Description
Climate change tends to be defined as a change in the pattern of weather, and related changes in oceans, land surfaces and ice sheets, caused by humans, occurring over time scales of decades or longer. It is a Western concept which has been exported to countries in the global South through diplomatic relations, non-governmental organisations, the media and academic studies. We question the Western meaning of the concept of climate change as Pacific Islanders have argued that the concept of climate change does not exist in their native languages and that the narratives surrounding the concept of climate change originated from the outside.
We aim to understand how climate change is understood by people in Samoa and how these understandings are informed by their religious/theological/spiritual perspective. This focus is important because Samoans, and the Pacific islanders in general, are deeply religious. They believe that natural catastrophes and extreme weather changes can be attributed to religious reasons such as the anger of the gods. It is important to investigate the link between climate change perceptions and religion as religion informs the behaviour and agency of people to address climate change causes, impacts and responses. Furthermore, studies have shown that conservative Christians have opposed climate science, saying human induced warming goes against God’s omnipotence. We therefore argue that to be effective, climate change policies require religious perspectives as the latter will motivate people to address environmental changes.
