“This Country Has a Plan for When It Disappears | Geo Scope

In 2025, a country opened a lottery. The prize? A ticket out of the country. Within days, more than a third of the whole nation had signed up, and only 280 people a year can win. This is Tuvalu: nine tiny islands in the Pacific Ocean between Australia and Hawaii, home to about 11,000 people. Its land sits on average just 2 meters above the sea, and sea level rise is already flooding roads and turning gardens salty. By 2050, half of the capital Funafuti could be under daily high tides. So Tuvalu is trying some of the strangest survival plans any country has ever tried. It rents out its internet domain, .tv, to streaming sites like Twitch. It changed its constitution so its statehood and ocean borders stay permanent even if the land disappears. It is copying itself into the metaverse as the world’s first digital nation. It is pumping sand to build brand new land. And under the Falepili Union treaty with Australia, it opened a climate visa lottery so its people have somewhere to go. Is it a rescue, or a strategic deal in a Pacific where China and the West compete for influence? And what actually makes a country: the land, the people, or the idea they carry with them? ⏱️ Chapters 0:00 A lottery to leave your own country 0:33 How small is Tuvalu? 1:12 The sea is already rising 1:44 Strange survival plans 1:58 The .tv domain goldmine 2:55 Who owns the ocean? (EEZ and fishing rights) 3:34 Borders that can never shrink 3:53 The first digital nation (metaverse) 4:53 The Falepili Union with Australia 5:26 The climate visa lottery 5:55 The twist: security and China 6:20 Who stays to save the islands? 6:33 Building brand new land 7:01 What actually makes a country? In this video: Tuvalu sinking, Tuvalu climate change, the Tuvalu climate visa ballot, the Falepili Union treaty, the .tv domain deal, Tuvalu’s ocean territory (EEZ), the Tuvalu metaverse project, Simon Kofe’s knee-deep speech, Funafuti land reclamation, sea level rise in the Pacific, climate migration, and countries that could disappear. why is tuvalu sinking, will tuvalu disappear because of climate change, what is the tuvalu climate visa lottery, how does tuvalu make money from .tv, what is the falepili union between australia and tuvalu, can a country exist without land, how high is tuvalu above sea level, countries that will disappear due to rising sea levels, which countries are sinking because of climate change, smallest countries in the world explained, how rising sea levels will change the world map, what happens to a country if it goes underwater, how countries claim ocean territory (EEZ explained), strange ways small countries make money, geopolitics of the pacific islands china vs australia tuvalu, tuvalu sinking, tuvalu climate change, tuvalu lottery, tuvalu visa, falepili union, australia tuvalu treaty, climate migration, climate refugees, sea level rise, rising sea levels, sinking islands, sinking countries, pacific islands, funafuti, tuvalu .tv domain, tv domain money, digital nation, tuvalu metaverse, simon kofe, country without land, disappearing countries, smallest countries, atoll, geography explained, maps explained, geopolitics, geo scope 💬 If you lived in Tuvalu, would you enter the lottery, or stay and fight for your islands? Tell me in the comments. 📚 Sources Falepili visa ballot numbers: Euronews (June 2025), The Peninsula / AFP (July 2025) First arrivals in Australia: AMES Australia news (December 2025) New raised land on Funafuti: UNDP Pacific, Green Climate Fund (Tuvalu Coastal Adaptation Project) .tv history and UN membership: Christian Science Monitor (2000), ICANNWiki Sea level around Tuvalu: NASA Sea Level Change Team Ocean zone (EEZ) boundary: Marine Regions / Flanders Marine Institute (CC BY 4.0) Island outlines: © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL) Map data: Natural Earth (public domain) [Add the exact article links you used before publishing.] 📷 Photos Funafuti from space: NASA Earth Observatory (public domain) Narrowest road in Funafuti: Michael Coghlan, CC BY-SA 2.0 Simon Kofe: Office of the President (Taiwan), CC BY 2.0 New raised land, Funafuti 2025: JialiangGao, CC BY-SA 4.0 🌍 Geo Scope explains why the world works the way it does, through calm, animated maps and stories. New videos every day. Subscribe if this changed the way you see the map. #Tuvalu #ClimateChange #SeaLevelRise #Geography #GeoScope