Global warming threatens more than just coral

Rising sea levels from global warming will threaten the livelihoods and homes of more than 200,000 people who live on coral atolls in coming generations, the PACNEWS reported on Monday.

The warning came from Australia`s University of Queensland archaeologist and expert on the prehistoric use of coral atolls, Marshall Weisler.

Weisler said the Central Pacific islands of Kiribati, Tuvalu and the Marshall Islands as well as the Maldives in the Indian Ocean are most at risk.

Weisler said the situation was more serious than people realized with agricultural and already being lost to rising seas in the Marshall Islands, the PACNEWS, a Suva-based regional news agency reported on Monday.

"People have shown me where there used to be gardens, are now lagoons. There are coconut trees that are 20 meters off shore, half falling over," Weisler said.