Excerpt from mashable.com
Tuvalu has announced plans to recreate itself in the metaverse, in an attempt to “preserve” the Pacific Island nation before rising sea levels engulf it completely. The government has also stressed the urgency of a shared global effort to fight climate change, which has put Tuvalu under constant threat.
“As our land disappears, we have no choice but to become the world’s first digital nation,” said Tuvalu’s foreign minister Simon Kofe in a speech to the COP27 climate summit, delivered against the backdrop of a digital island. “Our land, our ocean, our culture are the most precious assets of our people — and to keep them safe from harm, no matter what happens in the physical world, we’ll move them to the cloud.”
Tuvalu is under extreme threat from global warming, with scientists predicting it will become uninhabitable within the next 100 years or less. High tides cause severe flooding at the start of every year, and residents fear it is only getting worse. Last year Kofe addressed the COP26 while standing thigh-deep in water in order to stress the dire importance of climate action.