Description
Climate change and international climate politics are dominated by inequalities (in responsibility, vulnerability, support received and decision power) and calls for climate justice have been amplified in recent years within civil society organisations, vulnerable nations and scholars alike (Sultana, 2022). It is almost accepted as a fact that some territories and nations will disappear as a result of climate change, in small island developing states (SIDS) and beyond (Kelman, 2018; Petzold and Magnan, 2019); however (apart from the inclusion of an aspirational goal of a maximum 1.5 degrees Celsius warming in the Paris agreement to respond to the concerns of small islands), this alone has not been sufficient for climate change and its geo-political impacts to be acted upon.
This paper investigates how the question of survival and territorial and political disappearance is articulated and considered in climate politics, and how some threats have become ‘normalised’, almost accepted, in the mass media. Building on my work on discourses (Germond-Duret, 2022), frame analysis (Germond-Duret and Germond, 2022), as well as and coastal and marine spaces (Germond and Germond-Duret, 2017), the paper explores the representation and normalisation of islands’ disappearance in political statements and newspapers across the globe.
The findings suggest that the question of survival and disappearance reveals a tension between worldviews underpinned by eco-optimism on the one hand (ignoring threats or relying on adaptation technologies to address them) and ‘eco-defeatism’ on the other hand (deep awareness and passive acceptance of the seriousness of the threats). Both views make threats almost invisible (either through ignorance, or because they are so overwhelming that one doesn’t face them anymore), and prevent pro-active climate policies.
References:
Germond, B., Germond-Duret, C. (2017), “Critical Geographies of the Ocean: Mobilities and Placefulness”, in J. Monios & G. Wilmsmeier (eds), Maritime Mobilities, Routledge, London, pp.25-41.
Germond-Duret, C. (2022), “Framing the Blue Economy: Placelessness, Development and Sustainability”, Development and Change, 53 (2), pp.308-334.
Germond-Duret, C., Germond, B. (2022), “Media Coverage of the Blue Economy in British Newspapers: Sea Blindness and Sustainable Development”, The Geographical Journal, [online ahead of print].
Kelman, I. (2018), “Islandness within climate change narratives of small island developing states (SIDS)”, Island Studies Journal, 13(1), 149-166.
Petzold, J., Magnan, A.K. (2019), “Climate change: thinking small islands beyond Small Island Developing States (SIDS)”, Climatic Change, 152, 145–165.
Sultana, F. (2022), “Critical Climate Justice”, The Geographical Journal, 188, 118-124.
