new learning pathway on one ocean learn: Thinking with Islands
A brand new Learning Pathway has been launched this month on One Ocean Learn: Thinking with Islands.
Islands are places and spaces of wonder, each unique in their own right. The uniqueness they foster, from endemism of species to idiosyncrasies in human cultures, is also often shaped by their exposure to weather extremes. This means, on the one hand, that islands have historically been regarded as ideal sites for studying the climate. On the other hand, this prodigious exposure to extreme weather also makes them the most vulnerable frontiers of our world today. Small islands and small islands nations are often the first to bear the full brunt of climate change and other unpredictable environmental shifts that loom over the planet.
Islands have been dreamed of as remote paradises and utopias. At the same time, they have been subject to extreme forms of extraction, colonisation and environmental transformation throughout history. In this era, when islands are on the front lines of anthropogenic climate change, threatened by rising seas and extreme weather, their unique cultures, places and space-specific knowledge as well their environmental peculiarities, demand our immediate attention.
This Learning Pathway invites us to think about, or better yet, to think with the islands and island communities, the inherent uniqueness of their environments and cultures, as well as their vulnerabilities and remarkable resilience.
Module 1: Islands and Island Communities on their Own Terms, approaches islands as an important category of analysis in their own right. Going beyond the mainland perspective of islands as peripheral, this module highlights the importance of what islands and their communities can teach us about environment and culture alike.
Module 2: Islands as ‘Laboratories’, focuses on the concept of islands as perfect spaces for examining natural and cultural uniqueness, and the ways to approach them sustainably.
Module 3: Islands’ Vulnerability and Resilience, looks at islands in the current era in the context of the triple planetary crisis. It looks at their environmental predicament, as well as the extraordinary resilience of their communities.
The Thinking with Islands Learning Pathway is available on the One Ocean Learn on this link.
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