Who is she?

Farbotko is an Assistant Research Fellow at the School of Earth and Environmental Sciences at the University of Wollongong. She completed her PhD at the University of Tasmania. Her dissertation is entitled: Representing climate change space: islographs of Tuvalu.

Did we speak with him/her?

No

Nationality:

Australian

Important Publications/Articles on Tuvalu:

‘The first climate refugees? Contesting global narratives of climate change in Tuvalu’

‘Wishful sinking: Disappearing islands, climate refugees and cosmopolitan experimentation’

What methods does she use?

She used reviews from Australian newspapers; she believes adaptation rather than migration.

Her take on the controversy:

Tuvalu is treated as a “canary in the coal mine” a disposable pawn that falls victim to the devastation caused by climate change. The international community idly watches to see what will become of the islands because Tuvalu is seen as a metaphor/prophecy of what awaits the rest of us.

Quotations:

“Only after they disappear will the islands become an absolute truth of the urgency of climate change, and thus act as a prompt towards saving the rest of the planet”.

“Tuvalu becomes a space where the fate of the planet is brought forward in time and miniaturised in space, reduced to a performance of rising seas and climate refugees played out for those with most control over the current and future uses of fossil fuels”.