Drowning island nations: ‘This is how a Pacific atoll dies’

By PIA SARKAR
Associated Press

Heads of state from Tuvalu and the Marshall Islands have launched a “Rising Nations Initiative” as they race toward solutions to a rising ocean level that will make their countries all but uninhabitable in the coming decades. Tuvalu’s prime minister Kausea Natano and Marshall Islands president David Kabua laid out their plans Wednesday on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly, forming a global partnership aimed to preserve the sovereignty, heritage and rights of Pacific atoll island nations whose very existence has been threatened by climate change. The initiative has already gained the support of countries like U.S., Germany, South Korea and Canada, all of which have acknowledged the unique burden that island nations like Tuvalu and the Marshall Islands must shoulder.