They use this not only for their own sustenance, but also to sell to the country's fish markets. Last year the tuna did not arrive. The same is true of the highlands of the Solomon Islands, where malaria has also begun to appear. Fiji and Samoa also are now suffering outbreaks of dengue fever which are far more severe than they have ever been before. Environmental refugees For some, the battle against a changing climate and rising sea levels has become too much, particularly when these are combined with population pressures.
Environmental refugees are already a reality in the Pacific.
Kiribati has begun an internal resettlement programme, moving people from Betio to the outer islands. Niue recently accepted seven families from Tuvalu who decided to escape from the increasing risks of living on a low-lying atoll. The Pacific's plea The world's climate scientists have already said human greenhouse gas emissions are having a discernible effect on global climate. While the Pacific does not have the expertise to say that the changes it is experiencing now are a direct result of greenhouse gas emissions, it does know that it is vulnerable now, and that there is a considerable probability that the risks will only increase in future. The Kyoto Protocol to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, which provides for an overall 5.2 percent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by developed countries, goes nowhere near the 60 - 80 percent reductions which the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has said are needed.