Persuasive Letter

Dear Prime Minster of Australia:
Kevin Rudd,

Why is it that the people who contribute least to climate change are the ones affected by it first? As you already know, there is a string of islands near Australia called Kiribati. Every day, due to climate change, Kiribati is becoming smaller and smaller, the islands are being consumed by the ocean. Buildings that were once on the coast are now out at sea. These people’s homelands are disappearing and Australia needs to give them a place to live.

A climate change refugee is a person who has to leave their home because the land becomes unlivable either because of a receding coast line, contaminated fresh water, disappearing food sources, or storms becoming more frequent or severe, these things are caused by climate change. In the past, land being submerged under water was never a problem, but now the problem is all too real. Every year sea levels rise about three mm. It may not seem like much, but if you think about how large the ocean is and the amount it will add up to in the next decade, it’s a lot. The UN predicts that 250 million people will be displaced by climate change in the next 50 years.

The President of Kiribati, Anote Tong, has thought long and hard about Kiribati disappearing, the last thing he wants is to move his country. But the more he learns, the more it is confirmed that even if we miraculously managed to drop our Co2 emissions to zero, there is no saving Kiribati. That is why he is asking for the help of other countries to allow his people to take residence on their land. The people of Kiribati need a place to go, and it would make sense for them to go somewhere within their region, (i.e. Australia). So far Kiribati has had to move twenty-one homes, a church, and their soccer field because of rising tides. Also taro (their main food source) is harder to grow, fish are becoming scarce, and the coconut trees are dying. But one of the scariest things is that wells are drying out and salt water from the rising ocean is contaminating the fresh water. Some scientists believe that the people of Kiribati will die of thirst before the island disappears completely.

The problem with Kiribati’s request is that other countries will not see the urgency of Kiribati’s situation until it hits them. When Kiribati presented its case in front of world leaders, other countries said making climate change the top priority would put the economy in a downspin. New Zealand has made an effort to help by selecting seventy-five people a year by lottery to come take permanent residence in New Zealand. But seventy-five people isn’t much compared to the hundred thousand people living in Kiribati.

The Prime Minster of New Zealand and yourself, the Prime Minister of Australia, say that you will not “put up the white flag” just yet. You want to try and slow climate change before we have to move people around. But unfortunately it is too late for that. Kiribati is shrinking, if we put in a big effort we may be able to slow the process, but we can’t stop it. The only thing to do now is to make plans for the future. To do this, Australia needs to give the people of Kiribati a place to take residence when the time comes for them to move.

Time is running out, you must act now. The sea levels are rising and with it the fears of a nation. Land is disappearing and food and water are becoming scarce. No one is willing to understand the urgency of this situation and soon these people will have no where to go. We do not want to see a Nation lost to climate change, so we must help these people now.

Before I go, I wanted to leave you with one last thought. It may be too late to save Kiribati, but it isn’t too late for the rest of the world. We need to do everything we can to slow climate change; we are the ones who have the power to do something about it. Together, we can save the world. Thank you for reading this letter, I hope you make the right decision.

-Sophia
Sunnyside Environmental School
Portland, OR USA