Drowning Kiribati

Kirimati, AKA Christmas Island, is one of the 33 small islands which make up the world's lowest-lying nation, Kiribati.

The 103,000 citizens of Kiribati may soon become refugees, perhaps the first mass movement of people fleeing the consequences of global warming rather than war or famine.

LINK (via: Bloomberg)

Having your homeland engulfed by the ocean because of climate change doesn’t make you a refugee, or so the High Court of New Zealand ruled last week when it dismissed the case of Ioane Teitiota, a man from the low-lying Pacific island nation of Kiribati.

If the I-Kiribati (the term for Kiribati nationals) and other Pacific islanders are not refugees, the question remains, what are they—and what conventions can be put in place to protect them?

LINK (via: The New Republic)