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About the Book

"A stunning atlas of the present and future."—Rebecca Solnit, author of several books including Infinite Cities: A Trilogy of Atlases—San Francisco, New Orleans, New York

"An impassioned plea to save what remains of these remarkable island communities."—Booklist, starred review

One of the Best Science Books of 2023, New Scientist


This immersive portal to islands around the world highlights the impacts of sea level rise and shimmers with hopeful solutions to combat it.
 
Atlases are being redrawn as islands are disappearing. What does an island see when the sea rises? Sea Change: An Atlas of Islands in a Rising Ocean weaves together essays, maps, art, and poetry to show us—and make us see—island nations in a warming world.

Low-lying islands are least responsible for global warming, but they are suffering the brunt of it. This transportive atlas reorients our vantage point to place islands at the center of the story, highlighting Indigenous and Black voices and the work of communities taking action for local and global climate justice. At once serious and playful, well-researched and lavishly designed, Sea Change is a stunning exploration of the climate and our world's coastlines. Full of immersive storytelling, scientific expertise, and rallying cries from island populations that shout with hope—"We are not drowning! We are fighting!"—this atlas will galvanize readers in the fight against climate change and the choices we all face.

About the Author

Christina Gerhardt is Associate Professor at the University of Hawai'i at Mānoa, Senior Fellow at the University of California, Berkeley, and former Barron Professor of Environment and the Humanities at Princeton University. Her environmental journalism has been published by Grist.org, The Nation, The Progressive, and the Washington Monthly.

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A Look Inside Sea Change, a Stunning New Atlas for Our Times

"A stunning atlas of the present and future."—Rebecca Solnit
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Table of Contents

CONTENTS

FOREWORD Bill McKibben

FOREWORDS 
Hilda Heine, Marshall Islands / Dessima Williams, Grenada

INTRODUCTION Of Oceans and Islands 

ARCTIC OCEAN

Greenland 
Sarichef Island 

ATLANTIC OCEAN

Lennox Island 
Deal Island 
Republic of Cabo Verde 
Bissagos Islands 
Democratic Republic of São Tomé and Príncipe 


INDIAN OCEAN AND PERSIAN GULF

Kingdom of Bahrain 
Union of the Comoros 
Republic of Mauritius 
Republic of Seychelles 
Republic of Maldives 
Bhasan Char and Sandwip 
Republic of Singapore 


PACIFIC OCEAN

South China Sea Islands 
Commonwealth of Northern Mariana Islands 
Guåhan
Republic of Palau 
Federated States of Micronesia
Republic of Marshall Islands
Republic of Kiribati
Republic of Nauru 
Republic of Vanuatu 
Solomon Islands 
Independent State of Papua New Guinea 
Republic of Fiji 
Tuvalu 
Tokelau 
Independent State of Samoa 
Niue 
Cook Islands
Kingdom of Tonga 

CARIBBEAN SEA AND GULF OF MEXICO

Bonaire 
Republic of Trinidad and Tobago 
Grenada 
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines 
Barbados 
Saint Lucia 
Martinique 
Commonwealth of Dominica 
Antigua and Barbuda 
Commonwealth of Puerto Rico 
Dominican Republic 
Haiti 
Jamaica 
Republic of Cuba 
Commonwealth of The Bahamas 
Isle de Jean Charles 

ANTARCTIC OCEAN

Pine Island

GLOSSARY 
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 
MAP CITATIONS 
WORKS CITED 
CREDITS
 

Reviews

"[Sea Change] is a work of art, and Gerhardt . . . weaves together quite a collection of essays, maps and poetry that invite us to rethink our relationship to these vanishing landscapes."
Los Angeles Times
"How often does an atlas command immediate attention, warranting a page-by-page perusal? . . . This unique approach documents dramatic climate change while mounting an impassioned plea to save what remains of these remarkable island communities."
Booklist, starred review
"Each entry on each threatened island is rigorously scientific – maps, diagrams and statistics are there in abundance. . . . [A]longside all this, Gerhardt also offers poems from the communities and cultures under threat, as well as images of works of art and historical artefacts. . . . The overall result is a detailed and visually impactful inventory of all that we stand to lose."
The Scotsman
"The micro-chapters with their maps and timelines make this the kind of book that is easy to dip in and out of and experience in no particular order. You can island-hop just by flipping the page, and on every page you’ll encounter some scientific curiosity or historical factoid."
Sierra Magazine
"[Sea Change] gives far-flung places a voice, grounds them in our imaginations as real places with cultures of their own, places that people call home and have done for generations. There’s a strong climate justice angle to all of this of course."
The Earthbound Report
"[Sea Change's] essays, maps, art and poetry place small islands (vanishing under rising seas right now) at the centre of the climate story. This is a refreshingly different perspective."
 
