Paradise lost: climate change forces South Sea islanders to seek sanctuary abroad
By Kathy Marks, Asia-Pacific Correspondent - Friday, 6 June 2008
After years of fruitless appeals for decisive action on climate change, the tiny South Pacific nation of Kiribati has concluded that it is doomed. Yesterday its President, Anote Tong, used World Environment Day to request international help to evacuate his country before it disappears.
Water supplies are being contaminated by the encroaching salt water, Mr Tong said, and crops destroyed. Beachside communities have been moved inland. But Kiribati – 33 coral atolls sprinkled across two million square miles of ocean – has limited scope to adapt. Its highest land is barely 6 feet above sea level |
What will climate change do to our health?
07 Apr 2008 07:04:00 GMT - Written by: Megan Rowling
Scientists and health experts are working to gather more data and evidence on how climate change affects diseases and other aspects of health. Statistics are hard to come by.
Between 1997 and 2006, weather-related disasters killed an average of 71,000 people a year, according to the Brussels-based Centre for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters. But it's impossible to say to what extent those disasters were caused by climate change.
People often cite a World Health Organisation estimate that the effects of climate change since the mid-1970s may have caused over 150,000 deaths in 2000. WHO says the impacts are likely to increase in the future. |
