“The Maldives and Kiribati highlight a hidden challenge for coping
with climate change. It’s not just about slowing the emissions of
greenhouse gases. It’s also about figuring out what to do for
localities threatened with the possibility of extinction from rising
“They are like the canary in the coal mine in terms
of the dramatic impact of climate change on a whole civilization of
people,” says Harvard University biological oceanographer James J.
McCarthy, past president of the American Association for the
Advancement of Science. “They didn’t cause the problem, but they will
be among the first to feel it.””
Read the entire article at http://www.sciencenews.org/view/feature/id/40789/title/First_wave.