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hatrack

(59,446 posts)
Tue Jun 10, 2014, 09:12 AM Jun 2014

Kiribati President; Talks, Treaties, Tech No Longer Matter; His Nation, Maldives, Marshalls Are Done

It is already too late to save many small island states from being swamped by rising seas, according to the president of Kiribati.

Even if the world agrees to dramatically reduce greenhouse gas emissions, “total annihilation” is now inevitable for Kiribati, Tuvalu, the Marshall Islands and the Maldives, with “drastic impacts” expected within the next 20 years, warned Anote Tong.

“Whatever is agreed within the United States today, with China, it will not have a bearing on our future, because already, it’s too late for us. And so we are that canary,” Tong said in an interview on CNN.

Carbon dioxide, which is the main driver of climate change, remains in the atmosphere for centuries after it has been emitted. This means that the world is already ‘locked in’ to a certain level of global warming in addition to the 0.8C already experienced. Last week, Marshall Islands foreign minister Tony de Brum said that rising seas had caused World War Two skeletons to be washed from their graves.

EDIT

http://www.rtcc.org/2014/06/10/kiribati-president-it-is-too-late-to-save-my-islands/

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