The Marshall Islands have been in the news a lot this week with the news that the concrete dome over the radioactive contamination from the US nuclear tests back in the 40’s and 50’s is leaking. 73,000 cubic meters of contaminated soil were encased in concrete as a “temporary” measure, but that radioactive waste remains and is now directly in the path of increasingly strong storms and flooding as sea levels rise and climate change takes its toll in the South Pacific.
In 2014, during the UN Secretary-General’s Climate Change Summit, Marshallese poet Kathy Jetnil-Kijiner spoke on behalf of civil society, and read her beautiful poem “Dear Matafele Peinem” to the world leaders gathered there. While the poem moved some people to tears, the summit was largely a failure without any serious commitments to reduce emissions.
The Marshall Islands is one of the countries most affected by climate change. Eventually the Marshallese will lose their country entirely. Watch a video of Kathy Jetnil-Kijiners poem below and think about how it would feel to see your home disappear under the ocean forever.
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