The equatorial island nation of Kiribati, located in the Pacific just west of the International Date Line, may become the first climate change refugees. Via the Atlanta Journal-Constitution:

many of [Kiribati’s] atolls rise just a few feet above sea level. Tong said some villages have already moved and there have been increasing instances of sea water contaminating the island's underground fresh water, which remains vital for trees and crops. He said changing rainfall, tidal and storm patterns pose as least as much threat as ocean levels, which so far have risen only slightly. Some scientists have estimated the current level of sea rise in the Pacific at about 2 millimeters (0.1 inches) per year. Many scientists expect that rate to accelerate due to climate change.

Now, mind you, there are worse things than having to relocate to Fiji (one of the proposed solutions), but it does illustrate one of the potential consequences of climate change. Farther north, the population of the small Arctic island of Shishmaref facing the Chukchi Sea in northwestern Alaska faces a similar dislocation.

Coastal erosion has been an issue for decades here, but rising global temperatures have started to thaw the permafrost that once helped anchor this village in place. Sea ice that protects Shishmaref's coast from erosion melts earlier in the spring and forms later in the fall. As a result, the increasingly mushy and exposed soil along Shishmaref's shore is falling into the water in snowmobile-sized chunks.

Sure, it’s just a small Eskimo village, right? “This is my hometown,” said longtime resident Shelton Kokeok, “I don’t want to go anywhere.”