Patrick Nunn

Traditional Knowledge and oral accounts of natural phenomena provide valuable insights into natural hazards, including volcanic eruptions. Indigenous societies with Oral Traditions have often developed culturally grounded strategies for mitigating volcanic hazards. However, the integration of cultural knowledge and scientific understanding remains underexplored in modern volcanic hazard mitigation. This study takes a qualitative approach, using examples from Australasia and the Pacific Islands, to examine how the integration of long-standing cultural knowledge and volcanological research can enhance our understanding of precursory activity, eruption chronologies, and the relative timing of past volcanic events. Additionally, it offers detailed accounts of the hazards experienced and their impacts on people and the environment. We also propose directions for future research. Whilst differing world views in the causation of volcanic activity will remain, incorporating all available knowledge on past volcanic events will help local communities in volcanically active regions become better prepared and more resilient to future volcanic activity.

Culturally-appropriate planned relocation policies are critical to enabling climate adaptation, particularly in the Pacific and Indian Oceans where rising sea levels and intensifying hazards threaten communities. Fiji and Vanuatu are frequently cited as international leaders in relocation policy, yet there has been limited critical analysis of the effectiveness and comprehensiveness of their policy frameworks. We analysed 27 institutional instruments guiding climate-induced relocation and displacement in Fiji and Vanuatu and assessed each instrument's contribution to community resilience across three dimensions: means, equity, and tradition. While both countries have developed a suite of policies that collectively support relocation, tradition – encompassing cultural heritage, attachment to place, and customary governance - is underrepresented. Successful relocation policy requires the integration of cultural and traditional dimensions alongside material and procedural considerations, particularly in Indigenous contexts where culture, identity and land are intertwined. Strengthening internal policy design capacity and fostering cross-sectoral integration will contribute to just, sustainable, and culturally-grounded relocation processes and outcomes. Insights from Fiji and Vanuatu offer valuable lessons for other nations developing culturally-inclusive relocation policy in response to climate risks.

Through a study of Ra Province (northeast Viti Levu Island, Fiji) involving both archival research and community engagement, we highlighted a long history of Indigenous population mobility. Many coastal settlements have mostly undocumented histories of relocating inland due to shoreline retreat and land loss over recent decades. Studies of Navutulevu and Vunitogoloa use oral histories and nineteenth-century accounts to show this. More recent autonomous relocations, identified through field surveys in Madhuvani and Navuniivi, are regarded as ‘invisible’ because such major adaptation responses are not usually included in most formal or published reviews of community relocation in the Pacific.
Based on our results and a broader understanding of societal evolution in the Pacific Islands region, we concluded that population mobility and settlement relocation have historically been common on (comparatively small and remote) oceanic islands, often in response to changing environmental conditions. Therefore, the possibility of future relocation might seem less intimidating for many coastal residents because of this history. The idea that future relocation is rare and therefore requires extensive funding and policy support, rooted in post-globalization norms, is inaccurate. In reality, it could undermine the resilience of Pacific Island communities by dismissing their histories of autonomous adaptation.

Investigations of a 3000 m2 shell-dense island surrounded by mangroves off the coast of Culasawani, a very lightly inhabited part of northern Vanua Levu Island in Fiji, suggest it is likely to be a ‘midden island’ rather than a (tsunami) wave deposit. Building an island that reaches 60 cm above mean high tide, the shell-dense deposit (70%–90% shell) averages 20–40 cm thick and appears unstratified, characteristics that initially suggested that it was a wave deposit. Subsequent investigations included four 1 × 1 m test pits and showed all shellfish remains in the island sediments to be from edible species and associated with pottery fragments. Ten radiocarbon ages cluster around a median age of 1190 cal BP (760 CE/AD) with a range of 1530–910 cal BP (420–1040 CE/AD). The clustering of these ages and the nature of the shellfish remains lead to the preferred interpretation of this shell-dense island as a true ‘midden island’, created either by people living on/above the site or by people who processed shellfish there before transporting its flesh elsewhere for consumption. If the Culasawani island is a midden island, then this is the first to be recorded in the South Pacific west of Papua New Guinea.

The southwest Pacific region is geologically complex and exhibits all the principal causes of tsunami generation. While contemporary events and historical catalogs indicate that trans‐Pacific tsunamis have affected this area (∼18% of tsunamis reported globally), it is unique in that a large part of the tsunami effects over the ∼200‐year historical record were triggered locally and regionally. Furthermore, tsunamis in this region are caused by a wide range of earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, submarine landslides, or, more generally, a combination of mechanisms. Due to the complex nature of tsunami generation and the generally short amount of time to tsunami onset, mitigating tsunami hazards and informing vulnerable populations are particularly challenging. This article presents a comprehensive overview of the tsunami hazards in the southwest Pacific related to its complex tectonic and geomorphic setting through examples of significant historical events that exhibit different generation mechanisms, such as the deadly 2009 Samoa‐Tonga event and the recent tsunami caused by the 2022 Hunga Tonga‐Hunga Ha‘apai eruption. We also discuss data and knowledge gaps, including seafloor mapping, palaeotsunami studies, population distribution, and hazard and risk culture, underlining the urgent need to better understand tsunami phenomena, assess the associated risk, and prepare coastal populations for this hazard.

