Denial is difficult when the ocean is at your door
Meredith Burgmann
The Daily Telegraph
April 26, 2013 12:00AM
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AS you fly over the tiny central Pacific nation of Kiribati you realise immediately why climate change has created such a tragic outcome for the Kiribati people.
The main population centre of South Tarawa is just a very long coral reef with a road down the middle. At high tide large waves can crash from one side of the island to the other. Even a tiny rise in seawater levels will spell ultimate destruction.
This nation of far flung coral atolls came to international attention as the first country on Earth to see the dawn of the third millennium.
Ironically it will also be the first to cop the full force of climate change. Its 105,000 inhabitants produce the tiniest of carbon footprints (0.06 per cent for the whole Pacific) but will be hugely affected by a rising sea level, changed rainfall patterns, ocean acidification and extreme weather events because of the carbon addiction of their larger developed neighbours such as Australia.
When climate deniers urge them to simply move to higher ground, the locals take delight in showing visitors the highest point in the land. It is 3m above sea level.
In the outer islands periodic inundation is worse and has led to an influx of these residents on to South Tarava which has created even greater pressure on the rapidly polluting water “lenses” which make up their groundwater.
Every politician, church leader and environmental activist we met mentioned water as their main issue.
I accidently made coffee with their drinking water and it tasted terrible.
The political leadership of Kiribati have been very active in the international lobbying effort to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
President Anote Tong is generally referred to as the “climate change” president. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon has visited and reported: “My room had life jackets for me and my wife – for good reason. A high tide and a storm surge would have washed us away.”
Bob Carr was there late last year and promised to fix the road which is Tarava’s lifeblood but which is constantly degraded by seawater flooding. Will it be called the Carr Road after our famously non-driving Foreign Minister?
Despite the fact inundation is staring them in the face, the Kiribati people are behaving like good global citizens. They practise “mitigation” (reducing their own carbon footprint) as well as “adaptation” (protecting their land from the sea).
Australia could learn from our tiny neighbour.
MEREDITH BURGMANN IS PRESIDENT OF THE AUSTRALIAN COUNCIL FOR INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT