Official Site of MISF

People ask, why now? Why are decades without soccer are we finally pushing ahead to create a team. Truthfully, it’s now or never. The Marshallese people are some of the most resilient in the world, but with global temperatures continuing to increase we’re faced with sea levels that are trying to take our land. Coupled with more frequent storms and unpredictable weather, life is becoming harder in the Marshall Islands.

We want to create a soccer team, not only to give our people a source of pride when they see us compete. But to also bring attention to the plight of the islands, using the world’s most popular sport.

The Republic of the Marshall Islands (RMI) is one of the world’s most vulnerable areas to climate change. The country consists of 29 atolls and five individual islands situated in about 180,000 square miles (470,000 km2) of the Pacific Ocean. The largest island land area is about 6 square miles, and the average altitude of the entire country is about 7 feet above sea level. The country depends heavily on natural resources, particularly agriculture and fisheries, which are vulnerable to climate change impacts — such as coastline erosion, storm surges, and shifting rainfall — but still scarce enough to limit resilience. Rising sea levels and temperatures have increased the vulnerability of this island nation to tropical storms and typhoons, spring tides, and drought. In 2013 and 2016, RMI declared states of disaster for prolonged and unseasonal drought and required international assistance.

Projected sea level rise would mean 40% of the buildings in the Marshall Islands’ capital of Majuro would be permanently flooded and entire islands would disappear.

“It’s always been a dark future, but now that dark future is becoming more clear,” said Kathy Jetñil-Kijiner, a poet and climate envoy from the Marshall Islands. “I remember first reading the report and thinking, ‘Oh, that’s what it’s going to look like, that’s what it’s going to cause’, and none of it feels good. I can say definitively that it’s a really difficult report to get through.” Jetñil-Kijiner said she was shocked to learn that her island would be so badly affected.

“One of the islands listed as being 100% underwater, completely covered, is Jaluit, which is actually the island where my family comes from,” she said. “It’s the land that my daughter is named after. So, when I saw that, I had to tell my family that this is about to happen, they needed to be aware of this. It really hit hard.”

Resources and further reading:

Video

• The Last Days of Majuro. Detailing the affects of climate change on Majuro.
• Marshall Islands: Projected Sea Level Rise. A World Bank study visualizing risk of projected sea level rise.

Organizations

• Jo-Jikum. A non-profit empowering Marshallese youth to develop solutions to environmental issues impacting the Marshall Islands such as pollution, climate change, and nuclear legacies. Co-founded by Kathy Jetnil-Kijiner, prominent artist and activist.
• Voices Rising. Amplifying Marshallese voices to enable positive action that will sustain life in the Marshall Islands.
• Marshallese Arts Project. A University of Edinburgh project to promote the well-being and resilience of Marshallese culture and communities.