The International virtual field trip weaves together many different contexts. It is designed to encourage you to think about the difference that geography makes to understanding the climate crisis, and to help establish what it means to become a geographer fit for the twenty-first century. 

The six videos that make up this field trip have been carefully produced to ensure that the contributors you hear and see speak directly to the issues of the climate crisis; their views, in other words, are not mediated by a narrator. Such directness not only adds an urgency to the debate around the climate crisis, but also offers a much-needed opportunity to see, hear and understand the climate crisis from a range of perspectives. These perspectives are all too often marginalised, and often only heard when mediated by others, particularly those based in the Global North.

The videos contribute to a much-needed conversation across a global divide. Sometimes it’s an uncomfortable conversation, and you might not immediately agree with everything that is said! There’s no harm in that. But listening is crucial to working out why you might initially disagree, and then deciding what the right questions to ask are. Those questions can be informed both by what you hear in the videos and the geographical thinking you may already have about the local and the global, social justice and inequality, and power and knowledge. In this way, you are joining and progressing the conversation, and learning from listening to the rich range of voices from the across the Global South that the videos offer.

1.1 Listening to the Global South

The range of voices you will hear across the series of videos speaks to the varying impact of the climate crisis on diverse parts of the Global South. The overall message is that listening to, and acting on, such a range of experiences and knowledges (drawn from academic, policy and Indigenous advocacy groups across the Global South) is crucial to responding to the climate crisis.

The act of listening, especially listening to voices from the Global South, raises key questions for geography, which, as a discipline, has been dominated by the Global North for too long. But why the emphasis on listening? Before you go any further, take a moment to read Reading 1. The authors, Arlo and Lisa Iron Cloud, are journalists from the Oglala Lakota Nation, one of the seven subtribes of the Lakota people in Oglala Lakota County, in South Dakota, United States. The Lakota Times, where this article was first published, is an independent newspaper supporting First Nations journalism, and provides an interesting and different cultural interpretation of what listening might involve. 

Reading 1 Arlo and Lisa Iron Cloud (2018)

A good majority of us have the ‘gift of gab’. Whether it be talking in front of crowds, or at home to our children, at the kitchen table to our friends, or at the office to our colleagues.

We all have that ability to some extent. We also have the same ability to listen. But do we actually listen? I don’t mean listening to get riled up (which is almost guaranteed when the person you don’t like is about to speak). I mean the actual act of listening; to take in new information and/or a different perspective.

Badger says: ‘From my perspective and understanding, I believe the act of listening requires the ability, from a single person, to put away her/his emotions, beliefs and opinions for a moment to allow for the words of another to be felt and truly heard.’

‘I strongly believe that you cannot make someone listen. It is a skill that a person will have to witness and live in order to honestly understand what is meant to “listen”. Also, the ability to genuinely listen must be learned by either a parent or someone who has great significance in a person’s life. We carry on our parents’ or grandparents’ demeanour because we watch them and take in their reactions, habits and philosophy. Listening is a skill that is felt deeply within.’

Badger adds: ‘Listen to actually listen and not to react. Want to learn to listen? Visit an elder in person. Be quiet and listen.’

Question about the reading

What struck you about the way the act of listening is talked about by Arlo and Lisa Iron Cloud? You might want to ask yourself why might reflecting on what listening involves be a useful exercise before embarking on any field trip, either real or virtual? 

Before we embark on the International virtual field trip it is worth taking a moment or two to prepare. Like all field trips, it is important to think about what it is you will be exploring, how to make sense of what you encounter in relation to what you have already learned in your studies, and why it is important to listen carefully to those people you meet along the way.

As the International field trip stretches across many different countries, you will gather a lot of information. Don’t worry, you aren’t expected to remember everything you will hear. Rather, we hope you take time to pay attention to the different experiences and understandings of the climate crisis to gain a fuller appreciation of why geographers, and others, need to listen to the many voices across the Global South.

2.1 Where are you going?

From Glasgow, Scotland, to Cape Town, South Africa, to Bangladesh and on to Uganda.

