Kiribati at the end of the sea
At the 28th United Nations Climate Change Conference, a documentary "The Melting of Greenland" was filmed very deeply and moving, the melting of Greenland was seven times as expected by the original scientists, and many participants and even dignitaries shed tears, and the leader of the Pacific island country "Kiribati" lost his voice.
Kiribati
Because as long as the global temperature rises, it is 1.5 degrees higher than before the Industrial Revolution, and when the tide is full, their land will be submerged. If the temperature rises to 3 degrees Celsius, without full tide, the country sinks to the bottom of the sea, and the first country in the world to potentially sink to the bottom of the sea is Kiribati. In your lifetime, you may see this human tragedy, that is, how a country sinks to the bottom of the sea.
And Kiribati now has some of the wealthier people who have become so-called climate refugees and have moved to New Zealand. As for those who have no money, he may not be able to do anything but watch his country sink.
Kiribati is beautiful, located in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, and belongs to Oceania. The country is composed of 33 large and small islands, with a land area of only 811 square kilometers, but the exclusive maritime economic zone covers an area of 3.5 million square kilometers, making it a veritable maritime power. Among the dozens of islands in the country, about 21 islands have permanent residents, with a total population of only 120,000, which is equivalent to the size of a small town on the mainland.
Local costumes
But the highest point in land area, Tarawa Island, is only 3 meters above sea level. Eighty-one percent of households here are directly threatened by rising sea levels. Experts predicted that this paradise-like island nation would sink within 60 years and become the next Atlantis, with salinization of groundwater sources and soils due to land erosion.
But compared to the soil problem, freshwater is the country's biggest problem. Rising sea levels are further driving the salinization of freshwater on land, making groundwater unusable. Residents have only bottled water, but bottled water is too expensive, and harvesting rainwater is the only option for many. But it sometimes rains all the time in Kiribati, sometimes not for months.
Ordinary people in Kiribati
The son of a traitor ruled
Faced with the risk of imminent national demise, Kiribati has turned to countries around the world, including China. In particular, the last president of Kiribati was a second-generation Chinese, Tang Anuo, but his father Tang Tinghai had a disgraceful past, he had taken refuge in the Japanese during the Anti-Japanese War, and fled to the island country of the South Pacific for fear of being liquidated after the war. Mr. Tong was also pro-Western by nature, severing diplomatic relations with China and establishing diplomatic relations with Taiwan in favor of Taiwan as soon as he came to power in 2003.
Anuo Tong in Taiwan (center)
It was not until 2016 that Kiribati resumed diplomatic relations with China, which had been interrupted for 16 years, in 2019, after a 16-year hiatus, and the Chinese-American president, after the traitor, immediately moved to the United States.
At present, some Kiribati people are not willing to live in the happy land of a lifetime, so they are drowning in the ocean, and they are actively saving themselves in the spirit of environmental protection, hoping to buy a little more time. But the problem of global warming is still serious and the rise in sea levels continues, so Kiribati realizes that it cannot stop the wheels of the global industrial revolution from rolling forward, and that human efforts in their current state cannot fundamentally curb sea level rise. Under such circumstances, Kiribati had to take further steps to resist.
Kiribati Presidential Palace
Faced with the fact that thousands of Kiribati's residents have already had to relocate due to rising seas, the Kiribati government has made ambitious plans to build artificial islands floating in the ocean. The current president, Taneshi Mamao, has been actively communicating with the Fijian side to gradually immigrate his residents to Fiji, and this plan is still being communicated.
There's a song about climate change sung in the area, and every child knows the lyrics as if they all knew what climate change means for Kiribati. Kiribati is not alone in the face of rising sea levels, and the harm caused by this phenomenon is not only affecting island nations like Kiribati, but also affecting every country and inhabitant of the global village.
Embassy of the People's Republic of China in Kiribati