As AAPI month comes to a close, we’re taking a moment to highlight the rich culture and achievements of Pacific Islanders with our Heart of the Pacific series. From celebrities to fashion designers to grass roots climate activism and tribal tattoos, these stories are worth celebrating throughout the year.
In some parts of the world, the disastrous effects of climate change environmental reports warn us about can still feel years away. But for those living in the Pacific Island region, that future is already here — despite the fact that Pacific Island nations are responsible for less than 0.03% of global greenhouse gas emissions.
The United Nations (UN) estimates that more than 50,000 people in the Pacific are displaced every year due to extreme weather and natural disasters; in March alone, two category 4 tropical cyclones and a 6.5 magnitude earthquake impacted 80% of Vanuatu’s population. Intensifying droughts and coral reef losses have resulted in food insecurity for the islands’ ocean-based economies (nearly 70% of the region’s population depends on agriculture for its livelihood, according to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization). And steadily rising sea levels threaten to cover lower-lying nations such as Tuvalu and the Marshall Islands in a matter of decades.
Many Pacific Islanders, including young people, have no other choice but to join the fight against climate change. The Pacific Climate Warriors is a youth-led, grassroots network working across 18 Pacific Island nations and diaspora communities to draw attention to the impacts of the climate crisis and highlight the resilience of the islands. Guided by a council of elder organizers, the Pacific Climate Warriors have led marches and workshops to empower local youth, amplified community voices through various campaigns, and participated in numerous global conferences, including the UN Climate Change Conference (COP).
Teen Vogue sits down with four activists from the Pacific Climate Warriors representing Fiji, Samoa, and the Marshall Islands to learn more about how the climate crisis is endangering their islands and why their people “are not drowning, we’re fighting.”
Teen Vogue: What are the common threats Pacific Island nations are facing right now in terms of climate change?
Okalani Mariner, 20 (Samoa): Because our islands are so small and close together, we have a lot of the same issues. When we talk about climate change, we see that these issues are food insecurity, sea level rise, increased intensity and frequency of natural disasters like cyclones, land loss, and cultural heritage being lost through that land loss.
The ocean is our livelihood, so climate change feels magnified here. Fishing patterns have changed for the islands, so we have to rely on reserves. And because of natural disasters, we’ve all lost land and agriculture. Lots of villages are low-lying, so people have had to rebuild again and again. We have a shared resilience in the face of natural disasters that I take pride in.
Sera Saini, 20 (Fiji): Pacific Island nations are taking steps to address these threats, such as improving infrastructure, planting mangroves, and reducing greenhouse gas emissions. However, these countries often lack the resources and support needed to fully address the scale of the challenges they face.
As ocean people, climate change affects the health and well-being of all our nations. Like Okalani said, we’re losing our food and having to rebuild our homes, but the extreme weather also means we often have to close our schools when they’re flooding. There’s a disruption in our education.
TV: Are there any issues that are unique to your respective islands?
Jobod Silk, 22 (Marshall Islands): The Marshall Islands is a coral nation, which means we are low-lying and very vulnerable to climate change. It’s difficult to grow crops because our soil is not fertile, we don’t have any high ground to evacuate to during high tides, and droughts are severe. We’re three meters above sea level and on the verge of being submerged, according to science projections.
Brianna Fruean, 24 (Samoa): The outer islands feel the effects of extreme weather even more than us. We in Samoa have higher ground like mountains we can move up to when it floods, but the lagoon and landscape of the Marshall Islands mean there’s nowhere for them to go — there’s no way for them to avoid the ocean.
And because the Pacific Islands have various cultures, climate change impacts us differently in that sense. Take Papua New Guinea, which has so many unique languages in its villages; when the sea level rises and coastal villages are forced to move to higher villages, they’re in danger of losing their languages over time as they adapt. So climate change can lead to them losing entire dialects.
TV: What are some misconceptions people have about the Pacific Islands and how you’re responding to the climate crisis?
Mariner: I’ve talked to people who seem to think Pacific people are looking to the Global North for salvation. At times when the Pacific Climate Warriors are going out and leading campaigns and marches, people interpret that as us asking to be saved. We want support, yes, but we like to say, “We’re not drowning, we’re fighting.”
Fruean: Right. We’re not victims, we’re champions, and our leaders are some of the [most outspoken] climate leaders in the world. As frontline communities, we have the expertise about what’s happening. Indigenous knowledge is climate science. But there’s a misconception that we’re waiting for the experts to come help us. In reality, we are the experts.
Mariner: What we want is collaboration and for other countries to take accountability. Our people are fighting for our islands when we’re not even the ones responsible for all the fossil fuels being removed from the north.
TV: How is the climate crisis impacting young people in particular? How does it impact your daily lives?
Silk: Most youth in the outer islands of the RMI (the Republic of the Marshall Islands) are either high school dropouts or have graduated but not gone to college. They make a living by harvesting and trading copra, fish, and other local resources.
Climate change makes it difficult for them to make a living and to find purpose in life. Many of them are also young parents, burdened with the responsibility of caring for their families. Frequent changes in the weather affect their productivity.
The thought of having to care for their families in a future where they experience the extreme effects of climate change — and the thought of having their children go through that — puts a toll on their mental health. Many of our youth have become discouraged, wanting to find better lives for themselves and their families. But a lot more are determined to keep fighting.
Fruean: Young people in the Pacific can’t close their eyes to climate change. It’s a privilege to choose to be an activist, and that’s why youth who do climate work here don’t call themselves activists — because we have to do it.
If you go over to the University of the South Pacific in Fiji, there’s a high chance you’ll run into students studying environmental management, because there’s this great need for more people doing work in the islands. There’s a greater need for technicians working with renewable energy and people who can survey the land during disasters. There are all of these new jobs that need doing in our islands.
But climate change has taken away a lot of choices for young people. I know some of these people would prefer to focus on music or acting, for example, but we don’t have much choice. We value service and are part of the collective. We live as one being, not as individuals. Because we’re so community focused, it’s our way of serving not just our generation, but also the next.
TV: Can you tell us about what you’re working on right now?
Mariner: One thing the Pacific Climate Warriors has worked hard on is Frontline Truths, a storytelling series that highlights the realities of our everyday people — people who can’t be at COP to tell these stories in person.
Fruean: A proposal for something called the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty was introduced last year, including at COP27, that proposes a stop to the expansion of fossil fuel exploitation. By having other countries sign the treaty, we can all work toward that common goal. So far, Pacific Island nations — Vanuatu, Tuvalu, Tonga, Fiji, Niue, and the Solomon Islands — have been the only countries to sign the Port Vola call to phase out fossil fuels. We’ve been directing our efforts there.
And for the past five years, the big focus has been mitigation: keeping fossil fuels in the ground. Spreading this message is important because the climate conversation can often be about adaptation, like, what we can do to adapt to the changing climate. But once we get into this mindset, we lose track of the fight. We don’t want to be living in a state of adaptation. The only way we can stay here is if global emissions are drastically brought down and fossil fuels stay in the ground. We’ve taken this messaging to COP in previous years, including last year, in Egypt.
A lot of Pacific Islanders hold radical hope that the fate of our islands will be okay, and that hope is often placed in our young people. Every time an [Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change] report comes out, people look to us because it always says something about us drowning in the next few decades. Despite this, we don’t lose sight of that hope, and I find inspiration in that common thread. We can’t let ourselves get weighed down by reports and news articles saying things we’ve known for the last 20 years.
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