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Social and cultural issues raised by climate change in Pacific Island countries: an overview

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dc.contributor.author Weir, Tony
dc.contributor.author Dovey, Liz
dc.contributor.author Orcherton, Dan
dc.date.accessioned 2021-12-02T00:38:58Z
dc.date.available 2021-12-02T00:38:58Z
dc.date.issued 2016-06-05
dc.identifier.uri ${sadil.baseUrl}/handle/123456789/1025
dc.description pp. 1017–1028 ; illustration en_US
dc.description.abstract Climate-related disasters such as tropical cyclones, floods and droughts are not new to Pacific Islanders, who have developed customary or ‘traditional’ practices to enable communities to adapt and recover from such hazards. Some of these practices have been degraded and some assisted by modernisation. Through their effects on the island environment, these hazards have a range of socio-economic impacts on food (fisheries and crops) and water supply, tourism, and coastal buildings and infrastructure. The varied impacts of climate change not only exacerbate those hazards but also raise new threats, such as sea level rise and ocean acidification, that have no precedent in the past 500 years, and for which there are therefore no traditional adaptations, although Pacific innate ingenuity and resilience remains strong. These issues are particularly acute for the low-lying atoll countries whose continued existence is threatened by sea level rise, but also affect those that live on higher islands in coastal settlements, where most of their population is concentrated. Climate change thus sharpens social and cultural issues of equity (reflecting disparities in location, income, education, gender, health and age), made even more acute by increased levels of voluntary or forced migration within, and even more so beyond, island country boundaries. Consequently, many islanders see climate change as a moral challenge to the richer countries to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions that are causing the problem. en_US
dc.language.iso en en_US
dc.publisher Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg en_US
dc.relation.ispartofseries Regional Environmental Change;
dc.subject Pacific Islands en_US
dc.subject Climate change en_US
dc.subject Small Islands en_US
dc.subject Social impacts en_US
dc.subject Adaptation en_US
dc.title Social and cultural issues raised by climate change in Pacific Island countries: an overview en_US
dc.type Article en_US


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