Hasbeen: Do try to remember that just 10,000 ago the area where our outer reef now lies, was a range of coastal hills.

& the sea has been about 5 metres higher at some time too. If you have a look at the rocks around the Whitsunday Islands & the rocks around the coast in Nth Qld you will see where the sea level once was, oh & throw in a bit of Continental rise too, so a sea rise of 3 meters then it went down.

Hasbeen: The atolls survived the sea rise that submerged them, & will mostly survive now, if their people don't exceed their fresh water, mine the reef excessively for building materials, or destroy the fish.

Recently I went on a sea voyage & attended some interesting Lectures on the origins of the Pacific Islands & it's people. I also have reread that part of the "Cambridge History of the Pacific Islands" which covers the Pacific Islands & it's peoples migrations. Very interesting.

The Islands are formed through Volcanic Hot Spots. The Volcano forms an Island then the Island wears down, Some of it eventually disappearing beneath the Ocean. Fringing reefs eventually form atolls & the island is colonized by plants. In some cases this is only for a relatively short period of time, a few thousand years. The Pacific Islands have only been inhabited for, on average, 1200 years in the North & 800 years South of the Equator. (give or take a bit.)

So my take on it is that these Islands were never permanently habitable. In the case of Kiribati, the most they could expect is about 1000 years of habitation then they would have to move anyway. Climate Change or not.

I remember at the Copenhagen kerfuffle where some young good looking bloke went into bat for Naru. Was not a Naruan but an actor and gave a very well rehearsed speech that was not only wrong but insulting. Basically it was you Europeans give us more money rather than we actually do anything ourselves.
My suggestion is for them to get off their backsides, start looking after themselves and get their hands out of my pocket.

Matt,
You take it as accepted that sinking of islands is caused by burning of carbon.
That is not the opinion of Darwin who observed the sinking of Cocos Islands in the Indian Ocean in 1836 evidenced by coconut trees falling into the sea---1836 when coal consumption was minimal and oil consumption was nil. ( Voyage of the Beagle).
Darwin had theories about shifting of plates confirmed by his observations of sea shells hundreds of feet above sea level in South America.
I believe we should make immigration to Australia open to the Islanders as our contribution to world order and to the exclusion of refugees from other areas, but I do not accept the premise that either the sinking of islands or less rainfall ( if that is a fact) is caused by anything Australia or the Western countries has done. There is no real science to that effect.
I suppose you would call Darwin a global waring denier.
Regards
Old Man George Gell