Island Nations Heat Up Climate Summit

But they don't expect big results in Cancun
By Matt Cantor,  Newser Staff
Posted Dec 5, 2010 9:01 AM CST
Island Nations Heat Up Climate Summit
Activists demonstrate outside a Wall-Mart supermarket during the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Cancun, Mexico, Friday, Dec. 3, 2010.   (AP Photo/Israel Leal)

Islands across the world are already feeling the burn of global warming, and they’re trying to get their voices heard at the climate change summit in Cancun, the Los Angeles Times reports. The 43 countries have banded together in an Alliance of Small Island States, which is voicing its fury with the pace of developed nations' action on climate change—only not one major world leader is attending the conference.

Still, “I won't shut up,” says a rep from Seychelles. “Even when we're underwater, when the bubbles pop, you'll hear us yelling.” Countries like his are facing climate change’s effects “right now” in the form of extended droughts and rising seas. But at the summit, “you're talking to people who refuse to listen.” For his country, though, “it's simple. As the poles melt, we drown."
(More climate change stories.)

Get the news faster.
Tap to install our app.
X
Install the Newser News app
in two easy steps:
1. Tap in your navigation bar.
2. Tap to Add to Home Screen.

X