Amid much talk about climate change at the United National Civil Society Conference in Utah, Selina Neirok Leem from the Marshall Islands said something Tuesday that was more urgent and pleading than most.
She said scientists used to predict that rising sea levels from global warming would make her island disappear by 2050. But conditions are worsening, so now the prediction “is 2030. Please take a moment to absorb these numbers — two decades less is what we have.”
Already she says rising sea levels bury much of her islands in floods during storms.
“A few years back, mama, the kids and I had to go sleep at the Mormon Church because we had been warned on the radio about higher flooding.