Lying just two meters above sea level at its highest points, the island nation of Kiribati is the poster child for climate change, with predictions that many of the 32 islands in the group could be lost to the sea in the next 50 years.
Kiribati is a low-lying island country in the Pacific Ocean. Currently over 100,000 people live there, at least for the moment. In the near future the population of Kiribati may be forced to look for a new place to live.
According to climate experts sea levels could rise by almost two meters by the end of the century, flooding the group of islands which are only a few feet high. Some of the country’s 32 atolls are already disappearing beneath the Pacific’s waves. Villagers in some areas have already started to move as seawater has started to enter the fresh water basins.
You Know That Due to global warming glaciers start melting resulting in increasing sea level.
Kiribati needs to do something, quickly. One option is to build floating platforms for its population, a project that will cost about 2 billion dollars. Some experts want to build walls around the islands’ shores to keep seawater out. A third option is to move its citizens. Currently, Kiribati’s president is negotiating with Fiji to purchase land on its second largest island.
Moving over 100,000 people to another country, however, poses many problems. It can’t be done all at once. Kiribati plans to send skilled workers to Fiji first, so that it can help the country’s economy. They need to find work so that Kiribati’s people will not look at them as refugees. Already Kiribati is sending young people to Fiji’s university in order to give them a better education. Kiribati’s population must also leave behind their culture and adapt to Fiji’s, which is somewhat different.
Not only Kiribati faces threats of sinking into the ocean. Other low-lying island groups such as the Maldives and the Seychelles in the Indian Ocean are also in danger.
Here are 10 more interesting facts :
- Located in the central Pacific Ocean, Kiribati is made up of 33 atolls and reef islands, only 21 of which are inhabited.
- It has only 103,500 people making it the 197th most populous country on earth.
- Over 90% of the population lives on the Gilbert Islands, with nearly 50% living on Tarawa.
- The country includes Christmas Island which is written as Kiritimati in the Kiribati language but pronounced the same as Christmas.
- Kiritimati is the largest coral atoll in the world and makes up about half of Kiribati’s land area.
- Tarawa Atoll and others Gilbert islands were invaded by the Japanese in December 1941 and liberated by the Americans 2 years later in November 1943 in the Battle of Tarawa.
- The country only gained its full independence from the United Kingdom on July 12th, 1979.
- Most of the islands and atolls are only 1-2 meters (3-6 feet) above sea level, with the highest point just 81 m; (266 ft) above sea level.
- Two small uninhabited islets, Tebua Tarawa and Abanuea, disappeared below the sea in 1999.
- To counter the very real risk of the entire country disappearing beneath the waves within the next 50 years, Kiribati is in talks to buy 5,000 acres from Fiji where they can start relocating people.
So save water.Plant trees as much as u can.Serve the country and world.
———————By Rohit Shukla
Rohit The Blogger 