To some, it will smack of deserting a sinking ship. Young people are leaving their island homes in the Pacific and Caribbean in search of jobs and higher education. Without youthful citizens, small islands will struggle to cope with the effects of rising sea levels. So says a report from the UN Environment Programme (UNEP). "The lack of opportunity pushes the best and brightest to look elsewhere," says the report. The exodus from islands including Samoa, Granada, Antigua and Dominica accounts for half the resident population, sometimes even exceeding it. Those left behind are mostly older people and children. "There's a lot of migration away from small island, developing states, creating a brain drain," says Melissa Gorelick, who is a UNEP information officer.
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