From a decision by the Immigration and Protection Tribunal of New Zealand in the case of Ioane Teitiota, who because of rising sea levels fled his home country of Kiribati, a central Pacific island nation with a population of about 100,000, and sought asylum in New Zealand. The tribunal ruled against Teitiota on the grounds that “the effects of environmental degradation on his standard of living were, by his own admission, faced by the population generally.”

The appellant was born in the 1970s on an islet situated three days’ journey by boat, or two hours by plane, north of…