• The field trip begins in Glasgow at COP26, held in 2021. COP is an international climate meeting held each year by the United Nations. Though clearly located in the Global North, the opening video is very much in the spirit of the whole field trip: an invitation to see things differently, to try and understand the impact of the climate crisis from the standpoint of the populations across the Global South, and a call to listen to voices not often heard on the global stage, not even at venues such as COP. 
• The second video emphasises the importance of standpoint – that is, of context – in this case of Cape Town, South Africa. The simple message that ‘geography matters’ to understanding the climate crisis more fully, how its impact is woven into issues of inequality and the legacies of European colonialism, is taken up and explored in the third video. 
• In the third video, the contributors speak of their experiences in Bangladesh and Uganda and the difficulties of getting their voices heard in a policy world dominated by the Global North. In many ways, this third video offers a natural break in the series as the following three ask very direct questions.

And now to Aboriginal Australia, Chile, Fiji and Aotearoa (New Zealand), and then to Bangladesh and Nepal.

• In the first of the final three videos, contributors from Australia and Chile raise the question ‘Whose crisis, whose knowledge?’ as they introduce the need to change the narrative that dominates how the climate crisis is understood.
• Contributors from Fiji and Aotearoa (New Zealand) feature in the fifth video and develop this idea further to explore what might be involved in changing the dominant climate narrative, and why doing so is important. The contributors make clear that the dominant climate narrative is scripted largely by the powerful countries of the Global North, something that you notice on in the opening video from COP26 in Glasgow. Nevertheless, as the contributors suggest, that narrative can be changed. After all, as John Allen (2003) reminds us, power is not a thing to be possessed, but the outcome of social relations. And much like power itself, dominant narratives are always open to challenge. 
• A glimpse of this possibility is conveyed in the last video, which explores how Nepal and Bangladesh have started to successfully adapt to the climate crisis, and what the Global North can learn from them. It ends with all contributors giving their thoughts on what geographers, and others, might learn from listening to multiple voices, experiences and knowledges from across the many contexts ‘visited’ during this International virtual field trip. 

So, that’s the itinerary of your International virtual field trip. However, before you set off, you’ll need to take a closer look at what you will be expected to do once you embark on it, and how this helps to contribute towards your assessments. The approach to learning adopted focuses on observing, listening, questioning and note taking. 

2.2 Taking notes?

You might want to make use of a notebook to help you keep track of your thoughts as you embark on the field trip. You could write separate notes for each video, but bear in mind that Videos 3, 4, 5 and 6 include contributions from two locations, such as Australia and Chile in Video 4. There’s a strong chance that you could feel the need to jot down everything you hear and notice on the first viewing; there’s a lot to take in! The suggestion is that you just watch and listen to the video on the first viewing, and then watch a second time making notes as you do so.

A reminder: you’ll find that contributors in all the videos mention phrases, events, policies, and organisations. Sometimes they explain what they are referring to, at other times they don’t. Don’t worry. You don’t have to know everything about all that is mentioned in each video. As with any geography field trip, people who speak to you as a group will often run through a lot of material and information. Not everything they say must be noted and learned. Field trips generally are not simply fact-finding missions. The same guidance applies to the International virtual field trip that lies ahead.

If there is something, such as the ‘Doctrine of Discovery’ mentioned by India Logan-Riley in Video 1, that you want to find out more about, make a note of it and explore the resources mentioned in the article. 

‘My truth will only land if you have the grace to fully listen’, said Kenyan climate activist Elizabeth Wathuti (pictured above) speaking at the World Leaders Summit Opening ceremony, COP26, Glasgow, 2021.

Elizabeth Wathuti added: ‘My truth will only land if you have the grace to fully listen.’

Country profile: United Kingdom

• Locator map
• Country map

Climate: temperate; moderated by prevailing southwest winds over the North Atlantic Current; more than half of the days are overcast.

Population: 68,138,484 (2023 estimate).

Capital: UK: London – population 9,648,110 (2023 estimate); Scotland – Edinburgh; population 553,569 (2023 estimate). COP26 held in Glasgow: population 1,698,088 (2023 estimate).

(The World Factbook, no date – a)

In the opening video, Voices from the Global South 1. The view from Glasgow: we’re not drowning we’re fighting; you will learn about the climate crisis from different standpoints across the Global South. The video opens with a series of speeches given at COP26, held in Glasgow in 2021, to provide a strong opening reminder that the Global North cannot survive on its own, and that the inequalities of the climate crisis play out very differently in the Global North and Global South, as well as across the countries of the Global South. 

