Disappearing Island Nation Of Tuvalu To Replicate Itself In Metaverse: 5 Points

Tuvalu will build a digital version of itself, replicating islands and landmarks and preserving its history and culture as rising sea level threatens to submerge the tiny nation.

The entire replica of the island will be put on Metaverse - an online realm that uses augmented and virtual reality (VR) to help users interact.

Tuvalu's Foreign Minister Simon Kofe said they decided to choose the digitally replicate their world because countries globally were not doing enough to prevent climate change. "Our land, our ocean, our culture are the most precious assets of our people and to keep them safe from harm, no matter what happens in the physical world, we will move them to the cloud," he said last year.

Tuvalu is a group of nine islands and 12,000 people halfway between Australia and Hawaii. It has long been a cause celebre for the risks of climate change and rising sea levels. Up to 40 per cent of the capital district is underwater at high tide, and the entire country is forecast to be under water by the end of the century.

With this action, Tuvalu follows the city of Seoul and the island nation of Barbados which last year said they would enter the metaverse to provide administrative and consular services. But this is the first time such an extensive plan has been revealed - to recreate an entire country digitally.