The fact that islands are sinking into rising seas is not an abstract story for the people of the Solomon Islands, but rather everyday life. How a country tries not to sink.
For Rex Maehiu, the fact that islands are sinking into rising seas is not just one of the stories that scientists use to warn about climate change. He experienced it himself as the son of the village of Pulu in the south of the island of Malaita, which is part of the Pacific archipelago of the Solomon Islands. Today Rex Maehiu, 53, lives in the dusty capital Honiara on Guadalcanal in a house with electricity and running water. He is the vice-principal of a high school and drives a taxi during the holidays to supplement his meager teaching salary. But he spent his childhood and youth in the almost untouched tropical forest of Pulu by the sea.