“I know that in the past there was a lot of focus on the polar bears. In my attempt to get attention on our own situation, I draw a comparison that what happens to the polar bears will also be happening to us in our part of the world.”
Tong compared the plight of his people to that of polar bears, a more familiar symbol of climate change in Western media, to draw attention to the human cost of rising seas in the Pacific.
— Anote Tong, Kiribati
Source: Anote Tong, quoted in Climate Home News, "Kiribati president: My people are the polar bears of the Pacific" (23 September 2014)
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