Ready to bail: Kiribati struggles to keep its population afloat
As rising sea levels threaten its existence, the Pacific nation – one of the lowest-lying countries in the world – is preparing to evacuate its population, writes Per Liljas. Pictures by Jonas Gratzer.
Dusk settles over Eita, a neighbourhood on Tarawa, Kiribati's main atoll, as inhabitants lift their potted plants from the ground to safety. They place them on tables, benches, any elevated platform they can find. Waves crash with increasing ferocity against the thrown-together seawall. On the other side of Eita, the tide continues to swell and sandbags begin to collapse. Runnels meander in from all directions, pushing rubbish ahead of them, as water rises by the inch around huts. A man just manages to cut loose a piglet that can't keep its snout above the surface.
"It's getting really bad," says Beia Tiim, owner of the neighbourhood's only rainwater tank. She says extremely high "king tides" used to occur only every third or fourth year. "Now we have king tides every two or three months. Most of the freshwater wells are submerged. Faeces flow into our houses. I'm scared for my children's and all of Kiribati's future."
On November 30, world leaders will assemble in Paris, France, for the United Nations' 21st annual climate summit. It has been described as the "last chance" to limit the Earth's warming to 2 degrees Celsius above preindustrial levels. Anything past that temperature threshold, it is feared, will irrevocably alter humanity's ability to exist on the planet.
Continued warming, however, is inevitable. Even if all emissions of carbon dioxide immediately ceased, it would take at least a decade to halt the processes that are already underway. Vulnerable regions will keep facing dire risks. Access to food and water will be further squeezed. A higher frequency and intensity of extreme weather will threaten lives and property. The rising sea will devour ever more low-lying land.
Many people will have to leave their homes to avoid natural disasters. Forecasts of an impending exodus of hundreds of millions of people from threatened regions as a result of this, however, are exaggerated; few disaster victims travel far and most of them return home as soon as they can.
But the long-term threat of climate change could prompt a great migration. Kiribati (pronounced Kee-ree-bus), one of the world's lowest-lying countries, is already preparing to lose its battle against the sea. Here, evacuation plans have become part of national policy.
