ABSTRACT
‘The inequality of it all’ is how Lipset (2011: 20) summarises the situation whereby sea-level rise – a consequence of global warming, which is caused by the carbon emissions of industrialised countries – is an anthropogenic tragedy that most severely hits those remote coastal and island dwellers who have had no role in its creation. Pacific Islanders have often been portrayed as ‘helpless victims’ in the popular media because they suffer the consequences of climate changes mainly caused by other, larger nations (Mortreux and Barnett 2008). The Pacific region contributes less than 0.03% of the greenhouse gas emissions that cause climate change (SPREP 2012), which exemplifies ‘one of the deepest global environmental injustices’ through which small countries which barely contribute to climate change are the ones experiencing its most immediate effects (Townsend 2009: 56).
