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Prime Minister of Tuvalu visits Europe in a bid to stop the tiny island nation disappearing

The Prime Minister of Tuvalu, a Polynesian island nation in the south Pacific, has visited Europe in a bid to stop his country disappearing beneath the waves.

Enele Sopoaga has been touring European to rally support for tougher carbon-control measures before the 21st Climate Summit, to be held in Paris this December.

The goal of the summit is to limit the global temperature increase to 2°C above pre-industrial levels. If global temperatures increase more than this amount much of the world beyond the south Pacific is thought to be at risk of super droughts, mass extinctions and rising sea levels.

Sopoaga is quoted by The Brussels Times as saying: "If this island disappears under water, it is not the end of climate change. And I ask you what future do we hold?

"We need to collaborate as one human face to save human kind. Yes we can move the Tuvalu inhabitants to other people’s lands but it will not stop climate change. We need to save Tuvalu to save the world."

Tuvalu’s 10,800 population could be moved to Australia, New Zealand or Fiji.

The Tuvalu archipelago is positioned midway between Hawaii and Australia and a total land area of 26 square kilometres. Its highest point is no more than 4m above sea level.

See here for a list of the cities that are most at risk of of storms and floods.

Image: Atoll beach in Tuvalu (Stefan Lins/Wikimedia Commons)

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Comments

  1. Well I hope he visits Holland without delay! Of all nations they know most about reclaiming land from the sea and the building of high secure dikes and how to continuously pump excess water out over the dikes into the sea!

    Maybe Holland will give them a helping hand?

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