Even islands with higher ground will suffer enormous damage, as their people, industries and infrastructure are usually crowded near the coast. Yet though they will be among global warming's first victims, the world's small islands emit only a tiny amount of the polluting gases that cause it. Their size makes small islands particularly vulnerable to hurricanes and other natural disasters, which have been getting fiercer and more frequent over the past decade. Insurance companies have been withdrawing from both the Caribbean and the Pacific because of the costs of compensation. Recently, devastating droughts have gripped Fiji, Samoa, Tonga and other Pacific islands.
Small islanders are particularly dependent on fishing .
But catches in the Caribbean have fallen by nearly half since 1985 and fish stocks in the Indian and Pacific oceans are under increasing pressure from foreign fleets. The United Nations reports that small island developing states have made 'a great deal of effort' to implement the Barbados Programme of Action drawn up in 1994, and have made 'strenuous efforts to persuade the international community to take earnest and effective measures to arrest global warming'. Many SIDS score highly on the United Nations Development Programme's Human Development Index, which measures how much countries' policies actually benefit their people, such as through widespread education and health care. Barbados scores amongst the highest Southern nations, outstripping some industrialized ones, while Seychelles and Mauritius top the index for Africa. Other island nations with high rankings include Antigua and Barbuda, the Bahamas and Singapore.