To Preserve the Heritage of the Past, and to Protect the Promise of the Future': Intergenerational Equity Challenges From Climate Change in the Federated States of Micronesia

• Author: Clement Yow Mulalap
• Pages: 323-353

323

“To Preserve the Heritage

of the Past, and to Protect

the Promise of the Future”:

Intergenerational Equity

Challenges from Climate

Change in the Federated

States of Micronesia

Clement Yow Mulalap

Introduction .................................................................................................323

I. Climate Change Impacts in the FSM ...................................................327

II. Intergenerational Equity, the Natural Environment, and

Human Rights ......................................................................................332

III. Triggering International Action to Combat Climate Change for the

Protection of Future Generations .........................................................340

Conclusion ...................................................................................................353

Introduction

Every four years, delegations from Pacic islands convene in a location in

Oceania and engage in a two-week celebration of traditional Pacic arts.

Ocially called the Festiva l of Pacic A rts and colloquially described as

the Pacic Olympics of Arts, the event features traditional dances, chants,

handicraft, and other forms of cultural exchange and exhibits. In 2016, the

island of Guam hosted the festival from May 22 to June 4.1 At dawn on the

opening day, several canoes sailed into Tumon Bay to launch the festival.

e canoes were from the island groups of Yap and Chuuk in the Federated

States of Micronesia (FSM), a sovereign nation comprised of approximately

600 low-lying islands and atolls in the North Pacic. e canoes were fash-

1. For more information on the 2016 festival, see https://festpac.visitguam.com/ (last visited Aug. 23,

2016).

Chapter 12

324 Climate Justice

ioned from loca l, natura l materials, in accordance with ancient Yapese and

Chuukese practice. To the delight of the festival-goers, the canoes had sailed

from the various islands of Yap and Chuuk to Gua m—a voyage of hundreds

of miles over the open Pacic Ocean—without using any modern naviga-

tional instruments. Instead, the crews on the canoes employed traditional

navigational skills that rely on the positions and movements of stars and

other celest ial bodies, the swells and directions of ocean currents, and the

behavior of seabirds and marine life in the high seas.2

e arrival of the canoes was a profound testament to the genius of

ancient Pacic mariners and the deep links they forged with their natural

environments, including the skyscape, as they sought and settled the far-

ung islands of the Pacic millennia ago, long before Europea ns “discov-

ered” those isla nds. It was also a celebration of the commitment of past and

current generations of islanders from Yap and Chuuk to learn the challenging

skill of noninstrumental traditional waynding a nd transmit the knowledge

of that skill to future generations, even as indigenous populations elsewhere

in the Pacic lost their own knowledge of waynding.3

Amidst the celebration, however, one of the traditional navigators from an

outer island of Yap sounded a note of caution. Larry R aigetal, the founder

of Waa’gey, a nongovernmental organization from Yap that uses traditional

skills to address the social, economic, and environmental challenges faced by

the people of Yap, warned that climate change was already having adverse

eects on the traditional navigation practiced in Yap and Chuuk.4 Raigetal

cited ancient k nowledge about how the positions of stars in the nightscape

are supposed to augur prohibitive sailing weather, but nowadays do not cor-

2. For news reports about the arrival of the canoes and the ocial opening of the festival, see Jerick

Sablan, Traditional Seafarers Arrive in Guam, P. D N, May 17, 2016, http://www.guampdn.

com/story/news/2016/05/16/traditional-seafarers-arrive-guam/84432448/; see also Jojo Santo omas,

FestPac Welcomed With Full Day of Celebration, P. D N, May 23, 2016, http://www.guampdn.

com/story/news/2016/05/22/canoe-arrivals-mark-beginning-festpac/84734934/.

3. In contrast to other indigenous Pacic populations, the Native Hawaiians managed to rectify their loss

of waynding, but only with the magnanimous assistance of Pius “Mau” Piailug, a master navigator

from the island of Satawal in the Federated States of Micronesia who taught a small group of Native

Hawaiians in the 1970s how to navigate like their ancestors did, with the stars and currents and other

natural elements as guides. at gesture by Piailug triggered a strong Hawaiian cultural renaissance

that continues today. See generally S L, H R: H’, N T, 

 H R (2013); see also Cynthia Franklin, Introduction, in N I

 C: C  C   A  P: S

E xxiv (Cynthia Franklin ed., 2000).

4. Raigetal gave his comments at a conference held in connection with the 2016 festival. See Louella

Losinio, Traditional Navigation and Climate Change, G D P, May 15, 2016, http://www.

postguam.com/news/local/traditional-navigation-and-climate-change/article_89f5a9c2-19d6-11e6-

8ea6-93d7a1b7b168.html. For additional commentary by Raigetal on the impacts of climate change

on traditional navigation, see Video: Climate Change vs. Traditional Navigation, https://vimeo.

com/157791925.