By: Giff Johnson, Agence France-Presse June 26, 2013 10:19 AM

A handout photo shows the effects of climate change on a graveyard on the Marshall Islands atoll of Ailinglaplap, that birthplace of its president, Christopher Loeak, that is slowly sinking as sea levels rise. (AFP/Office of Environmental Planning and Policy Coordination)

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MAJURO -- As the US urges world leaders to ramp up action on climate change, the leader of one small island chain in the North Pacific Ocean has already got the message -- watching helplessly as rising seas slowly erode his birthplace.

The idyllic beaches on the island of Buoj where Marshall Islands President Christopher Loeak fished as a boy are already submerged, and the ever-encroaching ocean now threatens to wash away roads, schools and airstrips.

"The end of the island gets shorter every year. Some places we used to stand on the beach to fish are now in the water," Loeak, 60, told AFP.

Buoj is one of 52 islands in Ailinglaplap, an atoll that a Marshall Islands survey found was one of its most vulnerable to climate change.

"I have great attraction to Ailinglaplap," Loeak said in the capital, Majuro. "I can live on other islands, but I was born and raised there. I always think about going back there to live."

The Marshalls, an island nation of some 70,000 people about halfway between Australia and Hawaii, will have a rare moment in the international spotlight in September, when it hosts the annual Pacific Islands Forum.

Loeak said he wanted to use the opportunity to send a strong message to the world, particularly larger polluting nations, about the need for action to slow down climate change.

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CLIMATE CHANGE | Rising seas washing away Marshall Islands leader's home