"Forced to Adapt": Marshall Islands Poet & Activist Kathy Jetn̄il-Kijiner on Climate Crisis

When Democracy Now! reported from Baku, Azerbaijan, during the second week of COP29, the U.N. climate summit, we spoke to Kathy Jetn̄il-Kijiner, poet and climate envoy from the Marshall Islands, which is only two meters above sea level. “We’re actually being forced to adapt and plan to adapt and change our entire islands to protect ourselves from sea level rise,” says Jetn̄il-Kijiner. She discussed the call for a fair, equitable and fast fossil fuel phaseout along with financial support that prioritizes the countries and communities most affected by the climate crisis. She also discusses the ongoing fallout from when the United States detonated 67 nuclear weapons in the Marshall Islands between 1946 and 1958.