Climate Change
What might a Pacific view of climate change look like? The low lying atolls and islands of the Pacific are in the frontline of rising sea levels due to global warming. Some of the region’s peoples have become the first climate change refugees, and some governments are making provisions for having to relocate populations. But for peoples whose connection to the land and ancestor is integral to their being, moving away from the land is easier said than done: some of the Carteret islanders returned from temporary relocation in Bougainville. What issues do Pacific Islanders face as a consequence of climate change? How have Pacific peoples received and interpreted global narratives about island loss and mass migration? Does climate change also stand for wider social and economic problems caused by globalisation? How does the Pacific balance vernacular explanations of climate change in terms of cultural and Biblical narratives when it portrays the impacts of global warming and engages scientific explanations of climate change?