The island nation of Kiribati consists of 32 coral atolls that straddle the equator across 3 million km2 of the Pacific Ocean (Figure 1). It used to be known as the Gilbert and Ellice Islands: the islands were named after Thomas Gilbert, a British naval captain who navigated the archipelago in 1788. The nation gained independence from the UK in 1979 and adopted the name Kiribati, the local pronunciation of Gilbert.
Many of Kiribati’s atolls are under threat from rising sea levels The nation’s total land area is approximately 1,000 km2 and none of the atolls is more than 1 metre or so above sea level, making the land extremely vulnerable to even small rises in sea level.
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