US-ENTERTAINMENT-FILM-SUNDANCE-ANOTE

Former Kiribati president Anote Tong discusses his campaign to save the low-lying Pacific nation from global warming, on January 22, 2018, the subject of Canadian filmmaker Matthieu Rytzs documentary "Anote's Ark." - With its pristine sands, glistening saltwater flats and gently swaying palms, Kiribati ought to be a tropical paradise -- but this precarious slice of heaven on Earth is on borrowed time. The low-lying Pacific nation of 33 atolls and reef islands is facing the unstoppable rise of the sea and will be gone before long, making its people the world's first nation of climate change refugees. "I've been trying to communicate to the international community that we have a problem. It's a small part of the larger challenge on climate change, but our case is more immediate," former Kiribati president and climate activist Anote Tong tells AFP. (Photo by ANGELA WEISS / AFP) / TO GO WITH AFP STORY BY Frankie TAGGART, "Paradise lost: 'Anote's Ark' shows Kiribati on the brink" (Photo credit should read ANGELA WEISS/AFP via Getty Images)