Tuvalu

The World Today - Tuvalu at Risk of Rising Sea Levels:

"JULIE BAYER: A lot of people are very concerned and they do believe that they are at risk of being the world's first environmental refugees. At the same time they don't want to really believe it because they love their island and they don't want to leave it."

It is a shame to see that we now have environmental refugees and the peoples who seem to be hardest hit by environmental damage are the islanders around the world and the tribal nations. Why is that? It seems sad our world risks losing such rich cultures and when you read this article you can see how much it hurts those people. New Zealand seems to be doing a very great deal in the South Pacific to spearhead ways and means of preserving these people and their cultures. Are we? What are we doing? Global changes will affect us all. You have only to look at old maps to see the world has changed and land masses have changed. Living through it is not the same as seeing a papaer map. We are all on this planet together. We need to take some community responibility for environmental refugees but it also means we need to look at how we, as so called civilised nations, are affecting the lives of others because we take no responsibilty for our own behaviour and lifestyle.