This collection of essays from islanders around the globe offers a complex understanding of the intersections of climate change and social change on islands. How are the effects of climate change and catastrophic weather experienced and narrated by islanders? What stories need to be told? How do local, traditional, and Indigenous knowledge practices facilitate the capacity to improvise, innovate, and to adapt to volatile weather events? How do social relations on climate-stressed islands continue to flourish? How do governance structures and issues of sovereignty support and\or inhibit climate and social justice? This interdisciplinary approach foregrounds island storytellers as they convey worldviews, knowledge, and cultural values, beliefs, and emotions that are often missing from climate change discourses.

Author bios

Jean Mitchell is a professor in Anthropology and the UNESCO Chair in Island Studies and Sustainability at the University of Prince Edward Island. Laurie Brinklow is a poet and assistant professor of Island Studies at the University of Prince Edward Island. Eric Mijts is a researcher, educator, and manager at the University of Aruba who focuses on sustainable development in small island states. Anouk Mertens is the former project manager of the EU-funded SISSTEM Project, who has a great interest in the intersection between sustainability and islandness.