The Island Nation That Disappeared Underwater

Added: 2026-05-25

[00:00:02]The Republic of Kiraabati is a small island nation in the Pacific Ocean made up of 33 coral atals spread across an area of ocean larger than India. It has a population of around 120,000 people with their own language, culture, traditions and history stretching back thousands of years. It is also disappearing.

[00:00:23]Rising sea levels caused by climate change are swallowing Kiraabati's islands at a rate that scientists now say makes the nation uninhabitable within decades. The highest point of land in Kiraabati is just 3 m above sea level. Storm surges already flood homes, contaminate freshwater supplies, and erode coastlines regularly.

[00:00:43]The president of Kiraabati in 2023 said his country was already in a process of becoming a nation without land. In 2014, the government of Kiraabati spent $8 million to purchase 6,000 acres of land in Fiji as a potential relocation site for its entire population.

[00:01:02]They called the plan Migration with Dignity. Kiraabat's total carbon emissions account for 0.00001% of global emissions.

[00:01:14]The nations contributing most to the climate change drowning their islands contribute thousands of times more. The people of Kiraabati did not cause the problem destroying their world. An entire culture, language, tradition, and homeland is being erased not by war, not by disease, not by any choice of its own people, but by the decisions of nations powerful enough not to feel the consequences themselves.

[00:01:39]No way this is real, but it absolutely is.

[00:01:43]Follow for more true stories that prove some injustices happen in slow motion.