It's an Issue of HUMAN SURVIVAL

President Tong of Kiribati:

Kiribati's highest in our island is about an average of 2 meters above sea level. We may be at the point of no return, where emissions in the atmosphere will carry on to contribute to climate change, to sea level rise to the extent that in time, our small, low island will be submerged. It's not an issue of economic growth; it's an issue of human survival.

For some at this point in time, if the world community, the different countries don't kick the carbon habit, there'll be another country next on the line.


Mr. Achim Steiner (United Nation's Under Secretary General and UN Environment Program Executive Director):

Maybe there are many countries who will not immediately face the prospects of Kiribati, but indeed there are many island nations who are doomed already by now, by the end of this century, to disappear. And that is just the beginning of the visible impact of climatic change. The invisible part, the bits that we have not necessarily understood that are happening around us are also on their way.

Spoken during World Environment Day: Kick the Carbon Habit meeting on June 5th, 2008 in Wellington, New Zealand.