An Islander’s Bid to Be the World’s First Climate Refugee

– As Tropical Cyclone Pam ripped through the South Pacific earlier this month, Ioane Teitiota was 2,600 miles away in New Zealand checking Facebook for updates from friends and relatives back in Kiribati, a string of coral atolls about halfway between Australia and Hawaii.

The devastation wrought by the category five storm underscores the uncertain future faced by many in small Pacific Island nations as extreme weather events and climate change intensify. It’s a fate already being tested by Teitiota, who has launched an improbable bid to become the world’s first climate change refugee.