Taking Atoll
“The 32 atolls of Kiribati are wisp-like shards of coral, dotted on both sides of the equator, tiny on their own but together covering an area as vast as the United States. They are all about 2-3 metres above sea-level and flat like pancakes; there is no higher ground to run to. For a long time, Kiribati was one of the world’s forgotten nations. It is adrift and alone in the ocean; its residents rarely left, and visitors rarely arrived.” But today, Kiribati is gradually rising to international prominence. Its rise coincides with the rise of the seas, as it is “among the first nations to run the climate change gauntlet, serving as a bellwether for the rising seas, the droughts, the storms, and all the other cruelties that follow. The irony is that Kiribati’s greenhouse gas emissions are the third lowest in the world. New Zealanders, per capita, emit 25 times more, Americans 45 times more.” Charlie Mitchell takes you to the front lines of climate change, where the discussion isn’t over the realness of climate change, but rather the amount of time a country has left: The Angry Sea Will Kill Us All.