Beaches in Kiribati

Thirty-three atolls spread across three and a half million square kilometres of ocean, straddling the equator and the date line, with a total land area smaller than a mid-sized city. The average elevation is under two metres, which makes Kiribati the country most often cited in discussions of sea-level rise and the one that has bought land abroad against it. Kiritimati is the largest coral atoll in the world by land area, and the Phoenix Islands Protected Area is a UNESCO site covering an area the size of California. Practically: this is among the hardest countries in the world to reach, with flights measured in a handful per week and connections through Fiji or Honolulu. Fresh water is limited, imported food is expensive, and there is very little accommodation. Kiribati is also the country most often used as shorthand for sea-level rise, and the register records its beaches with that in the foreground rather than as a footnote.