Guest essay by Eric Worrall
The President of Kiribati doesn’t want his people to be seen as climate charity cases – instead he wants investment, new tourist resorts to give his people jobs and economic opportunities, to help pay for reclaiming land from the sea like Singapore.
As climate change threatens islands, Kiribati’s president plans development
The low-lying Pacific island nation of Kiribati is one of the parts of the world most threatened by climate change and rising sea levels. Scientists say the islands could be uninhabitable within decades, and in recent years, some leaders there have begun planning for a worst-case scenario that could involve relocating the population to other countries.
However, in a video presentation to the international climate conference in Bonn, Germany, last week, the president of Kiribati appeared to be turning away from such a plan.
“Climate change is indeed a serious problem,” President H.E Taneti Maamau said in the video.”But we don’t believe that Kiribati will sink like the Titanic ship. Our country, our beautiful lands, are created by the hands of God.”
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Later in the video, far from discussing abandoning the islands, a narrator instead proclaims the goal of promoting tourism by attracting foreign investors to develop “5-star eco-friendly resorts that would promote world-class diving, fishing and surfing experiences” on currently uninhabited islands.
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Government officials say they are working on a plan to raise the level of a large area of currently uninhabitable land to make it habitable.
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Read more: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/climate-change-kiribati-president-taneti-maamau/
I can’t find a link to the video – please post in comments if you find it.
I’m really starting to like President Anote Tong. He plays the game to an extent, happy to host and be seen with globe trotting eco-celebrities, but he has a charming habit of going off script when it comes to climate change.
Anote Tong simply refuses liberal attempts to herd his people onto their allotted lefty intellectual reservation, to play the part of victims of Western greed helplessly waiting for the West to decide their fate.
Anote Tong’s response when asked why Kiribati residents weren’t flocking to New Zealand, why New Zealand was struggling to fill a 75 position annual citizenship lottery;
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But there hasn’t been a dramatic exodus just yet. The New Zealand immigration department sets aside 75 places a year in a lottery for migrants from Kiribati, and at the moment it can’t fill them.
President Anote Tong suggests that is because things aren’t desperate enough yet.
“It’s not a critical issue yet. I think if there are people who migrate now, I hope they would do it out of choice. But as to the question, is it so critical that people would be regarded as refugees? My answer would be no, not at this point in time.”
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Read more: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-34674374
I have no idea what kind of leader Anote Tong is at home, but at least in terms of his appearance on the world stage, my impression is Kiribati could have done a lot worse.
Correction (EW) – h/t Bruce Cobb – Anote Tong was voted out in 2016, so this latest climate plan is an initiative of the current President Taneti Mamau. Fixed a typo in the title (h/t Oldseadog)
President H.E Taneti Maamau’s video:
it clearly says global warming, not man made global warming
How long does it take 1.5mm\y to rise three meters 😀 The Dutch dealt with it, even in my hometown Dublin Ireland, we took back slices of land from the sea.
Kiribati needs to 1, raise coast ground level and 2 install concrete erosion barriers, we did this in Ireland ffs.
If they can just be honest and say erosion and slow creeping natural sea level rise is gonna hurt us, yeah sure, I’d donate myself, this climate crap is laughable and deserves no pity
It’s hilarious how “climate change” is the reason intoned for doing something you should, or planned to do anyway.
Sounds a lot like all discretionary spending from U.S. (UN) budgets.
What is the resort discount for those visitors with green creds and advocacy membership?
Kiribati is how the natives pronounce the former name, Gilbert Islands. I find this utterly ridiculous, why change the maps…
Whose maps?
Umm, the people who print maps, genius
Guess the people there have every right to change the name to reflect their own culture instead of that of the French who named it. But Kiribati does not include all of the Gilbert Islands.
I had a memory that a lot of these islands had super phosphate that was historically mined. I was looking for which islands had been mined and ran across this timeline.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/country_profiles/2944816.stm
The legal actions were intersting but note the 1989 enrty:
It would be interesting to know which islands this was but I have been unable to get that detail.
Nauru (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nauru) and Ocean Island (now Banaba, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banaba_Island )
It should be corrected that Anote Tong is no longer President of Kiribati, however we should be thankful for his entire efforts. The currrent President is Taneti Maamau who came up with his vision for the next twenty years called Kiribati Vision 20 to transform Kiribati into a more resilient, secured and prosperous nation.
As usual climate change is coupled to rising sea level.
“Kiribati is one of the parts of the world most threatened by climate change and rising sea levels”
Rising sea level is not caused by climate change, or it is anyway not visible in any measure of sea level.
Placed in the Pacific ocean they will not feel any measurable temperature change.
To be fair, they are just staying on script. They don’t want to risk a visit by the dreaded Climate Inquisition.
Kiribati has been in focus several times. Sea is not at all in a rising mode as evidenced by the tide gauges.
In 2012, I had reasons to reply here:
http://autonomousmind.wordpress.com/2012/03/08/kiribati-sea-level-story-dr-nils-axel-morner-responds-exclusively/
Let me cite:
With respect to the article on March 7 by Paul Chapman on the future of Kiribati, I have to protest and urge all readers to consult the only “hard facts” there are, viz. the tide gauge record of the changes in sea level.
The graph reveals that there, in fact, is no ongoing sea level rise that threatens the habitation of the islands. This is the hard observational fact, which we should all face before starting to talk about future flooding and the need for evacuation.
If the president of Kiribati, Anote Tong, claims that the islands will soon be flooded and that there is an urgent need to buy new land for possible future refugees, it is the president’s own tactical idea in order to raise money from abroad. Let us respect the observational facts and stay away from invented disasters.
best wishes
Nils-Axel Mörner
just now working in Fiji
https://doi.org/10.15344/2456-351X/2017/137
There’s this, from here in 2012 https://wattsupwiththat.com/2012/03/09/kiribati-on-the-move-not-sinking/
“Scientists say……”Oh dear.
If they expect help from the un, those luxury hotels are required. Is the island too small for a Mercedes dealership?
But we Americans should be ashamed of our reluctance to finance all this.
Prof Kench of Auckland U has also done much research. It corroborates that of Nils-Axel Morner above.