ABSTRACT
The apocalyptic future scenarios of climate change in the Marshall Islands have not yet come to pass. By and large life goes on and people do not yet live in constant struggle with its present impacts or in constant terror of its future ravages. Yet climate change marks this archipelago, not only as a burgeoning physical influence on its shorelines and weather patterns but also as an idea, a topic of conversation, debate, fantasy, anxiety, and determination. In June 2009 a group of Marshallese men were passing a morning slowly on Ejit Island, sitting on plastic lawn chairs on the gravel-covered grounds of a house, waiting for the funeral of a local woman to begin. Swapping jokes, offering observations, gently arguing, they had no trouble filling three hours. With the conversation ranging from Bikinian mythology to the politics of nuclear reparations, from the erosion of the Marshallese language to the scientific prowess of the United States, it was only a matter of time before climate change presented itself as a topic of discussion. It was the oldest man of the group who broached the issue: “There’s a problem with saltwater intrusion all over the Pacific. It damages taro patches.”
