Pacific Voices and Climate Change

Niki J.P. Alsford is Professor in Asia Pacific Studies and Head of Asia Pacific Institutes at the University of Central Lancashire (UClan). He is also Research Associate at the Centre of Taiwan Studies at SOAS, University of London and Research Fellow at the Ewha Institute of Unification Studies at Ewha Womans University in Seoul.   Trained in Anthropology, Alsford’s research focuses primarily on comparative ethnography within the Asia Pacific region. Chief among these is an engagement with Austronesian migration and the anthropology of maritime cultures of Pacific islands. His focus has had reference to sea-bound myths and legends of both Near and Remote Oceania as well as other Pacific bordering nations. His present work is bridging a cognitive divide in environmental discussions between indigenous leaders and climate science. He is author of Transitions to Modernity in Taiwan: The Spirit of 1895 and the Cession of Formosa to Japan, published by Routledge in 2017. He is book series editor for the Taiwan series at BRILL and the Korean series at Routledge. He is an elected fellow of the Royal Anthropological Institute, Royal Geographical Society (with IBG), the Royal Asiatic Society, and the Explorer’s Club. He also works as the Country-of-Origin Expert for Taiwan, the Pacific Islands, and North Korea for AMERA International and the International Refugee Rights Initiative.

• Introduction.-  Chapter 1. The next wave of climate refugees? Building a clear narrative concerning levels of understanding and agency in communities across the Pacific who are most at risk from the effects of the climate emergency.- Chapter 2. Sustainable Development from Unsustainable Climate: Sustainable Development Goals and the Pacific Small Island Developing States.- Chapter 3. New Zealand’s Political Responses to Climate Change and Migration in the Pacific: A Perspective from the South.- Chapter 4. Agency and Action: Gender Inclusion in Planning for Climate Change Induced Human Mobility in Fiji.- Chapter 5. Assertion of Indigenous identity in the face of climate change: The works of two millennial Paiwan authors.- Chapter 6. Climate Change, Humility and Resilience: Analyzing a Myth of the Bunun in Taiwan.- Chapter 7.  North American Native Literature and Environment: Perspectives on the Native Challenges and Dispossession.- Chapter 8. Future Impacts of Climate Change on the Lives and Livelihoods of Indo-Fijians.- Chapter 9. Exploring Australia and New Zealand’s Climate Policies: Similarities and Differences.