COP is an international decision-making meeting held each year by the United Nations. As Rebecca Lindsey of the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration explains, ‘COP is short for “Conference of the Parties,” meaning those countries who joined – are “party to,” in legal terms – the international treaty called the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC)’ (Lindsey, 2022). Lindsey goes on to say: 

‘Parties to the treaty have committed to take voluntary actions to prevent ‘dangerous anthropogenic [human-caused] interference with the climate system’. Countries take turns hosting an annual meeting at which government representatives report on progress, set intermediate goals, make agreements to share scientific and technological advances of global benefit, and negotiate policy’ (Lindsey, 2022).

The edited contributions in these videos come from national representatives and climate activists from across countries in the Global South and show you the debates that are too often silenced. In Video 1, the edited speeches from COP26 are interspersed with interviews from key contributors who will appear throughout this article. 

These contributors are listed below:

• India Logan-Riley is a Māori climate activist, whose short but powerful speech at COP26 gained global media attention.
• Professor Saleemul Huq (1952–2023) was Director of the International Centre for Climate Change and Development based in Bangladesh. He was also a Professor at Independent University, Bangladesh. Huq attended all sessions of the COP to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and was an expert on adaptation and sustainable development. In 2023, Huq was appointed as one of the external members of a new Scientific Advisory Board of the United Nations.
• Distinguished Professor Steven Ratuva is a Fijian academic based at the University of Canterbury, Aotearoa (New Zealand). 

This video will help you to:

• begin assessing why listening to voices from across the Global South matters to the outcomes of debates about the climate crisis
• recognise the global inequalities of the impact of the climate crisis
• appreciate the value of listening to alternative standpoints and knowledges. 

3.1 Working with Voices from the Global South 1

You should now watch the first video in the International virtual field trip, Voices from the Global South 1. The view from Glasgow: we’re not drowning, we’re fighting. As you watch, make some notes on: 

• why listening to a variety of voices and the knowledge they articulate matters to the quality and possible outcomes of debates about the climate crisis
• the inequalities of the climate crisis, and the ways that these inequalities play out very differently in the Global North to the Global South, as well as between the countries of the Global South.

Transcript (95.1 KB) .

What in the video got you thinking and why? It could be something that surprised you (e.g. the small audience numbers for some of the speakers), connections you made to other issues (e.g. about the workings of power and influence at such meetings, or the lingering impact of colonial legacies), or new ways of thinking about the climate crisis. 

As you reflect on the video, why do you think knowledge from the Global South matters to the quality and possible outcomes of debates about the climate crisis?

3.2 Take notes 

You should feel free to use a notebook, as you might on any traditional geography fieldtrip, in a way that suits you. But, as an example, these are the kind of points you might have noted from the first video (your notes will, of course, be less lengthy). The list includes facts that stood out as important, quotes from speakers that might have made you think, questions that you may want to return to again later, as well as talking points that resonated with other issues. 

Example of how you could take notes from Voices from the Global South 1. The view from Glasgow: we’re not drowning, we’re fighting.

• UK Share of cumulative global CO2 emissions (2021): 4.52 %. Interesting – compare figures across all countries on the field trip?
• Powerful images and statements at start about why listening to voices from GS is V important.
• Logan-Riley emphasises the significance of making a speech in ‘the colonial motherland,’ of ‘speaking truth to power,’ ‘naming the colonial roots of the climate crisis’– discuss significance with other students?
• Seen to be too challenging ‘the organisers take the microphone away?!' Done to US President too!?!
• ‘Doctrine of Discovery’ – what’s this? Mentioned by Logan-Riley. 
• Very interesting account by Ratuva: GN (former colonial powers) and GS (former colonised territories) but, as he says, not that simple; ‘nuanced and complex on the ground’ (at around 6 mins). 
• Interesting account of how power works at such global meetings. Points made by Huq – ‘GN holds the power’ (6 mins 32 seconds).  
• Not just inequalities of impact of climate crisis but inequalities of voicing challenges and alternatives – interesting.
• Striking to see how empty room is when Huq speaks!
• Not only inequalities of impact of climate crisis but getting heard; Huq uses Mottley’s speech to talk about mitigation, adaptation, loss and damage – key to climate inequalities between GN and GS; return to. 
• ‘GN runs the narrative around climate change’ (at roughly 11.46). How does this work? 
• Huq talks not of ‘climate justice but climate injustice.’ Food for thought.
• Powerful points by Logan-Riley ‘Learn … Listen … Honour our knowledge.'