New Scientist
“This is not just an Atlas but more an experience. As you turn the pages you realise that you are hearing life and death stories of communities that are in danger of disappearing.”
UK National Association for Environmental Education
"Gerhardt could have created a purely scientific report of what’s been happening to such far-flung places as Lnnui Mnukuk, the Mi’kmaq name for Lennox Island in Canada’s North Atlantic provinces, and the Republic of Nauru in the Pacific, the world’s smallest independent island nation. Instead, she considers her artfully designed book a 'transportive atlas' that incorporates maps, essays, poetry and images, along with brief histories outlining the impacts of colonialism and imperialism, providing more of a holistic and multi-media experience."
Berkeleyside
"[I]rresistible . . . The book covers 49 islands, island groups and island nations around the world, each with its own short chapter giving an overview of the location’s  history, the present, and the impending dangerous future  Each is also accompanied by a map. Most chapters are straightforward narrative, but there is also poetry and art sprinkled throughout. The effect is to both expand the view to every ocean around the world, but to also keep the focus on a very personal, human level."
Daily Kos
"Gerhardt’s book . . . feature[s], on each spread, a map of an island or island group; visualizations of the island’s sea level today and in 2050 and 2100; geographic data about each island; demographic data about its Indigenous inhabitants; a timeline of Indigenous, 'pre-contact,' and climate-related histories; and an essay on the island and its inhabitants. Each narrative . . . depict[s] various 'solutions' deployed both by global and national governments and by Indigenous peoples: from sea walls and geoengineering to preserving and restoring coral and oyster reefs, mangrove marshes, wetlands, and other natural buffers."
The Avery Review
"The most beautiful title on our list, Sea Change is also the most shocking. Atlases are being redrawn as islands vanish into the ocean. This remarkable hardback combines bold, slick and effective visualisations of those changes with factual information, cultural traditions and scientific research about the planet’s most vulnerable isles, and asks what might save them."
Environment Journal
"In this definitive and authoritative guide, Gerhardt fuses the poetic voices of the islanders themselves along with visual maps, highlighting where the issues are likely to be felt the most. The priority in this text, repeated throughout, is that of being a testimony to the cultures, histories and values that are in danger of being lost, as sea level rise continues."
Climate with Brian
"Christina Gerhardt has done an exceptional job of detailing the predicaments being faced by some of the world’s most vulnerable island communities . . . this is a highly respectable piece of journalistic work, and simultaneously a beautiful design object . . . Sea Change’s aesthetic allure will mean that it reaches the coffee tables of those who might not have ordinarily thought themselves interested in the topics being addressed, and that feels crucial right now."
Geographical Magazine
"[Sea Change] is an ode to islands large and small, north and south, and the many peoples who call them home. It is a book of science and stories and, yes, even hope amidst the rising waters. . . . I guarantee anyone who reads it will come away with a better understanding of the world’s many islands and a desire to do something about protecting them."
EcoLit
"Sea level rise will make all current atlases obsolete as it encroaches on coastlines and erases whole islands from the Arctic to the South Pacific. In Christina Gerhardt's stunning atlas of the present and future, we not only see these living places disappear in stages, but hear from their inhabitants in this mix of cartography, science, history, and urgent outcry about the climate crisis. This book makes tangible and visible both the physical changes and their cultural, emotional, and social impact."—Rebecca Solnit, author of several books including Infinite Cities: A Trilogy of Atlases—San Francisco, New Orleans, New York
 
"This book presents islands as more than just geographic locations, as places of resilience replete with history and culture laced with the fiber that underscores the interface of planet, people, and other beings in the time of looming catastrophic climate change. Sea Change: An Atlas of Islands in a Rising Ocean maps hopes and histories and offers cautionary tales and wake-up calls couched in sensitive yet expansive poetics of life. This is a rare gift."—Nnimmo Bassey, author of To Cook a Continent: Destructive Extraction and the Climate Crisis in Africa
 
"Islands are extraordinarily rich—in history, culture, and biodiversity. In an age of climate change, they're also incredibly vulnerable. At once lyrical and clear-sighted, Sea Change: An Atlas of Islands in a Rising Ocean invites us to rethink our relationship to these magical, threatened places."—Elizabeth Kolbert, author of The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History

"A vital guide to understanding and navigating this time of rising oceans. A love song to island peoples and civilizations facing unimaginable loss. A paean of resistance and re-visioning, towards livable futures."—Shailja Patel, author of Migritude
 
"In this engaging and timely work, Gerhardt maps how islands have and will continue to change due to rising sea levels. She invites us to see these changes, not only through the form and genre of the atlas, but also through the eyes, voices, and perspectives of islanders themselves."—Craig Santos Perez, author of Navigating CHamoru Poetry: Indigeneity, Aesthetics, and Decolonization

“Christina Gerhardt's Sea Change is an urgent resource for an urgent moment of social and climatological upheaval. Islands—reproduced in a colonial imagination as bounded, isolated geographies—are dynamic sites of political imagination and ecological worldmaking. Gerhardt provides us with a grammar to make sense of our shared predicaments and unsung solidarities as island-dwelling communities.”—Ryan Jobson, University of Chicago

Awards

  • California Book Award Contribution to Publishing Finalist 2023 2024, Commonwealth Club

Media

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