Journey of a Lifetime: The Sinking Islands

Journalist, Dan Box was the 2009 winner of the BBC/Royal Geographical Society's annual competition for the best dream travel idea. His ‘Journey of a Lifetime’ took him to the Carteret islands in the South Pacific, where the inhabitants, faced with worsening environmental conditions are undergoing an organised relocation.

The low-lying islands (we use the traditional local name - Kilinailau islands), with a population of just over 1500 people are becoming more uninhabitable due to the rising sea level, storms and high tides (an estimate gives their submersion by 2015). The Papua New Guinea government have organised the mass evacuation to the nearby Bougainville Island.


Kilinailau (Carteret) Islands [centre] from the new Times Concise Atlas of the World

Listen to Dan’s personal take on the reality of climate change, via the BBC podcast, first broadcast on BBC Radio 4 on Fri 4 Sep 2009

Environment
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More Links

Kilinailau on Oceandots.com the island encyclopedia
Dan Box's Blog - Journey to the Sinking Lands
Tom Heap's on Radio 4: The Carteret Islands - Sharks In The Garden

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