Island Nations Heat Up Climate Summit

Islands across the world are already feeling the burn of global warming, and they’re trying to get their voices heard at the climate change summit in Cancun, the Los Angeles Times reports. The 43 countries have banded together in an Alliance of Small Island States, which is voicing its fury with the pace of developed nations' action on climate change—only not one major world leader is attending the conference.

Still, “I won't shut up,” says a rep from Seychelles. “Even when we're underwater, when the bubbles pop, you'll hear us yelling.” Countries like his are facing climate change’s effects “right now” in the form of extended droughts and rising seas. But at the summit, “you're talking to people who refuse to listen.” For his country, though, “it's simple. As the poles melt, we drown."