Fiji

http://news.yahoo.com/entire-pacific-nation-could-one-day-move-fiji-044612426.html

Entire Pacific nation could one day move to Fiji

Fearing that climate change could wipe out their entire Pacific archipelago, the leaders of Kiribati are considering an

unusual backup plan: moving the populace to Fiji.

Kiribati President Anote Tong told The Associated Press on Friday that his Cabinet this week endorsed a plan to buy

nearly 6,000 acres on Fiji's main island, Viti Levu. He said the fertile land, being sold by a church group for about

$9.6 million, could provide an insurance policy for Kiribati's entire population of 103,000, though he hopes it will

never be necessary for everyone to leave.

"We would hope not to put everyone on one piece of land, but if it became absolutely necessary, yes, we could do it,"

Tong said. "It wouldn't be for me, personally, but would apply more to a younger generation. For them, moving won't be a

matter of choice. It's basically going to be a matter of survival."

Kiribati, which straddles the equator near the international date line, has found itself at the leading edge of the

debate on climate change because many of its atolls rise just a few feet above sea level.

Tong said some villages have already moved and there have been increasing instances of sea water contaminating the

island's underground fresh water, which remains vital for trees and crops. He said changing rainfall, tidal and storm

patterns pose as least as much threat as ocean levels, which so far have risen only slightly.

Some scientists have estimated the current level of sea rise in the Pacific at about 2 millimeters (0.1 inches) per

year. Many scientists expect that rate to accelerate due to climate change.

Fiji, home to about 850,000 people, is about 1,400 miles south of Kiribati. But just what people there think about

potentially providing a home for thousands of their neighbors remains unclear. Tong said he's awaiting full

parliamentary approval for the land purchase, which he expects in April, before discussing the plan formally with Fijian

officials.

Sharon Smith-Johns, a spokeswoman for the Fijian government, said several agencies are studying Kiribati's plans and the

government will release a formal statement next week.

Kiribati, which was known as the Gilbert Islands when it was a British colony, has been an independent nation since

1979.

Tong has been considering other unusual options to combat climate change, including shoring up some Kiribati islands

with sea walls and even building a floating island. He said this week that the latter option would likely prove too

expensive, but that he hopes reinforcing some islands will ensure that Kiribati continues to exist in some form even in

a worst-case scenario.

"We're trying to secure the future of our people," he said. "The international community needs to be addressing this

problem more."

Tong said he hopes that the Fiji land will represent just one of several options for relocating people. He pointed out

that the land is three times larger than the atoll of Tarawa, currently home to more than half of Kiribati's population.

Although like much of the Pacific, Kiribati is poor — its annual GDP per person is just $1,600 — Tong said the country

has plenty of foreign reserves to draw from for the land purchase. The money, he said, comes from phosphate mining on the archipelago in the 1970s.


M7 2012.