2025-09-19
42 分钟This is The Guardian.
Welcome to The Guardian Long Read,
showcasing the best long-form journalism covering culture, politics and new thinking.
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by Atal Dev, read by Mikhail Sen.
In November 2022, Simon Kofi, then Foreign Minister of the island nation of Tuvalu,
announced a sensational plan for his country's survival.
Climate breakdown poses an existential threat to small island nations in the Pacific,
but Tuvalu's geography makes it especially vulnerable.
The highest point of elevation in the country is 4.5 metres.
If the water rises, there is no hill to run to.
In the past four decades, local sea level has risen twice as fast as the global average.
By 2050, the government expects half of the capital, Funafuti, to be flooded by tidal waters.
By the end of the century, more than 90% of the land could be submerged.
As our land disappears, we have no choice but to become the world's first digital nation.
Kofi declared in a video address to delegates at the UN Climate Conference COP 27.
In the background was an islet of Funafuti, Te Afwaliku.
Islands like this won't survive, Kofi said.
Then came the twist.
so we will recreate them virtually.