JIM MCMAHON/MAPMAN ®
Tuvalu—a nation of nine small islands in the South Pacific Ocean—is extremely vulnerable to climate change. Its surrounding sea levels are rising 1.5 times faster than the global average. “Docks are destroyed by high winds and high tides, and beaches are disappearing,” says Kato Ewekia, a Tuvaluan youth delegate with the Rising Nations Initiative. Scientists predict that by 2050, half of Funafuti—Tuvalu’s largest island—will be underwater during high tide.
In 2023, Tuvalu signed a treaty with Australia, which committed to helping with projects like seawalls, as well as offering Australian citizenship to 280 Tuvaluans per year. More than half of Tuvalu’s 11,000 citizens applied for the program this past June. “We are deeply connected to the land and sea,” says Ewekia. “Leaving home is a very hard thing to do.”