Image caption: Cape Town, South Africa: ‘A microcosm of the Global North meets the Global South’

Country profile: South Africa

• Locator map
• Country map

Climate: mostly semi-arid; subtropical along the east coast; sunny days, cool nights.

Population: 58,048,332 (2023 estimate).

Capital: Pretoria (administrative capital); Cape Town (legislative capital); Bloemfontein (judicial capital). Cape Town – population 4,890,280 (2023 estimate).

(The World Factbook, no date – b)

Voices from the Global South 2. The view from Cape Town: colonialism, class and climate focuses on the impact of the climate crisis on Cape Town, South Africa. The lead contributor is Dr Philile Mbatha, Senior Lecturer Environmental and Geographical Science, University of Cape Town, with Emeritus Professor Michael Meadows, Environmental and Geographical Science, University of Cape Town and then President of the International Geographical Union. They talk about the diversity of South Africa as a country, and the diversity of Cape Town as a city/region and point to the inequalities within it, suggesting that it is a microcosm of the Global North meeting the Global South. 

The contributors talk about how the climate crisis impacts on different people in different ways, and the disproportionate way it impacts on marginalised people. For example, Mbatha and Meadows talk about the 2018 Cape Town drought and fires, and how wealthy and largely white communities in the city and those citizens of colour in the townships experienced both events very differently. 

This video will help you to:

• better appreciate the Global South’s perspectives on the inequalities of the climate crisis, and the impact of social and economic inequality on responses to the climate crisis
• understand the importance of context when considering the climate crisis
• recognise the significance of colonial legacies to the climate crisis
• acknowledge the tensions between Western, environmental science and Indigenous knowledges in implementing policy (a theme picked up in Videos 3, 4 and 6).
• Appreciate that the terms Global North and Global South are metaphors. 

4.1 Working with Voices from the Global South 2

Watch the video Voices from the Global South 2 - The view from Cape Town: colonialism, class and climate below:

Transcript (27.9 KB) .

You might want to make a note of some of the moments in the video that got you thinking and why they did.

There are lots of interesting comments made and questions raised by the contributors, and these are perhaps worth lingering on. For instance, why does Mbatha say that South Africa is a ‘microcosm of the Global North meets the Global South’? What examples does she use to illustrate her observation. 

And again, how does Mbatha describe townships? And why, according to Meadows, are these areas more susceptible to the impacts of the climate crisis? 

How do social and economic inequality, but also language, influence how ‘climate change’ is understood and prioritised across social groups in Cape Town?

The 2018 drought in Cape Town, spoken about by Mbatha, reinforces for her why ‘context’ is important. Why do you think she feels context to be so important? What broader lessons can be drawn from her observation, particularly when thinking about the impacts of the climate crisis?

Image captions: Challenging the Global North’s power: a gathering of finance ministers from the Vulnerable Twenty (V20) Group (left), and (right) A ‘problem to be solved’ or voices to be listened to? A village of a Batwa (or Twa) tribe in the Semliki Forest, western Uganda.

Unlike the previous stops on your International virtual field trip, this next stop includes a visit to two nations, Bangladesh and Uganda. You’ll be visiting both countries in the video, so you might want to make notes about the similarities and differences of the impact of the climate crisis in both contexts.

This video will help you to:

• view the climate crisis from the standpoint of the Least Developed Countries group (LDC) and climate vulnerable countries
• understand the importance and difficulties of getting ‘local’ knowledge heard in national and ‘global’ policy-making
• better recognise what the Global North could learn from the Global South about climate adaptation.

Country profile: Bangladesh

• Locator map
• Country map

Climate: tropical; mild winter (October to March); hot, humid summer (March to June); humid, warm rainy monsoon (June to October).

Population: 167,184,465 (2023 estimate).

Capital: Dhaka – population 23,209,616 (2023 estimate).

(The World Factbook, no date – c)

This video begins in Bangladesh, a country that is becoming increasingly susceptible to cyclones and the wider impacts of climate change. Echoing Video 1, Video 3 opens with a reminder of which countries hold the power and influence in climate policy debates. Although highly vulnerable to the impact of the climate crisis, communities in the Global South are under-represented within current national and international climate adaptation policies. You have already encountered the video’s first contributor, Saleemul Huq. Huq advised the Least Developed Countries (LDC) group in the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). As of 2024, there are 45 economies designated by the United Nations as the least developed countries, including Bangladesh and Uganda (UNCTAD, no date), ‘entitling them to preferential market access, aid, special technical assistance, and capacity-building on technology among other concessions’ (UNCTAD, no date). Huq was also Chair of the Expert Advisory Group for the Climate Vulnerable Forum (CVF) (2022). 

