Just like New Orleans, here is a group of poeple facing a prospect of being underwater and waiting to see what will happen.

Just like New Orleans, after ample warning, I have no doubt we will see images of these people on the roofs of their homes waiting for rescue from the rising water they were warned about long before that moment, and did nothing.

Then we can sit back and watch the fun as the press tries to find out who is to "blame".

Nature is cyclical, you must either adapt or succumb.

This article is typical of the enviro yellow journalism currently permeating the mainstream media. What is probably happening in Kiribati is not a rise in sea level, but rather a subsidence in the Earth's crust. This happens all the time in tectonically active areas.

If sea level were rising, it would be rising everywhere -- not just on tropical islands. Do you see coastal cities being swamped world-wide? No -- because sea level is not rising, at least not to any measurable extent.

As for the IPCC, it is a highly politicized UN organization with a political agenda: to bash the US and portray us as the evil bogeyman ruining the rest of the world. Their climate science is highly suspect and has been discredited by Canadian researchers McIntyre and McKitrick (do a Google search if you don't know who they are).

Don't assume your conclusion. Research it first.

Where will they go? That's the same question as asking who pays in an auto accident.

The answer is the same -- the person or persons at fault.

In this case, the world's largest polluter (by far); the country that refuses, still, to cut emissions; the country still allowing its companies to sell CFCs overseas:

The grand old US of A.

Where will they go? There's only one fair answer to that question.

Funny thing, of course, life being full of irony, is that it would also be the "Christian" thing to do to take them in.

Please compliment Aaron on his article which I thought was thoughtful, colourful and well-informed. I lived on Tarawa for almost two years in 2000 - 2001 and visited many of the Outer Islands during that time.

The state of the country and the rising water levels were of permanent concern to my I-Kiribati friends at the time and of course still are, more and more, if anything.

I worked there as a VSO, assisting with English Language education for adults at the Tarawa Technical Institute, a vital tool for I-Kiribati people, who are going to have to look towards other nations more and more if they want to stay alive.

Instead of increasing aid to this former colony the British Government decreased it and pulled out its representative. VSO finished its programme in Kiribati. There is still EU aid and an EU representative, but Australia and New Zealand are the main aid donors. There is some help from the Japanese who are fishing the Pacific clean of tuna and instead of the People's Republic of China the country relies on Taiwan for aid.

The country has no economic or strategic importance to speak of that cannot be fulfilled by other Pacific Island countries that are within easier reach.

The I-Kiribati people are lovely but not an economic or any other sort of force. They make fantastic sailors: the German merchant navy has been aware of this for a while and helps to find and fund training and jobs for many I-Kiribati men.

One of my VSO colleagues, a Dutch scientist with an interest in the effects of global warming on the country that all of us who lived there, still love so much, is still involved with a number of projects and people there. You might like to contact him if you are interested in running more stories about the country.