Ted Talk – Anote Tong: My Country Will be Underwater Soon — Unless We Work Together
For the people of Kiribati, climate change isn’t something to be debated, denied or legislated against — it’s an everyday reality. The low-lying Pacific island nation may soon be underwater, thanks to rising sea levels.
In a personal conversation with TED Curator Chris Anderson, Kiribati President Anote Tong discusses his country’s present climate catastrophe and its imperiled future. “In order to deal with climate change, there’s got to be sacrifice. There’s got to be commitment,” he says. “We’ve got to tell people that the world has changed.”
I have always respected the scientific community warning us of climate change, but until one actually sees something connected to it, it remains some abstract concept difficult to act upon. This has ceased being an abstraction in KW. Any kind of full moon tide (is it called a neap tide?) often brings water coming up thru the sewer system. But even more startling for me is what I saw while driving down 10th street in the neighborhood behind the Lutheran Church. There is a kind of salt water lake back there that runs right along the edge of the street from about Harris to Patterson. I recently saw the last 100 yards or so of 10th street covered with water, perhaps 6 inches in depth. I’d never seen that before. Viva Kiribati! ciao, Jerome