Negotiators at the UN Doha Climate Change Conference [8] managed to win an 11th-hour pact that kept the Kyoto Protocol [9] alive but put off anything more. Naderev Saño, the Philippines’ chief negotiator, broke down in tears, beseeching action as his homeland was being devastated by a Typhoon Bopha: "I appeal to leaders from all over the world to open our eyes to the stark reality that we face." Typhoon Bopha, classified as a Category 5 supertyphoon, is believed to have left nearly 1,000 dead as it tore through the southern island of Mindanao—making it more than five times as catastrophic than Hurricane Sandy [10]. Floods and landslides caused major damage in nearly 2,000 villages on Dec. 4, and more than 300 fishermen are still believed to be lost at sea. (FT [11], Dec. 12; PTI [12], Dec. 9) On Dec. 16, Cyclone Evan caused widespread damage in Samoa [13], with 4,500 left homeless, plantations destroyed and at least four dead. (Australia Network News [14], Dec. 16) Evacuations are now underway in Fiji, the next island nation in the storm's path. (AP [15], Dec. 15)
In the island nation of Kiribati, officials say Pacific storms are increasingly unpredictable, erosion is eating away at the thin soil, and much of the land will almost certainly disappear beneath the waves as the seas rise. Tarawa, a chain of small islands 30 kilometres long linked by causeways, forms the capital of the nation of around 103,000, and it shores are already receding. "The dear Lord has not made things easy for us," President Anote Tong said on the eve of Doha. Kiribati has bought 2,400 hectares on the Fiji Islands, a couple of hours' flight away, to move the population to when the time comes. "We have to be prepared," the president said, expressing the conviction that Kiribati will be virtually submerged by mid-century. (Business Recorder [16], Dec. 25)
