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The article focuses on the initiatives to reduce the impact of a rise in mean sea level due to global warming on the Pacific Island nations of Kiribati and Tuvalu. It states that a rise of one metre above sea level could put these islands at ground zero. It notes that Australia has provided almost $3 million to the Kiribati Climate Change Adoption Project of the World Bank to reduce the island's vulnerability to climate change and sea-level rise, and $1 million to improve water storage capacity in Tuvalu. Furthermore, it cites that several projects to improve monitoring and prediction of sea level and climate in the South Pacific are being organized.

The article reports on the government's engineering plans, specifically the construction of artificial islands, to relocate residents due to the rising sea level of Kiribati. It notes the impacts of the rising water level on the people of the state such as crop death and erosion. The government considers the construction of artificial islands where people can live. President Anote Tong expects that the plan will be presented to international donors in 2013.

The article discusses the predicament of Kiribati amid the rising sea levels forcing its residents to leave their homes and leaving their croplands destroyed and shoreline eroded. Previously known as the Gilbert and Ellice Islands, the island nation plans to acquire 2,000 hectares of land from Fiji to relocate the islanders. Kiribati gained its independence in 1979 from Great Britain.