Image caption: Map of Least Developed Countries, 2022.

In the video, Huq offers an opportunity to view the climate crisis from the viewpoint of the countries in the Global South who are most affected by it. He also provides examples of the well intentioned, but misguided, Global North policies aimed at reducing emissions rather than encouraging adaptation to a changing climate, and the long-term social and environmental impact of World Bank adaptation initiatives such as the ‘Shrimp Culture Project’. 

While the impacts of the climate crisis have been experienced across the Global South for many decades, the setting of a global climate agenda tends not to reflect these experiences and remains dominated by powerful countries in the Global North. The first part of the video highlights the work of the CVF, which first met in 2009, just ahead of COP 15, and The Vulnerable 20 (V20). The V20 was set up under the Philippines’ Presidency of the CVF and first met in 2015 (V20, 2021). It represents 55 of the most climate-threatened countries in their fight against the climate crisis. 

Country profile: Uganda

• Locator map
• Country map

Climate: tropical; generally rainy with two dry seasons (December to February, June to August); semi-arid in the north-east.

Population: 47,729,952 (2023 estimate).

Capital: Kampala – population 3,846,102 (2023 estimate).

(The World Factbook, no date – d)

From Uganda, the video’s second contributor, Dr Poshendra Satyal, talks about his work on the impact of the climate crisis on the Batwa, an Indigenous Ugandan tribe. The Batwa are indigenous to the equatorial forests that stretch across central Africa, including the Bwindi Impenetrable National Park, which lies on the borders of The Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda and Uganda. This is an area where Satyal and his colleagues have worked for many years. Satyal speaks about the lingering impact of the establishment of ‘reserves,’ put in place by the then colonial government in Uganda, the establishment of national parks and conservation areas, and the combined effect these have had on Indigenous groups such as the Batwa. This includes the displacement from their traditional land, and their social and economic marginalisation. Satyal talks about how this set of disadvantages (or ‘sociocultural marginalisation’ to use his phrase) is compounded by the growing and significant impact of the climate crisis. Satyal provides some telling and timely reminders about why the voices of the Batwa should be included in decision- and policy-making processes about the climate crisis.

5.1 Working with Voices from the Global South 3

Now watch the video Voices from the Global South 3 - The view from Bangladesh and Uganda: power, policy and potential.

Transcript (86.1 KB) .

The video raises lots of questions. You might want to ask yourself, for example, what are the environmental, social and health impacts of the Global North’s Shrimp Culture Project on the coastal regions of Bangladesh?

And in the Uganda section of the video, what does Satyal suggest is needed to have more effective and equitable policy-making that will benefit the Batwa? What issues remain unaddressed?

From what Huq says, why do you think CVF (Climate Vulnerable Forum) has moved from thinking of themselves as vulnerable, to thinking of themselves as being resilient to climate change, to being prosperous, despite the climate crisis?

At this point in your trip, you might want to take a break from ‘travelling’ to reflect on the first four locations you have visited in the first the three videos. 

What, for you, are the three most notable things that you have taken from the first three videos.

Image captions: Collaborating knowledge systems: Darren Martin (left) and Colin Saltmere (right) examine the qualities of native spinifex as part of a collaborative research project between the University of Queensland, Australia and the Indjalandji-Dhidanu (left); a lithium mine in the Atacama Desert, Chile (right).

With a particular focus on the climate crisis, Video 4 addresses the tensions between Western scientific and ‘Indigenous’ knowledge. Tracey Bunda and Hugo Romero offer a guide as to how these tensions might be addressed and what needs to be done to resolve them. An introduction to the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Map of Australia and the Aboriginal sense of Country, and an introduction to Indigenous communities in the Atacama, in the north of Chile, provide insights into different ways of understanding the meaning of place for Indigenous communities and peoples. 

These understandings and their misunderstanding by the Global North create some of the tensions between Indigenous knowledge and Western science-led ‘solutions’ to the climate crisis. 

