Standard Page - 10 October, 2011
People who live in the Pacific are at the frontline of climate impacts. Sea level rise threatens homes, removes soil and ruins crops, and warming oceans destroy food supplies.
Listen to Pacific Islanders talk about their experiences of climate change impacts in the videos below.
When Teava was a boy he fished in a vibrant coral garden but today the coral is bleached and the fish are depleted and poisonous.
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Ulamila has built a sea wall to stop the encroaching seas or the next big wave from washing away her land and endangering her family.
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Tupuariki can no longer use traditional methods of planting and fishing and he is losing his culture because of unpredictable seasons and extreme weather events.
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Richard Story has seen the devastating effects of climate change on the local lagoon and explains how it poisons the fish in a process called ciguatera.
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Keisha is a mother and an actor and won’t stand by while developed countries, the real creators of climate change, get in the way of a strong global treaty at Copenhagen.
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Elizabeth is from Pukapuka, an isolated island devastated by cyclones and other climate change impacts like severe saltwater inundation and coastal erosion.
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Poila is a school principle and doesn’t want the changes in the weather and in the oceans to destroy the unique community and the culture he is so proud of.
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Malae wants his children and grandchildren to grow up in his ancestral village but recent cyclones and encroaching seas are already forcing his family and his neighbours to move inland or overseas.
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Mrs Neiao is a mother of 10 and lives on the remote atoll of Nassau, where the winds are getting stronger and the waves more dangerous.
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Tim works for the Red Cross and grew up on the island of Kiribati. He loves his island home and can’t imagine a future anywhere else.
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