Kiribati: More than a Canary in a Coalmine
From Planet 235
by Sara Penrhyn Jones
Film-maker Sara Penrhyn Jones reflects on her work on the Pacific island nation of Kiribati, which faces potential obliteration from climate change; how local experts introduced its unique heritage to her, and how our sense of global justice is inhibited when such atoll communities are only acknowledged as a warning signal for what could happen to more powerful countries.
‘I think the future for my people will be... disappear’. Claire Anterea, from the island nation of Kiribati in the Central Pacific Ocean, struggled to evoke her feelings about the future, especially in English, her second language. ‘Our identity, our culture, our livelihoods, will be disappear. It’s sad for me to keep saying about it, that my people will have nowhere to go.’
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