Litokne Kabua is a climate activist from the Marshall Islands and one of the 16 children petitioning the UN to act on climate change. He walks through the sites where the waves knocked down his outside bathroom and destroyed a kids’ basketball court. “The world talks about climate change but for us it’s an existential threat,” says President Hilda Heine of the Marshall Islands.
TRANSCRIPT
[WAVES CRASHING]
THE WAVES CAME, AND THEN THEY
REMOVED THE PIECE OF LAND THAT
USED TO BE OVER HERE. SO OVER
HERE IS WHAT USED TO BE OUR
OUTSIDE BATHROOM, AND THEN IT
WAS KNOCKED AWAY.
THIS WAS USED TO BE A BASKETBALL
COURT AREA FOR SMALL KIDS, BUT
IT DESTROYED. ALL THIS AREA WAS
IMPACTED, AND IT WAS FLOODED.
60% OF THE COMMUNITY HERE ON
EBEYE HAS BEEN DAMAGED OR
AFFECTED BY THE RISING SEAS AND
CLIMATE CHANGE.
[CHILDREN TALKING INDISTINCTLY]
WOMAN: THE WORLD TALKED ABOUT
CLIMATE CHANGE BEFORE US. IT'S
AN EXISTENTIAL THREAT. FOR THE
MARSHALLESE YOUTH, WE HAVE 3
THAT ARE SIGNATURE TO THE
PETITION. WE ARE VERY PROUD THAT
THE 3 HAVE TAKEN A ROLE IN THAT
VERY IMPORTANT CHALLENGE BECAUSE
THE LIVES OF PEOPLE IN COUNTRIES
LIKE THE MARSHALL ISLANDS IS ON
THE LINE. IT'S HARD TO JUST
CLOSE OUR EYES AND HOPE THAT
THIS IS NOT GONNA GET WORSE,
BECAUSE WE SEE IT GETTING WORSE
AND WORSE EVERY YEAR.