A key theme running through this video is ‘different ways of knowing.’ The video’s contributors deliver the significant message that, when addressing the climate crisis, there’s a need to combine Indigenous experiences and knowledges and Western science in an equitable, rather than extractive, manner.

Because you’ll be ‘visiting’ two countries in this video, you might want to make notes on the similarities and differences of the impacts of the climate crisis in both contexts.

This video will help you to understand:

• other ‘ways of knowing’ about the climate crisis
• the importance of working with a breadth of Indigenous knowledges
• the ‘local’ impacts of the ‘global’ green transition. 

Country profile: Australia

• Locator map
• Country map

Climate: generally arid to semiarid; temperate in south and east; tropical in north.

Population: 26,461,166 (2023 estimate).

Capital: Canberra – population 472,304 (2023 estimate).

(The World Factbook, no date – e)

In her own work and work with colleagues, Bunda suggests an alternative way to approach and understand the climate crisis. What she offers is a non-Western scientific approach, informed by the plurality of Indigenous knowledges. Bunda and her colleagues’ interventions emphasise a better understanding of humanity’s responsibilities to human and non-human life. Other ways of understanding humanity’s relationship to Earth – ones that are absent from the highly technical, scientific-based responses to the climate crisis – are possible. 

While the Global North calls for ‘climate justice’ and ‘environmental justice’ in response to the climate crisis, such calls suggest that the climate and the environment are separate from the realm of the human. But the stress that Bunda places on relationships between the environment, human and non-human life emphasises that justice and action in response to the climate crisis need to address both the environment and the humans and non-humans that are affected by the changing climate. It’s about connections and interconnectedness – that is, relationality – not separability. As you listen to Bunda, note how this sense of connectedness comes through strongly in the Aboriginal peoples’ use of the term ‘country’ and the importance of ‘storying’.

Country profile: Chile

• Locator map
• Country map

Climate: temperate; desert in north; Mediterranean in central region; cool and damp in south.

Population: 18,549,457 (2023 estimate).

Capital: Santiago – population 6,903,392 (2023 estimate).

(The World Factbook, no date – f)

In Chile, Video 4 explores the Salar de Atacama, a site of ongoing extraction of lithium from brine – in effect from water – in one of the driest parts of the world. Lithium is a key mineral in the development of lithium-ion batteries, which are central to the Global North’s ‘green transition.’ This extraction serves as an example of the ways in which the Global North’s solutions to the climate crisis – in this case, through the production and sale of electric vehicles in the Global North – negatively impact on Indigenous communities in the Global South while primarily benefiting those in the Global North. Because of this, the situation in the Atacama Desert can be viewed as a microcosm of the larger conflicts between the Global North and the Global South, and in particular, the ongoing practice of extraction at the expense of Indigenous communities.

7.1 Working with Voices from the Global South 4

Now watch Voices from the Global South 4 - The view from Aboriginal Australia and Chile: a sense of country.

Transcript (28.3 KB) .

Again, simply to help you reflect on the video, here are a couple of questions. Professor Bunda described the map of Australia produced by the Indigenous Australians, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people as ‘mind blowing’. Why do you think Bunda said this, and, for you, what is the significance of representing Australia in this way rather than through the conventional map which shows six states and two territories?

What are the main similarities and differences between the way the Indigenous people in Chile and Aboriginal Australians talk about and understand ‘climate’? How do these Indigenous understandings of climate differ from a Western scientific understanding of climate?

Image captions: ‘Fighting for our lives’: Fiji’s climate minister said his nation was becoming increasingly vulnerable to climate heating (left); Looking for inspiration? Pacific young people protest that inaction to the climate crisis is Pacific genocide, Auckland, Aotearoa (New Zealand) (right).

Country profile: Fiji

• Locator map
• Country map

Climate: tropical marine; only slight seasonal temperature variation.

Population: 947,760 (2023 estimate).

Capital: Suva (on Viti Levu) – 935,995 population (2023).

(The World Factbook, no date – g)

Country profile: Aotearoa (New Zealand)

• Locator map
• Country map

Climate: temperate with sharp regional contrasts.

Population: 5,109,702 (2023 estimate).

Capital: Wellington – population 421,624 (2023 estimate).

(The World Factbook, no date – h)

From Fiji and the Pacific Islands to Aotearoa (New Zealand), in this video you will not only explore the impact of the climate crisis but also the assembly of climate narratives. With the help of Distinguished Professor Steven Ratuva and Logan-Riley, the video asks how a particular climate narrative (notably that of the Global North) comes to dominate, what that narrative fails to consider – most obviously the colonial roots of the climate crisis– and why and how it needs to be challenged. 

