13 Influence of Spiritual Beliefs on Autonomous Climate-Change …
259
such contexts focuses on the denial of (climate-driven) sea-level rise, or at least its
continuation in the future, because of God’s unretracted promise. In some situations,
the acceptance of sea-level rise and its associated effects (like shoreline erosion
and increased lowland flooding) has been regarded as almost heretical, leading to
a refusal to respond/adapt. For example, a former Kiribati politician, Harry Tong,
stated in 2010 that “climate change is an all-natural phenomenon. You can’t really
do much about that, unless you talk to God and negotiate with God … He made
a promise to Noah that he will never again destroy this earth with flood” (quoted
in Fair 2018, p. 5). We did not encounter such views in our surveys over nearly
four weeks on Ono Island (which does not mean no-one there believes this) but it
is anecdotally one reason why many other communities in the Kadavu Island group
are reluctant to relocate from their low-coastal locations. Yet we did find similar
sentiments expressed, for example—
So it’s respecting the land and meeting the obligations of being a faithful servant or custodian
of this land. You will bear many fruits or you will have many blessings from the gods or
from their faith as a being loyal to their gods or to their teachings, to their Christian teaching.
(Narikoso, mature female)
We also find the influence of religious leaders, both nationally and within communities, to be significant in the development of ideas among community residents on
Ono concerning climate change and its attribution: a comparable situation to that
reported on Lombok Island, Indonesia, where the influence of religious leaders (tuan
guru) extends far beyond people’s spiritual lives (Kingsley 2014). In communal
societies such as those found on Ono, it is common for ‘persons of influence’ to
drive community members’ understandings of various phenomena and direct their
responses to these—often to a degree that more individualistic western societies
might consider unusual. In fact, it has been suggested that climate-change adaptation strategies in the Pacific Islands region (and in developing-country contexts
elsewhere) might focus less on funding national governments to drive adaptation
and more on empowering such persons of influence within communities to do so
(Nunn 2009).
Secular-Scientific Beliefs
Many scientists, representing western/global scientific enterprise, have viewed
people’s religious beliefs in regions of the world like the Pacific Islands as ‘barriers’
to climate-change adaptation (Kuruppu and Liverman 2011; Paton and FairbairnDunlop 2010), one even characterizing faith in such a situation as a ‘touching silliness’ (Haraway 2016). Such views are often as myopic as they are uninformed.
People like those on Ono are not going to abandon their religious views just because
they are told these are worthless, least of all by an outsider. So if science-based future
projections of climate change are to feature in decision-making for environmental
sustainability on Ono, scientists must learn how to work with community leaders.
259
such contexts focuses on the denial of (climate-driven) sea-level rise, or at least its
continuation in the future, because of God’s unretracted promise. In some situations,
the acceptance of sea-level rise and its associated effects (like shoreline erosion
and increased lowland flooding) has been regarded as almost heretical, leading to
a refusal to respond/adapt. For example, a former Kiribati politician, Harry Tong,
stated in 2010 that “climate change is an all-natural phenomenon. You can’t really
do much about that, unless you talk to God and negotiate with God … He made
a promise to Noah that he will never again destroy this earth with flood” (quoted
in Fair 2018, p. 5). We did not encounter such views in our surveys over nearly
four weeks on Ono Island (which does not mean no-one there believes this) but it
is anecdotally one reason why many other communities in the Kadavu Island group
are reluctant to relocate from their low-coastal locations. Yet we did find similar
sentiments expressed, for example—
So it’s respecting the land and meeting the obligations of being a faithful servant or custodian
of this land. You will bear many fruits or you will have many blessings from the gods or
from their faith as a being loyal to their gods or to their teachings, to their Christian teaching.
(Narikoso, mature female)
We also find the influence of religious leaders, both nationally and within communities, to be significant in the development of ideas among community residents on
Ono concerning climate change and its attribution: a comparable situation to that
reported on Lombok Island, Indonesia, where the influence of religious leaders (tuan
guru) extends far beyond people’s spiritual lives (Kingsley 2014). In communal
societies such as those found on Ono, it is common for ‘persons of influence’ to
drive community members’ understandings of various phenomena and direct their
responses to these—often to a degree that more individualistic western societies
might consider unusual. In fact, it has been suggested that climate-change adaptation strategies in the Pacific Islands region (and in developing-country contexts
elsewhere) might focus less on funding national governments to drive adaptation
and more on empowering such persons of influence within communities to do so
(Nunn 2009).
Secular-Scientific Beliefs
Many scientists, representing western/global scientific enterprise, have viewed
people’s religious beliefs in regions of the world like the Pacific Islands as ‘barriers’
to climate-change adaptation (Kuruppu and Liverman 2011; Paton and FairbairnDunlop 2010), one even characterizing faith in such a situation as a ‘touching silliness’ (Haraway 2016). Such views are often as myopic as they are uninformed.
People like those on Ono are not going to abandon their religious views just because
they are told these are worthless, least of all by an outsider. So if science-based future
projections of climate change are to feature in decision-making for environmental
sustainability on Ono, scientists must learn how to work with community leaders.