Heading for Hills May Be Only Option on Fiji

Imagine taking the state of Connecticut and breaking it up into little pieces. Then, sprinkle the bits over an area the size of Africa — and you have the island nations of the Pacific.

These islands hold both paradise and poverty. What's common to all of them, though, is their proximity to the ocean. It laps at their doorsteps, and controls their weather and food supply.

Now, that ocean is changing as the world warms. Along the coast of Fiji's big island, Viti Levu, resort hotels and small fishing villages share the same view of a wide blue Pacific; and all are noticing changes in their environment.

Kanid Kashana Koshi is director of the University of the South Pacific Center for Environment in Suva, Viti Levu's capital city.

"An average global temperature rise will definitely have a lot of secondary impacts, one of which is sea level rise," Koshi says.

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