First To Be Officially Evacuated Because Of Climate Change, page 1

The first people to be officially evacuated because of climate change wil be 980 people from the Carteret atolls in the Pacific. A decision to surrender the islands due to rising sea level was made yesterday. The evacuation will start as soon as money is available to the regional government. The islands were dicovered by British navigator Philip Carteret in 1767.

Pacific Atlantis: first climate change refugees (Guardian)

November 25, 2005

For more than 30 years the 980 people living on the six minute horseshoe-shaped Carteret atolls have battled the Pacific to stop salt water destroying their coconut palms and waves crashing over their houses. They failed.

Yesterday a decision was made that will make their group of low-lying islands literally go down in history. In the week before 150 countries meet in Montreal to discuss how to combat global warming and rising sea levels, the Carterets' people became the first to be officially evacuated because of climate change.

Starting as soon as money is available to the Papuan New Guinean regional government, 10 families at a time will be moved by the authorities to Bougainville, a larger island 62 miles away. Within two years the six Carterets, roughly the size of 80 football pitches and just 1.5 metres high, will be uninhabited and undefended. By 2015 they are likely to be completely submerged.

According to the Red Cross, the number of people in the Oceania region affected by weather-related disasters has soared by 65 times during the past 30 years.

Please visit the link provided for the complete story.

Sea level is rising and polar caps are melting. And this is happening at an alarming rate. What can we do? Just prepare for more evacuations I guess...

Related Links:
Sea level rise doubles in 150 years (Guardian) (also from November 25, 2005)