Opinion: Don’t let rising seas drown the Marshall Islands
An aerial view of an atoll in the Marshall Islands in May 2014. By Hilda Heine and Patrick Verkooijen April 10 Hilda Heine is president of the Marshall Islands and chairs the Climate Vulnerable Forum. Patrick Verkooijen is chief executive of the Global Center on Adaptation and Managing Partner of the Climate Vulnerable Forum.
If the Marshall Islands cannot be saved, how will others manage? By the year 2050, up to 1 billion people — about 10 percent of the world’s projected population — could become climate-change refugees because of rising ocean levels, according to the United Nations. If only for this reason, the world should not let the Marshall Islands drown.
Determined to act before it’s too late, the Marshall Islands are transforming themselves into a real-life laboratory for preparing for the effects of climate change. They are building sea walls, designing large coastal protection systems, integrating adaptation and resilience into national plans, and expanding capacity to store rainwater in both urban and rural communities. Planners are also exploring the possibility of raising new islands to physically increase the landmass above water.
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