Pacific Climate Reader Series
Available for free download in English, Kiribati, Samoan, Pijin (Solomon Islands), Tuvaluan, Bislama (Vanuatu), and Marshallese (Book 5 only).
Pacific Climate Readers is a series of early readers created specifically for children in the Pacific Islands. The place-based focus on Pacific Island landscapes, local flora and fauna, and the island way of life helps students to explore new concepts within familiar contexts. While providing engaging and relatable literacy materials that children and educators can use to promote reading and comprehension skills, these books’ Pacific Island focus on themes such as ecology, communities, health, and hygiene also allows students to develop fundamentals of climate literacy and refine their critical thinking, problem solving, and understanding of adaptive solutions.
Book 1: How I take care of myself and others
In this story, Keola, as the eldest sibling, helps to care for Lupe and Enele, the younger ones. Keola offers great ideas to young readers about how to take care of themselves and others, while Lupe and Enele show that it is important for everyone to do their part.
Download in English, Kiribati, Samoan, Pijin (Solomon Islands), Tuvaluan, Bislama (Vanuatu)
Book 2: Welcome to our garden
In this story, Manu, Mere, and Lagi take the reader on a journey towards food security and health by sharing what they know about their favourite activity: gardening. They show us how gardening is fun and explain why it is important and useful for everyone.
Download in English, Kiribati, Samoan, Pijin (Solomon Islands), Tuvaluan, Bislama (Vanuatu)
Book 3: Teamwork in my community
This is a story about working as a team to solve problems. Manu, Mere, and Lagi invite friends and community members to help create a garden for everyone. Their idea brings the community to work together toward the common goal of improving food security. Changing their idea into reality is not easy. Though Manu, Mere, and Lagi face challenges, they reach their goal thanks to being able to inspire many people to work together.
Download in English, Kiribati, Samoan, Pijin (Solomon Islands), Tuvaluan, Bislama (Vanuatu)
Book 4: Our high island adventure
In this story, Sera welcomes her cousin, Samu, for his first visit to her island. Sera takes Samu on a journey through several ecosystems found on high islands in the Pacific. In each ecosystem, Sera and Samu meet someone who is engaging in some activity there and learn new things from them. Together, they learn how different parts of the island are being impacted by various threats and what they can do to help.
Download in English, Kiribati, Samoan, Pijin (Solomon Islands), Tuvaluan, Bislama (Vanuatu)
Book 5: Our atoll adventure
In this story, Samu welcomes his cousin, Sera, for her first visit to his island. Samu takes Sera on a journey through several ecosystems found on atolls and other low-lying islands in the Pacific. In each ecosystem, Samu and Sera meet someone who is engaging in some activity there and learn new things from them. Together, they learn how different parts of the island are being impacted by various threats and what they can do to help.
Download in English, Kiribati, Samoan, Pijin (Solomon Islands), Tuvaluan, Bislama (Vanuatu), Marshallese
Click here to watch Book 5 in Marshallese!
Global Warming Info and Resources
What is Global Warming and how does it work?
Anthropogenic global warming is the result of the direct impacts and byproducts of modern human life on the Earth’s living systems. Societal emission of various greenhouse gases and disturbances of carbon sinks through agricultural land management and ecosystem displacement have caused the composition of the atmosphere and oceans to change. This results in more heat being retained thereby disrupting climate patterns including seasonality, precipitation and heating/cooling. These disturbances are accumulating and compounding as we continue participating in heating economies that create wealth at the expense of health of the environment that sustains our lives.
Currently we are witnessing the effects on Earth’s systems in the form of higher sea levels, longer growing seasons, increased occurrence of extreme weather events including drought and flooding events, ocean warming and acidification, and higher mean temperatures across the Earth. Societally we are witnessing conflicts and migrations influenced by global warming and experts predict much more unrest as global warming intensifies.
To what extent each disturbance results in a particular outcome is debatable due to the complexity of the systems involved. Though the issue is complex the consensus of climate scientists is that human beings are causing global warming through their behavior.
Here are some links to information that can help you understand the basics mechanics of global warming:
Union of Concerned Scientists Global Warming FAQ
Union of Concerned Scientists Impacts of Global Warming
Natural Resource Defense Council
What can be done?
Fortunately there is plenty that can be done. Our individual life decisions and how we choose to organize have direct impacts on global warming. The strategy that Center for Getting Things Started is following is to focus on mitigations as identified in Drawdown and through our Ground Zero Design Charrette (GZDC) series . We are utilizing communications strategies informed by the Yale Program on Climate Change Communications and our GZDC series.
Yale Program on Climate Change Communications
Link to Full Treaty- Kyoto Protocol
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
Calculate your Eco-footprint
Know where you are at. Understand the effects of your lifestyle on the planet. Check out these cool tools to calculate your carbon and eco- footprints:
https://www.footprintcalculator.org/