CNN Digital reporter John Sutter did on his climate change project called “2 Degrees”. It seems it’s a number that Scientists and economists say that we can’t pass. So if the climate warms more than 2 degrees Celsius, will greatly up the odds of climate catastrophe.
When he launched this project in April, he asked what readers were most interested in reading about — and they chose how 2 Degrees could affect climate refugees from a disappearing cost. After searching for a country that met the criteria, Sutter traveled to the Marshall Islands and spent 9 days there learning about how the Marshallese were affected by the rising sea and their disappearing coast.
In conclusion, he’s laid out a multi-part narrative with photos and videos. It’s a narrative that tells the heartbreaking story of the inhabitants of this Island. As well as and 15% of the population – 10,000.
A Clip
It’s disturbingly easy to write off a country you’ve never seen.
I didn’t realize that until I visited the Marshall Islands — until I watched five hours of sapphire ocean pass beneath my airplane window between Honolulu and Majuro, completely unable to pull my eyes from the wet infinity below.
No boats, no land. Only water — salt-speck waves cresting on a backdrop of blue; clouds casting coffee-stain shadows on the surface of the Pacific.
I felt my chest tighten up.
All this nothing.
Where was this freaking place?
The answer offered little comfort. Majuro appeared as a delicate necklace of land draped around a turquoise lagoon — some of it barely wider than an airport runway. I’d read plenty about the Marshall Islands before hopping on a plane in Atlanta 31 hours earlier. But none of it prepared me for the sight of this tiny little atoll — this coke-line of sand and palm — tossed out in the middle of the terrifying sea.
No wonder this place is at risk for climate change.
It’s barely treading water.
I embarked on this journey to the middle of nowhere because CNN readers voted for me to look into “climate refugees” as part of my Two° series on climate change. That idea came in the form of a question from Kelly, a 48-year-old reader in San Jose, California, who asked, “What happens if thousands or tens of thousands are displaced due to rising sea levels or desertification? Where do they go?”
Finally, all of those 10,000 have relocated to northwest Arkansas.
SOURCE: Provided to Green Living Guy by CNN
Many coral atolls in the remote Pacific just barely peek out above sea level, making them particularly vulnerable to climate change.
