Like the Maldives, Kiribati Islanders too Seek Land to Buy as Rising Seas Threaten

Kiribati, a Pacific island-nation in danger of being submerged because of global warming, may purchase land elsewhere to relocate its people, reports www.bloomberg.com/.
“We would consider buying land,” President Tong of Kiribati said in an interview in New Delhi. “The alternative is that we die, we go extinct.” Kiribati (pic), between Hawaii and Australia, is the second island-nation after the Maldives that’s floated the idea of buying land should their islands be swamped by rising seas and more powerful storms. President Tong, who holds a masters degree from the London School of Economics, was elected Kiribati president in 2003 and re-elected in 2007. The country won independence from the U.K. in 1979.

Warmer temperatures are melting icecaps, expanding the volume of oceans and causing more intense storm systems. Higher tides in Kiribati’s 33-island archipelago are making potable water for its 100,000 residents too salty to drink. Tong appealed Feb. 5 to leaders who will meet in Copenhagen in December to turn their attention to islanders hurt by global warming.
“I can fully understand why responsible leaders of countries like Kiribati and the Maldives want to take action now and I think we’ll see more of this,” said Kim Carstensen, climate-change program director for the environmental group WWF International.
The United Nations has called on 192 countries to negotiate a new climate-protection treaty to be signed in Denmark. The UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has predicted sea levels will rise one to two feet by 2100, having climbed 17 centimeters during the last century. The panel also said tropical cyclones likely will increase in intensity.
The sea level around Kiribati, the former Gilbert Islands, has been rising 5.1 millimeters a year since 1991, Australia’s National Tidal Centre reported.