Everyone thinks global warming is melting the artic—and it is—but tropical zones are also at risk.
As sea levels rise, natives of the Carteret Islanders of Papua New Guinea are seeing ocean water encroach on their homes and leave farmland too salty to grow crops.
Experts are calling them the first official refugees of climate change. Their villages could be completely underwater by 2015.
The first wave of escapees sailed away from their homes in small boats carrying almost nothing. Right now, the numbers are few, but a handful of families are already building villages on a neighboring island, on higher ground.
Ocean researchers claim annual sea level rise around the islands is 8.2 mm and many want the predicament of the island filmed, so believers and deniers alike can see the ravages of climate change.
Via TreeHugger.
Tags: climate change, sea levels
[...] Obama said the world needstarget goals and not vague approaches, calling for tough decisions and concrete actions in order to stop a potentially cataclysmic disaster. Just last month, natives of the Carteret Islands of Papua New Guinea had to abandon their homes due to encroaching se…. [...]