As global warming creates rising sea
levels, no one is perhaps more
vulnerable than people who live on
small islands. Expecting to find a
country battling to keep the sea back,
Radio New Zealand's environmental
reporter, Bryan Crump, traveled to the
atoll nation of Kiribati, which
straddles the equator in the middle of
the Pacific. This thirty-three island
nation lies no more than thirteen feet
above sea level. But Crump found a
nation already in an environmental
crisis of a different sort: overcrowded,
polluted, running out of water,
affected by coastal erosion and
disease. And while much of that is the
result of outside influences, Kiribati
is failing to find solutions.
This is part of our special international collaboration called Global Perspective: Nature in the Balance.
Kiribati in Crisis was produced by Bryan Crump of Radio New Zealand. It originally aired as part of the international collaboration Global Perspectives:Nature in the Balance.
Links:
Kiribati Fact Book
Facts on the Island Kiribati.
Kiribati Economy
An overview of Kiribati's economy.
Potential Impacts of Climate Change
A report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
Global Perspectives Radio Series
Listen to other programs from SOUNDPRINT's international radio documentary exchange series that addresses topics that impact our planet.
Books:
Monetization in an Atoll Society: Managing Economic and Social Change in Kiribati by: Asian Development Bank Staff, Foreword by Jeremy H. Hovland 2003 An analysis of Kiribati's economy and its potential for growth and development.
Lives on the Line: Women and Ecology on a Pacific Atoll by: Alexandra Brewis 1995 An examination of economic and ecologic factors that contribute to women's lives on the Pacific Atol of Butaritari.
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