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Before it is lost

Essays from the Pacific islands of what might be, can't be and has already been lost to the climate crisis

3 November 2022

  • An illustration of human bones including a skull strewn across a sandy beach with trees fallen and damaged in the background

    The climate crisis threatens to rob us not just of our living, but also of our dead

    Lagipoiva Cherelle Jackson
    As Pacific nations face the prospect of losing entire islands, the thought of leaving behind the bones of our ancestors is unbearable

2 November 2022

  • An illustration of a digger extracting rock from an island which is mostly rocky but with some green trees and bushes

    No more drinking water, little food: our island is a field of bones

    Katerina Teaiwa
    Banaba in the central Pacific is a microcosm of what has happened to this planet. It’s a place that cannot be brought back into balance without focused and collaborative care

1 November 2022

  • Atoll nations have been described as strings of pearls floating in the ocean, but we are uniquely at risk from climate change.

    How do we mourn an island? Where do we mark its grave?

    Kathy Jetn̄il-Kijiner
    Atoll nations have been described as strings of pearls floating in the ocean, but we are uniquely at risk from climate change

31 October 2022

  • The sihek, or the Guam kingfisher, is a beautiful blue-gold songbird that’s been extirpated in the wild since the 1980s.

    On Guam there is no birdsong, you cannot imagine the trauma of a silent island

    Julian Aguon
    Climate change, invasive species and military expansion have formed an unholy trinity that threatens our small but ancient civilization

30 October 2022

  • Kate Lyons

    In my house is a Tuvaluan basket, a tiny piece of an island the world cannot fail

    Kate Lyons
    Each day this week, essay series Before it is lost will feature a Pacific writer detailing the climate fight that threatens the survival of their islands
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