The focus of this paper is particularly on low lying coral islands
of the Pacific, such as the outer coral atolls and islands of
Chuuk state, in the Federated States of Micronesia. The paper
explores the relevance of heritage research to climate science.
Questions posed include the following: How is the discourse of
global warming being taken up at the local level? What are the
experiences, understandings and responses of peoples who
live at the ‘front line’ of sea level change? We consider the
heritage dimensions of climate change in Chuuk in terms of the
notion of ‘loss’ and what it is to feel that one is losing one’s
world, as well as the distinction between tangible and
intangible heritage. We argue that research on the ‘human
dimensions’ of climate change must be expanded from its
current socio-economic emphasis to include baseline local
level ethnographic studies that enable understanding of nonmarket
impacts and the complex transformative relationship
between cosmologies of climate change and heritage values.