Island Nation Of Kiribati To World: Thanks For The Update, But You're A Bit Late

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TOKYO, Feb 2 (Reuters) - World efforts to stem global warming are welcome but may be too late for nations such as tiny Kiribati, whose people could be forced from their homes by rising seas within decades, Kiribati President Anote Tong said.

A United Nations climate panel is due to formally issue a report in Paris later on Friday that will blame human activities for heating the planet over the past 50 years. "We're very happy that now at last there is agreement, that all the countries are in agreement that we have a problem with global warming," Tong told Reuters on Thursday during a visit to Tokyo in which he met Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. "The question is, what can we now do? There's very little we can do about arresting the process," he said. "We believe it's already reached a stage where it is irreversible for most countries."

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Tong said his nation was already suffering, with land and houses washed away and even some public buildings threatened. But the worst effect was the human toll on Kiribati's 105,000 citizens, he said. "It's about the lives of the people, the homes, the source of livelihood. A lot of our people survive on taro, and the seawater has gone into that, so it's affecting their lives directly," he said. Although islanders have tried to move farther away from the water, the narrowness of the low-lying atolls that are their home means that in the end, their only choice may be to leave, perhaps in as little as 50 years, Tong added.

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Tong said he was grateful for international support such as this and other efforts to tackle global warming, but feared it was too little and far too late. "We should have acted a long time ago, and I think that any action that takes place now is dealing with the damage, not stopping the disaster," he said. "It's just like any disaster, like a tsunami in Aceh, but it takes longer to happen. And because it takes longer, it doesn't seem to attract the same degree of attention."

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http://today.reuters.co.uk/news/CrisesArticle.aspx?storyId=T243926&WTmodLoc=World-R5-Alertnet-3