Pacific islanders struggle for survival against global warming.

AuthorButler, Simon
PositionInterview

For Pacific islanders, climate change is not a threat looming somewhere in the future. Rising sea levels and unpredictable weather are having devastating effects right now. Climate change has already forced some communities to leave their traditional homes. Simon Butler spoke to two climate change activists from the Pacific about their campaign for immediate cuts to global greenhouse emissions.

Pelenise Alofa Pilitati is the chairperson of the Church Education Directors' Association in Kiribati. Reverend Tafue Lusama is the chairperson of the Tuvalu Climate Action Network. They were on an Australian speaking tour through July and August, 2009, which was co-sponsored by Greenpeace and Oxfam. For details of the tour go to http://www.greenpeace.org/australia/news-and-events/events/pacificvoicestour-300609.

Simon Butler: What are you hoping to achieve with your speaking tour?

Pelenise Alofa Pilitati (PP): I'm trying to get Australians to support the Pacific islands peoples and get the governments of Australia and New Zealand to sign an emissions-reduction agreement in Copenhagen that would protect the Pacific islands. We're gearing up for the Copenhagen climate conference at the end of this year.

The Association of Small Island States released a statement earlier this month criticizing the target of 2[degrees]C warming above pre-industrial levels that the richest countries set at a recent meeting in Italy. The small island states called for a 1.5[degrees]C target to save their countries, which would mean stopping emissions very, very quickly. What do you think is the problem with the policy of the world's richest governments? Why are they not listening to the science?

Reverend Tafue Lusama (TL): I believe that they have the political method which is economics-based. For example, when the US and Australia refused to sign the Kyoto Protocol their main reason was that millions in the US would lose their jobs if they tried to comply with the demands. So it was a very economics-based argument. But studies state otherwise. So the rich governments are not agreeing to the demands of the poor countries because they look at [climate change] as an economics issue, not a moral issue.

SB: What are some of the impacts of climate change in Kiribati and Tuvalu that are already taking place?

TL: Climate change impacts on life in our countries from every aspect. It challenges our livelihoods. It challenges our sustenance. It challenges our future. Take sea level...

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