March 14, 2012 by David K. Sutton
Climate Change Isn’t Real? Tell That To The People Of Kiribati
Climate change is forcing the relocation of entire communities due to rising sea levels and thawing permafrost and some of this is even happening within the borders of the United States. “In Alaska, the thawing ground is eroding out from under coastal villages. About 2,500 Carteret Islanders are working on relocating to Bougainville, a larger island nearby.” says Sarah Laskow in an article titled Climate Change Is Forcing Entire Countries to Migrate.
The 100,000 people who call Kiribati home have an even more menacing problem. Their low-lying island nation is threatened by rising sea levels. While the coastal villages in Alaska are under siege now, the people of Kiribati face losing their entire nation to climate change.
Republican politicians and almost the entire conservative entourage of this country continue to deny climate change, but the rest of the world knows it is real and many are already feeling the effects and making plans for the future. Ignorance is not going to solve this problem. Idiots like Senator Inhofe can continue to live in their delusion, using Bible quotes as proof that only God has the power to change the climate, but that isn’t going to stop the potentially devastating effects of climate change here in the real world. “Families in low-lying areas like Kiribati don’t have the luxury of contemplating the fates of future generations—they must start acting now.”, says Laskow.
We need to stop thinking this is a future problem affecting people from far away. We need to start addressing it now from top to bottom. This problem is too big for individual actions alone. We need big government level solutions to make the changes necessary to avert a bleak future. “Climate migration can seem like a far away problem.”, says Laskow. “But climate change could force people in America to abandon their homes, too. This past year in Texas, as the drought wore on, towns started running out of water.”
We only have one planet to live on. It’s time we stopped taking that for granted.
dks
