Bush Leaves Small Island States to Sink

N E W Y O R K, April 19 -- Last summer, when the Micronesian ambassador to the United Nations visited his South Pacific island country, he found he could not get a decent traditional meal.

The taro crop, a staple for the inhabitants of the Federated States of Micronesia, has been completely ruined by soil salination brought on by rising sea levels due to global warming, Masao Nakayama explained.

"It's very scary to see a disaster up close, so close," said Nakayama, a native of the island of Onoun, one of the 2000 islands that make up Micronesia. "I never thought I would see this on my island."

On neighboring Kiribati, the effects of global warming are scarier. Kiribati (pronounced Kiri-bas) is just one of the world's low-lying island states and atolls in danger of being swallowed up by the rising sea as greenhouses gases discharged primarily by industrialized countries warm the oceans.

But last month, when President Bush ditched the Kyoto Protocol, he effectively told the I- Kiribati (as the inhabitants of Kiribati are called) their tiny nation comprising 33 coral atolls could sink for all it was worth.

Signed by 84 nations in 1997, the Kyoto Protocol is an international agreement that contains legally binding targets to cut carbon dioxide emissions and curb global warming. Under the terms of the agreement — which has not as yet been ratified — 38 industrialized countries agreed to cut greenhouse gases by an average of 5.2% by 2010.

From Friend to Foe

Scientists have recorded that carbon emissions leading to global warming have led to the thermal expansion of the oceans that is turning the sea, once the closest friend of small islanders, into a fierce foe.

Analysis from data from tidal gauges set up by the University of Hawaii and by Flinders University in Adelaide in Kiribati have shown that the sea level has been rising by 3.3mm a year for the past 25 years.

The effects are devastating. From increasing typhoons and hurricanes, coral bleaching and seepage of salt water into ground water tables, to the looming disappearance of low-lying coastal lands, some of the world most tiny and beautiful nations face a threat to their very survival and with it, the unique cultures they harbor.