Weathering the Waves: Climate Change, Politics, and Vulnerability in Tuvalu

This poster presents dissertation research in environmental anthropology on perceptions environmental changes, climate change impacts, and related atmospheric hazards as well as the governance of vulnerability to those impacts in Tuvalu, a Pacific Island country. Tuvalu is considered to be one of the most vulnerable places on the planet to the influences of global climate change. Rising sea levels, increasing sea surface temperatures, ocean acidification, and extreme events including storms and droughts are among the challenges that Tuvalu faces as anthropogenic influences transform the nature of our global climate. Research conclusions are based on 15 months of ethnographic fieldwork in Wellington, New Zealand, and Funafuti and Nanumea, Tuvalu. Archival, survey, and interview data complement insight gleaned from extensive participant observation among Tuvaluans living overseas, in the national capital, and on the northernmost outer island of the Tuvaluan Archipelago.

Already, local observations of environmental change indicate a climate signal that reflects expectations of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change for small island states. People who have spent a lifetime observing and experiencing the environment note increasingly unpredictable weather, more days of sun during the rainy season and some rain during the usually dry months. Wind directions are increasingly erratic and people are concerned about occasional strong winds. Seal level rise and storm surges exacerbate the effects of coastal mining and compromise the integrity of a limited amount of freshwater on the islands. Crops are inundated by saltwater pushing up through the porous coral structure or cresting over the coasts. Vulnerability arising from these changes is differentially experienced and subjectively perceived. Research in Tuvalu grounded in political ecology demonstrates the importance of recognizing the political as well as environmental contributions to climate change impacts. The work underscores the need for adaptation to climate change to be driven by local aspirations and needs.

Climate change demands attention at multiple scales of analysis. I consider climate change to be both environmental and political. The potential for a Pacific Islands regional climate change regime is explored. Given successful regional precedents and characteristics of the problem, the formation of a regional climate regime is favorable. At the national level, the Tuvaluan government is concerned with preserving cultural integrity and promoting in situ development, while at the same time, needing to consider the possibility of population relocation. At the community level, recent policies of political decentralization are reviving and reinventing “traditional” island governance structures. On Nanumea, traditional governance is intrinsically linked to legends and genealogies that are used to navigate social and political life. Traditionally, leaders had specific responsibilities to maintain community safety and prevent disasters. Decentralization therefore carries important implications for community identity and safety in the face of ecological devastation.