When Cyclone Evan slammed into Samoa five years ago next week, it triggered the near-complete loss of power and water supplies in the capital, Apia, and forced villagers to relocate to schools and the university for months.
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| An overhead view of Ejit, of the Marshall Islands, where rising sea levels are already an inescapable part of daily life. |
The category-4 tempest was the strongest to hit the Pacific nation in a couple of decades. For Samoan Brianna Fruean, one of the Pacific Climate Warriors, it was another sign - along with rising sea levels, and more intense floods and droughts - that action needed to be taken.
"Climate change is happening right in front of our eyes," Fruean said this week on the sidelines of a meeting in Fiji of Civicus, a global civil society group.
Helen Clark - the former New Zealand prime minister and an ex-senior United Nations official - was also at the Suva gathering. Clark says she is not surprised by its central topic.
Read Peter Hannam’s comment in today’s Melbourne Age - “‘Existential threat': climate change risks finally grab Australia's attention.”
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