Global Warming, Rising Tides, and Cultural Genocide
by Kinza Clodmur, President of the Republic of Nauru

Among all the speeches and pontificating at the Kyoto Climate Summit, the following statement stood out for its poignancy and power. It was delivered by Kinza Clodumar, President of the Republic of Nauru, immediately prior to Vice President Al Gore's address. Nauru is an island nation in the western Pacific Ocean, on the equator north of the Solomon Islands. While Gore's statement was amplified worldwide by the international media, President Clodumar's contains far more serious truths which deserve consideration by people everywhere. -- Rhys Roth, Atmosphere Alliance

For more than five thousand years, my people have inhabited what the ancient mariners called 'Pleasant Island.' Rainforests once abounded on Nauru, anchored by the Tomano tree and decorated by hanging orchids. Hundreds of bird species, including our treasured Noddy bird, made Nauru their home.

But the twentieth century has not been gentle with our island. First we lost our land: Eighty percent of my country has been destroyed by phosphate mining initiated by colonial powers. Although restitution has been paid, in place of the green rainforest there are now gray tombstones of fossilized coral that remain after the phosphate was removed. My people have been confined to the narrow coastal fringe that separates this wasteland from our mother, the sea.

And now we face a new threat. The emission of greenhouse gases in distant lands is warming the Earth and causing the sea level to rise. The coastal fringe where my people live is but two meters [±6 feet] above the sea surface. We are trapped - a wasteland at our back, and to our front, a terrifying, rising flood of biblical proportions.

Our plight is not unique. In the Pacific alone, four other island countries face destruction unless global warming is arrested. Our island brothers and sisters in the Caribbean, Atlantic, and Indian Oceans face the same desperate plight. Throughout the world, the story is the same; island countries are on the front lines of the global climate catastrophe. Indeed, all countries with low-lying coastal areas share our vulnerability to the rising sea.

... We submit, respectfully, that the willful destruction of entire countries and cultures with foreknowledge would represent an unspeakable crime against humanity. No nation has the right to place its own misconstrued national interest before the physical and cultural survival of whole countries. The crime is cultural genocide. It must not be tolerated by the family of nations. The crime is no less when it is perpetuated slowly by the emission of invisible gases.

... My plea is not merely an urgent request on behalf of island nations and cultures; it is also a heartfelt warning to the entire family of nations. Small Island States provide not only a moral compass; we are also a barometer of broader visitations wisely heeded by all.

Unchecked climate change would cause untold human and ecological misery not just in our remote island countries, but everywhere on Earth. Already drought has afflicted much of the world of late and has caused raging brush fires. Recent studies by the World Resources Institute and the US Environmental Protection Agency project nearly a million deaths a year from the pollution coupled with greenhouse gas emission, mainly in developing countries.

...Island countries are the microcosm of which all other countries are the macrocosm. Unchecked climate change promises not only our destruction, but pestilence, disease and famine everywhere on Earth - for all living things. These are the certain bitter fruits of inaction on our part in Kyoto...

Let us create a Kyoto Protocol that we can show proudly to our children. Let us take action - effective action, prompt action - here in Kyoto, without reservation, without delay, for now and forever.