Saturday, 14 February 2009

The world's first climate refugees

Lying off the coast of Papua New Guinea, the Carteret Islands are slowly being engulfed by a rising sea. Follow Dan Box's weekly blog as he journeys to meet the Carteret Islanders - the first people to be officially labelled as climate change refugees.

The people of the Carterets Islands are the first entire people to officially be evacuated because of climate change. As the sea level rises their drinking water and crops have been poisoned by salt and one entire island has been cut in half by the waves. The 1000 Islanders are now being evacuated and their home abandoned to the waves ...

And yet in the 'West' this unprecedented event remains widely ignored.

How much longer can we afford to stick our heads in the sand?


1 comment:

Rebelde said...

I don't really believe in a biblical 'paradise' beyond our planet; I believe our planet was --once-- a paradise, so it is not only sad but also a terrible omen for our future to know that even the wonderful region you mention in your post is the first to hand us out the bad news of climate refugees fleeing from an ecological disaster. But I'm afraid the west (the only world it seems to exist) will find a perfect excuse to do anything at all: economical crisis. And the environment? Very well, thanks!

Saludos Rebeldes [Ecologistas]