Climate Change Threatens Pacific Island Nation Of Vanuatu

TANNA, VANUATU - DECEMBER 04: Men walk on a sea wall at a small port on December 04, 2019 in Tanna, Vanuatu. Satellite data show sea level has risen about 6mm per year around Vanuatu since 1993, a rate nearly twice the global average, while temperatures have been increasing since 1950. 25 percent of Vanuatu’s 276,000 citizens lost their homes in 2015 when Cyclone Pam, a category 5 storm, devastated the South Pacific archipelago of 83 islands while wiping out two-thirds of its GDP. Scientists have forecast that the strength of South Pacific cyclones will increase because of global warming. Vanuatu’s government is considering suing the world’s major pollution emitters in a radical effort to confront global warming challenges and curb global emissions, to which it is a very small contributor. (Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images)