"A stunning atlas of the present and future."—Rebecca Solnit, author of several books including Infinite Cities: A Trilogy of Atlases—San Francisco, New Orleans, New York "An impassioned plea to save what remains of these remarkable island communities."—Booklist, starred review One of the Best Science Books of 2023, New ScientistThis immersive portal to islands around the world highlights the impacts of sea level rise and shimmers with hopeful solutions to combat it. Atlases are being redrawn as islands are disappearing. What does an island see when the sea rises? Sea Change: An Atlas of Islands in a Rising Ocean weaves together essays, maps, art, and poetry to show us—and make us see—island nations in a warming world. Low-lying islands are least responsible for global warming, but they are suffering the brunt of it. This transportive atlas reorients our vantage point to place islands at the center of the story, highlighting Indigenous and Black voices and the work of communities taking action for local and global climate justice. At once serious and playful, well-researched and lavishly designed, Sea Change is a stunning exploration of the climate and our world's coastlines. Full of immersive storytelling, scientific expertise, and rallying cries from island populations that shout with hope—"We are not drowning! We are fighting!"—this atlas will galvanize readers in the fight against climate change and the choices we all face.
Christina Gerhardt is Associate Professor at the University of Hawai'i at Mānoa, Senior Fellow at the University of California, Berkeley, and former Barron Professor of Environment and the Humanities at Princeton University. Her environmental journalism has been published by Grist.org, The Nation, The Progressive,and the Washington Monthly.
Table of Contents
CONTENTS FOREWORD Bill McKibben FOREWORDS Hilda Heine, Marshall Islands / Dessima Williams, Grenada INTRODUCTION Of Oceans and Islands ARCTIC OCEAN Greenland Sarichef Island ATLANTIC OCEAN Lennox Island Deal Island Republic of Cabo Verde Bissagos Islands Democratic Republic of São Tomé and Príncipe INDIAN OCEAN AND PERSIAN GULF Kingdom of Bahrain Union of the Comoros Republic of Mauritius Republic of Seychelles Republic of Maldives Bhasan Char and Sandwip Republic of Singapore PACIFIC OCEAN South China Sea Islands Commonwealth of Northern Mariana Islands Guåhan Republic of Palau Federated States of Micronesia Republic of Marshall Islands Republic of Kiribati Republic of Nauru Republic of Vanuatu Solomon Islands Independent State of Papua New Guinea Republic of Fiji Tuvalu Tokelau Independent State of Samoa Niue Cook Islands Kingdom of Tonga CARIBBEAN SEA AND GULF OF MEXICO Bonaire Republic of Trinidad and Tobago Grenada Saint Vincent and the Grenadines Barbados Saint Lucia Martinique Commonwealth of Dominica Antigua and Barbuda Commonwealth of Puerto Rico Dominican Republic Haiti Jamaica Republic of Cuba Commonwealth of The Bahamas Isle de Jean Charles ANTARCTIC OCEAN Pine Island GLOSSARY ACKNOWLEDGMENTS MAP CITATIONS WORKS CITED CREDITS
"Gerhardt’s book . . . feature[s], on each spread, a map of an island or island group; visualizations of the island’s sea level today and in 2050 and 2100; geographic data about each island; demographic data about its Indigenous inhabitants; a timeline of Indigenous, 'pre-contact,' and climate-related histories; and an essay on the island and its inhabitants. Each narrative . . . depict[s] various 'solutions' deployed both by global and national governments and by Indigenous peoples: from sea walls and geoengineering to preserving and restoring coral and oyster reefs, mangrove marshes, wetlands, and other natural buffers."
