The Betio Maternity Ward on Tarawa atoll – Kiribati’s capital is under threat from the March 2015 spring tide
While climate change is an issue that concerns the life and very existence of people in the Pacific Island nations, it is somehow a big laughing joke according to Australian Minister of Immigration Peter Dutton and Prime Minister Tony Abbott.
Climate Change was a top agenda for Pacific Island leaders at the recently concluded 46th Pacific Islands Forum meeting in Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea where Abbott also joined.
The agenda, as anticipated, was greatly watered down by the Pacific’s very own ‘bigger brothers’ Australia and New Zealand resulting in a failure for the Pacific grouping to reach a strong and unified declaration to take to Paris.
And in only less than 24 hours after the forum, Australia’s Prime Minister Tony Abbott upon returning to Canberra, laughed recklessly at a joke made by his fellow Immigration Minister Peter Dutton on the plight of Pacific Island people on climate change.
Ironically and oblivious to it, a camera with a boom microphone had captured the whole conversation which included the insensitive joke – which in essence, is a big slap to the faces of Pacific Island leaders who passionately pleaded for a declaration that will help save their people from the impacts of climate change at the recent forum meeting.
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The Betio Hospital was hit hard during the March 2015 Spring Tide causing it to be temporarily relocated to the Betio Sports Complex. The hospital has since resumed normal operations after the coastal area was fortified by slabs of concrete sea-walls
