Endangered Pacific Island Facing Mass Exodus. ABC News, June 5, 2008. "For the tiny Pacific nation of Kiribati, the environmental outlook is so grim the President, Anote Tong, has issued an appeal [to] Australia and other countries... to provide a home for his people, amid predictions that global warming will render the low-lying islands uninhabitable in 50 years. Kiribati is made up of three groups of coral atolls. The population stands at 90,000 on land [that] is barely two metres above sea level... With rising sea levels and erosion, many communities have already relocated. President Tong is watching on with sadness... 'To plan for the day when you no longer have a country is indeed painful,' [he said,] 'but I think we have to do that.' President Tong has just arrived in New Zealand for talks with Prime Minister Helen Clark [who] says there is already a small community from Kiribati in New Zealand... [Tong] says water supplies are being contaminated by the rising sea and time is running out."
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