Neemia-McKenzie visited Tamana, Abemama, Butaritari and Kiritimati [ed: no page sorry]. He asked the people about the changes that they had experienced in the last 30 years. He details small changes; for instance, the people no longer go barefoot since the ground is too warm, coconuts dry faster, and coconut oil no longer useful as a salve since it now melts off their skin.
The biggest fear among the islanders, however, was coastal erosion. (from Kiribati the island disappearing beneath the waves):
When we came here 11 years ago, the sea was about two metres further away,” says Mr Tsuria, who lives in the village of Eita, on Tarawa, the densely populated main atoll. “I am very worried, but there is nowhere for us to move to. All of the land is occupied and anyway, I have no money for another plot. What will become of my children and my grandchildren?”
The rising waters are obstructing their causeways, but worse, they are reaching the first row of coconut palms that are vital to their survival. Some of the palms have begun to topple.
Tsurias well water is now brackish, his Taro plot infertile. Two nearby uninhabited islands, Tebua Tarawa and Pikeman, no longer exist. The Mormon Church imported tonnes sand from Australia to construct their new Church.
The only high land in the archipelago is Banaba. This is the island that the colonial British mined, exhausting the sole natural resource: phosphorous. The supply ran out shortly before they granted the country its independence. This country in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, its inhabitants among the first to welcome the new millenium, may become the first environmental refugees.