The photo-series I have submitted is part of a larger body of work concentrating on climate change adaptation efforts and the inherent paradigm shifts it produces in the affected areas. It's focus is on Tuvalu's young generations that confronted with an increased flow of information regarding climate change, are seeing their dreams colliding with tuvaluan society's needs for survival. Photo 1: The storm is coming Photo 2: Pondering Photo 3: Tidal interpreter Photo 4: We're OK Photo 5: The ship has docked
The forefront of climate change adaptation - Tuvalu.
Caught between the need to channel foreign aid into the country and maintaining social and cultural cohesion, as climate change reality is enforced as the general/multi-purpose lens for interpreting daily interactions, the tuvaluan society is experiencing a fast-flowing mix of propaganda, veiled guidelines and interest-based popular wisdom proxies, stamping very heavy points on the collective conscience of a rather short-term mindset population, that might not be able to fully assume and instrument a paradigm shift to ensure it’s long-term social and cultural survival.
A full fledged soft power battlefield that; from the educational and cultural influence of Fiji and Taiwan to the stamping, marking or in-your-face sign posting of European Union or Australian Aid flags and message boards on the daily life sustaining or emergency systems all around Tuvalu’s main island; along with the free-flow of information allowed by increased internet availability and mobile technology permeatting through society, is setting up a possibly irreconcilable gap between the young generations dreams and the establishment's needs.
The above photo-essay represents the start of long-term effort to document paradigm shifts caused by climate change adaptation around the globe, with a focus, at the moment, on the pacific island nations.
An early look at what might be the case, for more than 100 million people this century, as scientific consensus on climate change and social scientists are coining the "climate refugee" term as probably one of the headliners of the 21st century.