The countries hurt most by climate change are fighting back—and getting results
Once home to more than 100 people, Vunidogoloa has been overrun by the tropical forest. Plants cover the town square. The stench of rotting rodents wafts from abandoned homes, and salt water seeps up through the soil as far as 300 ft. from Natewa Bay. This Saturday morning in mid-May is warm and pleasant, but a few times a year, king tides inundate the village with knee-high waters; locals were forced to place precious possessions on tall surfaces and run for the hills. “All the rights of living,” says Sailosi Ramatu, the village’s administrator, “had been lost because of climate change.”
And so, five years ago, Vunidogoloa was abandoned. The Fijian government built a new town about a mile up the hill at a cost of half a million dollars. Vunidogoloa is the first place in Fiji to relocate because of the effects of climate change, but it won’t be the last. Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama tells me he plans to move 40 Fijian villages in the coming years to cope with rising sea levels, which globally climbed about 7.5 in. in the 20th century and could rise 3 ft. more by the end of the 21st, according to the U.N.’s climate-science arm. “Every day I think about climate change,” he says.
This story is from the June 24, 2019 edition of Time.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber ? Sign In
This story is from the June 24, 2019 edition of Time.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Sign In
TIME 100 HEALTH-TITANS
Last May, U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy issued an advisory about the profound consequences of loneliness and isolation-a departure from the type of standard medical conditions his predecessors prioritized.
TIME 100 HEALTH-CATALYSTS
It's been a long time since there was good news about Parkinson's disease, a neurodegenerative condition that affects more than 8 million people worldwide.
TIME 100 HEALTH-LEADERS
'Catastrophic.' -BASHAR MURAD ON THE HEALTH SITUATION IN GAZA
TIME 100 HEALTH-PIONEERS
In the wake of the pandemic, a new era emerges-marked by fresh discoveries, novel treatments, and global victories over disease. These are the most influential people in health in 2024
A Man in Full, adapted and redacted
TOM WOLFE'S A MAN IN FULL IS A MASSIVE BOOK, IN MORE ways than one. The 742-page social novel about a swaggering Atlanta real estate mogul, which took Wolfe over a decade to write, sold a jaw-dropping 1.4 million hardcover copies after its publication in 1998. The book's themes-money, power, race, masculinity--are just as grand.
The golden age of Ryan Gosling is upon us
IN DEREK CIANFRANCE'S 2010 LOVE-ON-THErocks heartbreaker Blue Valentine, Ryan Gosling plays a husband and father, Dean, who appears to be nothing but an annoyance to his wife, Michelle Williams' Cindy, a harried nurse.
A MARRIAGE OF FOOD AND FICTION
In the kitchen with Rachel Khong, author of Real Americans
Greek Revival
PRIME MINISTER KYRIAKOS MITSOTAKIS IS DETERMINED TO MAKE GREECE THE COMEBACK STORY OF THE DECADE
HOLDING COURT
AT 20, DEFENDING U.S. OPEN CHAMPION COCO GAUFF IS MOVING INTO A NEW PHASE OF HER CAREER
Lost and found in a Russian prison
PRISON IS MORE THAN A PLACE. IT'S ALSO A MINDSET. When I entered Corrective Colony No. 2-or IK-2, in Mordovia, a region more than 300 miles east of Moscow-I flipped a switch in my head. I'm an inmate now, I told myself.