As Little As 10 Years Left Before Small Island State Citizens Begin To Leave - Permanently [View all]

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In less than a decade, climate change-induced sea level rise could force thousands of people to migrate from some small island developing states (SIDS), according to the executive director of the United Nations Environment Program.

The world’s 52 small island developing states (SIDS) increasingly share sea level rise and other escalating environmental threats that are further aggravated by economic insecurities, Achim Steiner added.

“What makes this situation even more grievous is that the climate change threats facing many SIDS are by-and-large not of their own making,” Steiner wrote in The Guardian. “Their total combined annual carbon dioxide output, although rising, accounts for less than 1% of global emissions.”

In his commentary, published in advance of this week’s third international conference on Small Island Developing States in Samoa, Steiner said small island states are suffering disproportionately from acts of environmental negligence of which humankind is collectively guilty. “Larger economies, until recently, have managed better than small ones to mask the impacts of exhausting their natural capital and contributing heavily to greenhouse gas emissions, but the consequences of this neglect are catching up with them too,” he said.

EDIT

http://www.desmogblog.com/2014/09/03/climate-change-could-force-thousands-small-islands-less-decade-un