Kiribati houses

Kiribati is an atoll nation in the Pacific, more or less at the intersection of the equator and the international date line. (The ti is pronounced s, so say ki-ri-bas). The land area of Kiribati is extremely small while the country as a whole covers the same area as the US. Its 100,000 people live in the main atoll chain in the west, formerly know as the Gilbert islands. The main island ("capital") is Bairiki, while the commercial center is the neighboring island of Betio. Life is very simple; most people fish and very little grows in the coral ground. The photo shows a typical scene that can be observed on many of the islands. Kiribati is vulnerable to climate change and sea level rise; many of the islands experience increased coastal erosion, and one island north of Betio is already inundated most of the time. Photo taken in 1992