Paradise Lost

This week, a small Pacific Island community on Tegua Island in Vanuatu had to pack up their lives, disassemble their coastal village and relocate inland. Their village was being repeatedly flooded by tidal surges attributable to climate change. The UNEP calls the Tegua Islanders the world's first climate change refugees. I wonder how the villagers feel about this honour? Pretty pissed off I would say, and not so much because it happened, but because it happened and the rest of the world doesn't seem to care - most of the world seems obsessed with keeping terrorists off planes; meanwhile, carbon emissions from air travel threaten the lives of millions.

The obvious analogy between Tegua Island's villagers and the global village should have us all worried - and when the temperature rises, we don't have the option of relocation.