Answer to Question #243613 in Biology for Lole

Question

What do people of Kiribati think of climate change?

Answer 1

Kiribati is predicted to be one of the countries most impacted by climate change, in part to its vulnerability to sea-level rise. It is less than 2 meters above sea level. It is experiencing flooding, contamination of water sources, and food scarcity.

Kiribatians have already begun to emigrate in response to what they believe to be an unavoidable situation. Others cling on to their land, looking for temporary solutions: residents have begun building walls out of coral rocks which are then destroyed by the high tide. Some towns have shifted a few meters inland, and mangroves have been planted to protect the soil from erosion and mitigate storm surges. If the predictions are accurate, the atoll of Tarawa will be uninhabitable within a generation.

The Kiribati government has bought land in Fiji to grow crops and possibly even serve as somewhere to evacuate the country's entire population if the worst does happen.