A sinking feeling: why is the president of the tiny Pacific island nation of Nauru so concerned about climate change?

• Author: Stephen, Marcus
• Position: OPINION

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Climate change is about more than just the weather. For many low-lying island nations in the Pacific, it threatens local economies, food sources, drinking water--indeed, their very survival: Rising sea levels from the melting of polar ice caps are leaving entire islands at risk for flooding. The following is an adaptation of an Op-Ed piece by Marcus Stephen, the president of Nauru, one of the nations most vulnerable to the effects of climate change.

You've probably never heard of my country, and for that, I forgive you.

At just eight square miles--about a third of the size of Manhattan--and located in the southern Pacific Ocean, Nauru (na-OO-roo) appears as merely a pinpoint on most maps--if it is not missing entirely in a vast expanse of blue.

But make no mistake: We are a sovereign nation, with our own language, customs, and a 3,000-year history. Nauru is worth a quick Internet search, I assure you. Not only will you discover a fascinating country that is often overlooked, you will find a cautionary tale about life in a place with hard ecological limits. (For more on Nauru, see p. 31.)

Phosphate mining--first by European companies in the early 1900s and later our own--cleared the lush tropical rainforest that once covered our island's interior, scarring the land and leaving only a thin strip of coastline for the island's 10,000 people to live on. The legacy of exploitation left us with few economic alternatives and one of the highest unemployment rates in the world, nearly 90 percent.

I am not looking for sympathy, but rather warning you what can happen when a country runs out of options. The world is headed down a similar path with the relentless burning of coal and oil, which is altering the planet's climate, melting ice caps, making oceans more acidic, and edging us ever closer to a day when no one will be able to take clean water, fertile soil, or abundant food for granted.

Vanishing Nations

With sea levels expected to rise three feet or more by the end of the century, climate change threatens the very existence of many countries in the Pacific. Already, Nauru's coast, the only habitable area, is steadily eroding. In 2008 and 2009, respectively, people in nearby Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands were forced to flee their homes to escape record tides. The low-lying nations of Tuvalu, Kiribati, and the Marshall Islands (see chart, right) may vanish entirely within our grandchildren's lifetimes.

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