About a million people live in coral atolls like those in the Maldives, Tuvalu, Kiribati, and the Marshall Islands. These islands are just a few feet in elevation, making them some of the places most at-risk from the rising seas that will result from climate change. Five uninhabited islands in the Solomon Islands have already vanished beneath the waves in the past century.
The Maldives, Kiribati, Tuvalu, and the Marshall Islands have the highest percentage of their land area at risk because they are all atolls; other countries also have low lying islands, but have more higher ground available to flee to.
So which low-lying islands will be underwater — and uninhabitable — the soonest due to climate change? Climate change is raising sea levels, and many low-lying islands are at risk. But determining which communities will be first to leave is impossible to answer. As it turns out, that question is impossible to answer.
Four islands illustrate why. They include Mainadhoo of Huvadhoo Atoll in Maldives and Mundoo in Laamu Atoll of the Maldives - in addition to Roi-Namur island in Kwajalein Atoll in Marshall Islands, and Fongafale in Funafuti Atoll of Tuvalu. READ MORE FROM LIVE SCIENCE
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