During the last ice age about twenty thousand years ago when the ocean surface was some 125 metres lower, the Channel Islands archipelago (British Isles) was part of a land mass that included mainland Europe and the British Isles. As oceans rose subsequently, the English Channel widened. People relocated landwards, occupying the Channel Islands at least ten thousand years ago when several islands remained connected to mainland France. Stories recalling such connections are more likely based on observations of land submergence than being ‘ridiculous assertions’. Key stories are recounted for the Channel Islands, especially Jersey which was the last separated from France, about six thousand years ago. These stories can be interpreted as memories of transformative events. Ages can be approximated for these memories by reconstructing ocean depth when a particular story would last have been true. This gives minimum ages for initiation of these stories of 1,740–8,070 years Before Present, comparable to elsewhere.

Young people will experience increasingly severe climate impacts, yet they also hold the capacity to design and drive transformative societal shifts toward sustainable futures. Recent research shows that the ways in which young people develop their knowledge about climate change are influenced principally by family dialogue, climate education, youth movements, and examples of youth voices in climate action. This study draws on a 24-question online survey, which employed a mixed-methods approach. It examines the climate change information preferences of Australian and New Zealand youth (ages 16–25), focusing on whom they consider trusted messengers, the significance of communicator gender, and the role of eco-anxiety and political disillusionment in determining engagement and activism. By understanding the preferences and motivations of young people, climate change communicators can develop more effective strategies for enabling youth to acquire and process balanced information that will feed into strategies for a long-term sustainable future. This study builds on existing literature in the field of children’s geographies, relating to climate change communication, that seeks to understand and support youth views.

Climate adaptation is what we (will) make of it, that is, either a burden or an opportunity for a brighter and equitable future. Achieving effective adaptation requires shifting from a risk-centric perspective focusing on the threats, to a more inclusive and engaging approach that envisions sustainable futures. This Perspective draws on our decades of research experience to argue that the “habitability” lens can catalyse this shift, and proposes a research framework.

As climate change accelerates, there is a growing need to ensure that sustainable adaptive solutions are effective and equitable, especially in the Global South where many countries depend on external funding to attain water security. Perceptions of vulnerability and need among Pacific Island Countries are not always based on a region-wide evidence base. This study examines ten Western Pacific Island countries (Federated States of Micronesia [FSM], Fiji, Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Nauru, New Caledonia [French dependency], Palau, Solomon Islands, Tuvalu, Vanuatu) that include both high-island groups and low-island (atoll) groups. This study evaluates the equitability of the distribution of external funding for attaining water security. Needs are evaluated in terms of (a) population densities and growth compared with water and land availability and (b) the uneven distribution of water-focused livelihood stressors across this region, specifically those linked to climate variability, sea-level rise, tropical cyclones, and geophysical phenomena. Measures of comparative exposure of people in these countries show that those living along high-island coasts, especially in Fiji, Solomon Islands and Vanuatu, are considerably more exposed than their counterparts elsewhere, especially in atoll nations which have received greater amounts of per capita climate funding for water security. Results show that there is a ‘perfect storm’ brewing in the high-island nations of the Southwest Pacific resulting from their comparatively high exposure to livelihood stressors. This could be addressed by reassessing the distribution of external climate funding within the Western Pacific region. Key findings are the importance of aligning need with assistance and the foundational role of water in livelihood sustainability, both having implications for the hundreds of coastal communities forced to relocate, mostly locally on the same island, in the next few decades. The imperative of addressing such deficiencies in an era of accelerating climate change and declining levels of global support is clear.

Effective climate change communication is central to public engagement, self-efficacy, and support for mitigation and adaptation policies. Yet, communicators face numerous challenges, such as misinformation, climate despair, and the complexity of climate science. This study examines the views of 29 climate change communicators from Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand to evaluate the alignment between practitioner insights and research-backed strategies. Findings confirm the significance of audience segmentation, localized, and solution-focused messaging and collaborative approaches. A four-pillar framework, consisting of simplicity and local relevance, audience segmentation, storytelling, and actionable steps, emerges as a strategic model for enhancing the communication impact. This study offers a structured guide for improving climate communication effectiveness within diverse sociopolitical contexts by integrating theoretical insights with practitioner perspectives.