Thanks for the comment! I completely agree about the power of a scene like the one you mentioned about the stuffed animal. I'm hopeful that this game will be immersive, and provide factual and emotional content that leads to reflection.

Interestingly, the overarching plan has changed under the current administration.

Anote Tong, who served as president from 2003 to 2016, focused on raising international awareness of the threat of climate change to Kiribati and advocated for "migration with dignity" as a potential adaptation strategy

When Taneti Maamau became president in 2016, he criticized Tong’s emphasis on migration, calling it a “misleading and pessimistic scenario of a sinking nation”. Maamau doesn’t deny climate change, but believes the common sentiment that the safety of their island is in God’s hands. Maamau plans to combat rising sea levels by raising Kiribati’s islands by 2 meters through dredging. This would be an expensive project, requiring billions of dollars of funds as well as technical skills from foreign allies.

One of the more divisive changes that Maamau implemented was severing Kiribati’s former alliance with Taiwan to work with China instead (in 2019). Since then, Kiribati has received funds for resilience efforts from China, but other countries such as Australia and the US have become concerned about the extent of China’s involvement.

We would really like to interview some locals to better understand what they think about sea levels rising so we can tailor our call to actions accordingly. I do believe it should be easier for people to emigrate to safer countries if climate change leads to unsafe living conditions in their country, so we're advocating for that in general. However, I also think it's important to focus on Kiribati’s climate resilience efforts that can provide them temporary or long-term relief from the rising tides without needing to emigrate.