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Source: Reuters -
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The world's first climate change refugees are fed up with the impact of celebrity on their increasingly fragile existence.
The Carterets are a scattering of low-lying Papua New Guinea islands 85km north east of Bougainville in the South Pacific - all with a maximum land elevation of less than two metres.
And because of rising sea levels, the inhabitants must evacuate the islands, which it is estimated will be inundated and entirely uninhabitable by 2015.
Many of the remaining islanders are fed up with the global environmental spotlight that in some instances has meant they've had to feed visiting journalists.
Carteret Islander Ursula Rakovo, who runs the non-governmental organisation (NGO) Tulele Peisa, which in local language means "sailing on the waves on our own", said intense media and environmental focus was not helping their cause.
"We've had 17 international TV crews come over the past two and a half years," she told AAP.
"It's too much. We'd like to see the advocacy turn into practical support."
"The Carteret's people are sick of media people asking the same old questions.Some turn up unprepared and end up being fed because people feel sorry for them. A lot of the older people are concerned."
"And still, with all this attention, the movement to another place is very slow."
Carteret migration to Bougainville and even PNG's capital Port Moresby has been going on for decades but the situation is now becoming critical for the remaining 3,000 or so people.
Five families are currently in the process of officially moving to the north Bougainville town of Tinputz, where a Catholic mission is providing housing and vegetable gardens.
But it is not just rising sea levels and low lying land that are making their atoll home uninhabitable - erosion plus social and economic strains are taking their toll.
"For the last three years we've been in the news, but we're still yet to see something tangible in terms of logistical support to relocate," she said.
Rakovo said the Carteret Islands representatives are talking to various embassies in Port Moresby as well as the Finnish embassy in Canberra.
Bougainville government money earmarked for the Carterets has reportedly gone missing.
"It's still a big issue with the Bougainville government," Rakovo said.
"They need to be a little bit more genuine to recognise the work we are doing," she said.
Some NGOs and donor agencies are raising money so the Carterets can be represented at December's United Nations climate change conference in Copenhagen, she said.
