Background

The Republic of the Marshall Islands (RMI) is a nation of more than a thousand islands across 29 coral atolls in the Western Pacific, 2400 miles southwest of Hawaii. Most of the 42,000 Marshallese live in one of a few urban centers, and only 24 of the many islands are permanently inhabited. The average island height above the Pacific Ocean is less than 8 feet, and the median income is less than US$3,400.

The global temperature increase measured in 2022 was 1.3°C, but the Marshall Islands had already risen 1.5°C in 2020 and are on track for 3.5°C by 2100.

By IPCC assessment, that increase will be catastrophic.

One of the two largest urban centers in the Marshalls is Ebeye Island on Kwajalein Atoll. Ebeye has measured an average sea level rise (SLR) of 7mm per year since 1993, so a total of more than 200mm SLR (almost 8 inches) as of late 2022.

International oceanographic evaluations have estimated that Ebeye will see 50% of its built environment flooded at only 1 meter of SLR. Related research has demonstrated that “overwash” events from regional tropical cyclones will damage surface infrastructure and contaminate Ebeye’s fresh-water aquifers annually by 2035. The Marshallese are recognized as one of the most climate-vulnerable populations in the world, and Ebeye Island is the epicenter of that risk.

The Marshallese, the US government, other national entities, and several UN agencies have wanted a Sustainability Laboratory on Ebeye for several years. Its purpose would be to assess proposed climate adaptation technologies and strategies. The site would be designed to test ideas that might help sustain the Marshallese with a better quality of life for the next few decades, or prepare them for a more graceful transition if they find they must leave.

That idea arena now exists and is called KASL (pronounced “castle”), the Kwajalein Atoll Sustainability Laboratory on Ebeye. The low-density language, exceptional poverty, and logistics impediments are features that will help ensure that any idea that works at KASL will also likely work in Manado, Manila, Mumbai, Mombasa, or Montevideo.

Providing support to impoverished yet strategically important communities in the Pacific may benefit US interests while helping the Marshallese. It may also promote a broader strategic movement toward peace in the region. KASL is also intended to be a fulcrum for innovative thinking around job-creating climate strategies, and those ideas are needed in many places.

Anyone testing at KASL can benefit in several ways:

The testing venue is profoundly challenging. Success will be noteworthy and likely to generate interest for expansion and scale.
As entrepreneur Peter Diamandis has noted, “The best way to make a billion dollars is to help a billion people.” Successful efforts at improving life for the climate-vulnerable will touch a lot of humans. A business with even a low margin might be very successful across a huge demographic.
Effective business ideas explicitly designed to help the bottom billion deal with circumstances beyond their control (and not their fault) are admirable. Those ideas can engender trust and opportunities that may prove strategically valuable globally.
The imprimatur “Validated at KASL” ("KASL Weppan" in Marshallese) is intended to become a globally trusted brand. Early participants will be able to shape that story.