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Climate Change in Kiribati

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Listening to NPR this morning while I was getting ready to leave, I was struck by the feature story that I was hearing over the airwaves, about the intersection of climate change and religion in Kiribati. In this little nation, where the overwhelming majority are deeply religious, many of the 33 islands are but six and a half feet above sea level while the most modest projections for sea level rise are around three feet according to IPCC estimates (which, according to the book I'm in the process of reading by Peter Ward, failed to take into account several factors which makes this estimate moot anyway; the actual rise in this century will be much higher, followed by endless centuries of rise).

But even in this nation, surely a sign of the grim reality of climate change, as certain freshwater sources become increasingly saline and undrinkable, deniers exist. One interviewed man based his opposition on the Biblical Flood story of Noah in which, after the Ark landed on dry land, saying that as God promised never to flood the entire earth again he didn't have to worry about sea level rise.

I despair that even in such a clear-cut case, people still refuse to acknowledge the new reality of climate change. It isn't even a good theology much less good science; God's promise to Noah was, I recall, that he would never cover all the world with a flood again. Sea level rise is flooding but not a flood; all the world will not be covered, but all of the world will certainly be affected.
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  1. Herla cyningFebruary 16, 2011 at 7:25 AM

    Very good, Mr. Clemens: short, concise, objective enough to suit any sane person

    ReplyDelete

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