The theme of this year’s forum was “How on Earth can we live together within the planetary boundaries?”
Mori’s address mainly focused on the realities of climate change and how it is affecting the islands of the Pacific.
He began his address by familiarizing the audience with geographical background information on the FSM and then gave a brief history of its people, highlighting the fact that Pacific Islanders have always lived in harmony with their natural surroundings, and only recently have they begun to awaken to the reality of climate change.
Mori said climate change is a “threat to our very existence that has now become our major preoccupation of this 21st century.”
“It has always comforted islanders to regard our remoteness from the developed world as our primary protection against external dangers,” he added.
“Sadly, with the growing environmental attacks that we now face, including global warming, our comfort has been taken away from us. Now our islands are among the first to experience the adverse impacts of climate change and sea-level rise, even though our contribution to its causes are negligible. Our remoteness can no longer insulate us.”
According to Mori, “As the rest of the world continues to debate the causes and effects of climate change, for the people of Micronesia, climate change and its effects are real and ever-present. Today, our people are already a living witness to its terrifying impacts.”
He spoke about the effects that will ultimately happen.
“The eventual disappearance of many small islands, including such island-states as the Marshall Islands, Kiribati, Tuvalu, and the Maldives. And many, if not most, small island states will become uninhabitable. This is why the Pacific Island Members of the United Nations were pushing that body to acknowledge that climate change has significant implications on national security and on the existence of nations and their peoples.”
Mori also explained the Micronesia Challenge — a commitment by the FSM, Palau, the Marshall Islands, Guam and the CNMI to effectively conserve at least 30 percent of the near-shore marine and 20 percent of the terrestrial resources across Micronesia by 2020.
