s struggle against climate change and their call to developed nations in Bloomberg Businessweek.

There’s a lot happening in the world.  Through it all, Marketplace is here for you. 

You rely on Marketplace to break down the world’s events and tell you how it affects you in a fact-based, approachable way. We rely on your financial support to keep making that possible. 

Your donation today powers the independent journalism that you rely on. For just $5/month, you can help sustain Marketplace so we can keep reporting on the things that matter to you.