Paper short abstract:

This paper discusses results of a recent study on responses to climate change discourse on a coral atoll in Micronesia. We examine climate change research in terms of how it contributes to the constitution of ‘risky environments’, and focus on how the concept of ‘risk’ contributes to changes in the way people engage with and understand their island places.

Paper long abstract:

Scientific predictions of climate change that place small islands 'at risk' from sea-level rise and an increase in the frequency and intensity of extreme climatic events are well accepted by Small Island States. This paper discusses results of a recent study on responses to climate change discourse on Moch Island, a coral atoll in the Mortlock Islands of Chuuk State, Federated States of Micronesia. Whilst a past history of human resourcefulness in response to social and environmental change in the Pacific is well documented in the literature, the contemporary phenomenon of climate change introduces the notion of risk and encourages doomsday scenarios. We examine climate change research that is focused on adaptation, vulnerability, and resilience, in terms of how such research contributes to the constitution of 'risky environments'. Our focus is on how the concept of 'risk' contributes to changes in the way that people engage with and understand their island places.