Jasper the Cloud Above Kiribati

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Jasper the Cloud Above Kiribati takes place over Tarawa, in the Pacific island nation of Kiribati. Behind Jasper's story is a real place facing profound questions about the ocean, climate, home, and the future.

Rising Oceans

The world's oceans are rising.

Why?

As the Earth warms, ocean water itself expands. At the same time, glaciers and large ice sheets on land are melting, adding more water to the oceans.

Sea level does not rise by exactly the same amount everywhere. Ocean currents, winds, changes in the land, gravity, and other factors can make the effects different from one part of the world to another.

For people living on low-lying islands, even relatively small changes can matter.

Higher seas can contribute to:

• More frequent coastal flooding
• Erosion of beaches and shorelines
• Saltwater entering freshwater supplies
• Damage to homes, roads, crops, and other infrastructure
• Changes to coastal ecosystems
• Greater damage when storms and unusually high tides occur

For some communities, rising seas raise an even deeper question:

What happens when the place you call home becomes increasingly difficult to live in?

Where Is Kiribati?

Kiribati is an island nation in the central Pacific Ocean.

It consists of 33 islands scattered across the Pacific, dispersed over roughly 3.5 million square kilometres of ocean. Its land area is very small; its ocean territory is vast.

The capital region is South Tarawa.

Kiribati has a population of roughly 120,000 people. Many live on South Tarawa, where population density adds to the challenges created by limited land, freshwater, waste management, development, and a changing climate.

Kiribati is pronounced approximately Kiribas, reflecting the pronunciation of the letters in the Gilbertese, or I-Kiribati, language.

A Nation With a History

Kiribati is much more than a country threatened by rising seas.

Its islands have been home to Pacific peoples for thousands of years, with their own traditions, communities, navigation, fishing practices, stories, and relationship with the ocean.

The islands later came under British colonial rule as part of the Gilbert and Ellice Islands colony.

Tarawa also became the site of one of the major Pacific battles of World War II. In November 1943, American and Japanese forces fought a devastating battle on Betio, part of Tarawa Atoll.

Kiribati became an independent nation in 1979.

Today it is a sovereign Pacific country confronting a challenge that much of the world helped create, despite Kiribati itself having contributed very little to the greenhouse-gas emissions driving global warming.

What Is Happening in Kiribati?

Most of Kiribati's land lies only a few meters above sea level.

That makes the country particularly exposed to changes in the ocean.

Rising seas can intensify flooding and erosion and increase the risk of saltwater contaminating the freshwater that exists beneath some islands. Climate change can also interact with storms, tides, rainfall patterns, ocean temperatures, and coral reefs.

But Kiribati's future should not be reduced to a simple prediction that the country will soon "disappear."

The reality is more complicated.

Atolls are dynamic environments. Shorelines can erode in one place while sediment accumulates elsewhere. Human development also changes how islands respond to the ocean. Scientists continue to study how individual islands will change as seas rise.

The important question is not simply whether an island remains visible above the water.

It is whether people can continue to live there safely, with reliable freshwater, homes, infrastructure, livelihoods, culture, and community.

What Is Kiribati Doing?

Kiribati is not simply waiting for the ocean to rise.

The country and its communities have pursued different forms of adaptation, including coastal protection, improvements to water security, infrastructure planning, ecosystem protection, and international advocacy.

Kiribati has also drawn global attention to the difficult questions climate change creates for low-lying island nations.

• How should countries prepare?
• Who should pay for adaptation?
• What happens if people eventually need to move?
• How can a culture remain connected to its homeland if some of its people live elsewhere?
• And what responsibilities do countries with much larger historical greenhouse-gas emissions have toward countries such as Kiribati?

There are no simple answers.

Questions for Reflection

After reading Jasper the Cloud Above Kiribati, consider:

• What does it mean for a place to be home?
• How would you feel if environmental changes threatened the community where your family had lived for generations?
• Do people have responsibilities toward communities thousands of miles away?
• Should countries that have contributed the most to climate change bear greater responsibility for helping countries that contributed very little?
• What might be lost when people leave an island besides buildings and land?
• Can stories help us understand an issue differently from facts and statistics?
• If Jasper could look down on Kiribati 100 years from now, what would you hope he would see?

What Can I Do?

Climate change is enormous, but individuals are not powerless.

You can learn about where your energy comes from and reduce unnecessary energy use. You can consider climate impacts when making choices about transportation, food, consumption, and travel.

You can support organizations and communities working on climate solutions and adaptation.

You can learn about the experiences of Pacific Island nations directly from the people who live there rather than seeing them only through the lens of climate change.

You can participate in decisions in your own community and country.

You can talk about what you learn.

And you can remain curious.

Individual actions alone will not solve climate change. Governments, businesses, technologies, communities, and international cooperation all have important roles.

But large changes ultimately consist of decisions made by people.

Can We Reverse This?

We cannot simply return the oceans immediately to where they were in the past.

Some additional sea-level rise is already unavoidable because of warming that has occurred and the slow response of oceans and ice.

But that does not mean the future has already been decided.

The amount of warming that occurs matters.

The amount of future sea-level rise matters.

How quickly it happens matters.

And what communities and governments do to prepare matters.

Reducing greenhouse-gas emissions can limit future warming and reduce the magnitude of long-term sea-level rise. Adaptation can help communities deal with changes that cannot be avoided.

The question, therefore, may not be:

Can we undo everything that has happened?

Perhaps a better question is:

What can we still change about what happens next?

How Can I Learn More?

Good places to continue exploring include:

• NASA — Learn about the causes of sea-level rise and how scientists measure changes in the oceans, glaciers, and ice sheets.
• NOAA — Explore sea-level science, coastal flooding, climate data, and projections.
• United Nations — Learn about climate change, international climate action, and the particular challenges facing Small Island Developing States.
• Government of Kiribati — Learn about Kiribati from the country itself, including its government, policies, people, and national priorities.
• Pacific regional organizations — Explore climate change from a Pacific perspective and learn how island countries are working together on adaptation, resilience, oceans, and development.

One Story. A Real Place. A Shared Future.

Jasper may be a cloud.

Kiribati is real.

And the ocean beneath him connects us all.

Closing Thoughts by Pemba Umoja

I learned about Kiribati's history and the issues of rising oceans while visiting this beautiful place. I watched the clouds transform from crocodiles to frangipani before my very eyes. I could not pick up my pen and journal fast enough to bring Jasper to life.