December 1, 2015
By Nick Perry Kelly P. Kissel
Majuro Atoll, Marshall Islands - Valentino Keimbar (click here) hides from the intense heat in the shade of a breadfruit tree, waiting for his basketball game to begin. It was supposed to start a couple of hours ago, maybe three, but time matters little here on the Marshall Islands.
By Nick Perry Kelly P. Kissel
Majuro Atoll, Marshall Islands - Valentino Keimbar (click here) hides from the intense heat in the shade of a breadfruit tree, waiting for his basketball game to begin. It was supposed to start a couple of hours ago, maybe three, but time matters little here on the Marshall Islands.
Keimbar would love to stay on this tiny string
of atolls in the vast Pacific Ocean, which he considers a precious gift
from his ancestors. But he fears hotter weather and rising seas may
soon force everyone to go, and that many will choose an unlikely place
nearly 10,000 kilometres away: Springdale, Arkansas.
For more than three decades, Marshallese have
moved in the thousands to the landlocked Ozark Mountains for better
education, jobs and health care, thanks to an agreement that lets them
live and work in the U.S. This historical connection makes it an obvious
destination for those facing a new threat: global warming....
At a time when the word immigration is a bad word in the USA, the residence of the Marshall Islands have no choice but to relocate in the USA as they no longer have a livable home country.
December 2, 2015
By Coral Davenport
...Mr. deBrum’s (click here) focus is squarely on the West’s wallets — recouping “loss and damage,” in negotiators’ parlance, for the destruction wrought by the rich nations’ industrial might on the global environment. Many other low-lying nations are just as threatened by rising seas. In Bangladesh, some 17 percent of the land could be inundated by 2050, displacing about 18 million people. But the Marshall Islands holds an important card: Under a 1986 compact, the roughly 70,000 residents of the Marshalls, because of their long military ties to Washington, are free to emigrate to the United States, a pass that will become more enticing as the water rises on the islands’ shores....
I am quite surprised the Republican majorities haven't passed a bill to alter the accord that President Obama would have to veto. But, I don't know why I am surprised nothing has been done about the people of the Marshall Islands; the Republicans only pass legislation that is politically motivated and known to be an issue on FOX News. The islanders are safe in Arkansas though, FOX News won't carry their problem to a national audience because it would bring the climate crisis to reality. FOX News would be undone if they hinted human induced global warming is real. No audience, no ratings, no power mongering and no adrenaline rush. It just won't be the same.
At a time when the word immigration is a bad word in the USA, the residence of the Marshall Islands have no choice but to relocate in the USA as they no longer have a livable home country.
December 2, 2015
By Coral Davenport
...Mr. deBrum’s (click here) focus is squarely on the West’s wallets — recouping “loss and damage,” in negotiators’ parlance, for the destruction wrought by the rich nations’ industrial might on the global environment. Many other low-lying nations are just as threatened by rising seas. In Bangladesh, some 17 percent of the land could be inundated by 2050, displacing about 18 million people. But the Marshall Islands holds an important card: Under a 1986 compact, the roughly 70,000 residents of the Marshalls, because of their long military ties to Washington, are free to emigrate to the United States, a pass that will become more enticing as the water rises on the islands’ shores....
I am quite surprised the Republican majorities haven't passed a bill to alter the accord that President Obama would have to veto. But, I don't know why I am surprised nothing has been done about the people of the Marshall Islands; the Republicans only pass legislation that is politically motivated and known to be an issue on FOX News. The islanders are safe in Arkansas though, FOX News won't carry their problem to a national audience because it would bring the climate crisis to reality. FOX News would be undone if they hinted human induced global warming is real. No audience, no ratings, no power mongering and no adrenaline rush. It just won't be the same.