With echoes of several of the key points made in Video 1 of the International virtual field trip, this video asks how climate narratives dominated by the Global North, which often position countries of the Global South as ‘victims’, are assembled, how they can be challenged, and why there is a need to do so. The video opens with Ratuva talking about the impact of the climate crisis on Fiji, a former British colony, and other Pacific Islands. As the Pacific Islands experience increasingly strong cyclones, Fiji is the first country in the world to have a relocation plan for coastal villages affected by the destructive forces of the climate crisis. 

Yet, as the video’s second contributor, Logan-Riley points out, the dominant climate narrative and the associated division of the world into Global North and South, overlook the lingering impact of European colonisation, and the colonial roots of the climate crisis. Aotearoa is the te reo Māori (Māori language) name for the country. The act of renaming the islands as ‘New Zealand’ was part of a widespread colonising act of claiming possession of land. As Logan-Riley and Ratuva highlight, the framing of the climate narrative should be about more than just lowering carbon emissions; there are numerous other narratives, including those of Indigenous communities. The challenge is how to bring these multiple narratives – from Indigenous groups, boardrooms and climate activities on the streets – together in inclusive ways to effect the changes necessary to avert further damage to the Earth from the climate crisis. But to do that there’s a pressing need, as Ratuva makes clear, to ‘decolonise differences’. That is, to address and confront the colonial structures that have produced a hierarchy of knowledge about the climate – and more – and which still form the current dominant global climate narrative. 

This video will help you to:

• extend and consolidate your learning about the global inequalities of the climate crisis by focusing on its impact on Fiji and the Pacific Islands
• appreciate the importance of narratives in addressing the climate crisis
• recognise the colonial roots of the climate crisis.

8.1 Working with Voices from the Global South 5

Now watch Voices from the Global South 5 -  The view from Fiji and Aotearoa: changing climate narratives.

Transcript (84.5 KB) .

There are powerful and challenging points made by both India Logan Riley and Steven Ratuva in this video, perhaps underlining the point made about listening – ‘Listen to actually listen and not to react’ – made in the piece from the Lakota Times in Reading 1. In this spirit, you might want to ask yourself what listening to voices from the Global South involves when considering these two questions. 

What do Logan-Riley and Ratuva say about the significance of recognising the role of climate narratives? 

Why is it important to both contributors to recognise not simply the colonial roots of the climate crisis but the ongoing impact of colonialism?

Image captions: Nature-based solutions: community forest in Lamjung District, Nepal (left); and from vulnerability to resilience: volunteers in Bangladesh’s Cyclone Preparedness Programme (CPP) take part in an early warning drill in Chila village, April 2022 (right).

This last video in the series examines the impact of the climate crisis on Bangladesh and Nepal and: 

• how both countries and the communities within them have responded and adapted to the crisis
• what the Global North might learn from Global South about climate adaptation. 

The video concludes by hearing from the contributors from all six videos about what each thinks the Global North can learn from the Global South. 

This video will help you to:

• see how adaptation policies that integrate Indigenous knowledge on climate adaptation can work to reduce the unequal and inequitable distribution of climate impacts on Indigenous populations within their local context
• understand the contribution that Indigenous adaptation practices can make to international climate adaptation policies
• consider what the Global North can learn from the Global South.

Country profile: Nepal

• Locator map
• Country Map

Climate: Varies from cool summers and severe winters in north to subtropical summers and mild winters in south.

Population: 30,899,443 (2023 estimate).

Capital: Kathmandu – population 1,571,010 (2023 estimate).

(The World Factbook, no date – i)

Dr Poshendra Satyal, who was born and grew up in Nepal’s eastern Himalayas, talks about his work with Birdlife International’s Forestry Team in Nepal, a country that is suffering severely from the effects of the climate crisis. Satyal’s work shows how, with government help, local Indigenous groups are developing community forest schemes and eco-tourism as ways to provide nature-based solutions to the climate crisis. 

Country profile: Bangladesh

• Locator map
• Country map

Climate: tropical; mild winter (October to March); hot, humid summer (March to June); humid, warm rainy monsoon (June to October).

Population: 167,184,465 (2023 estimate).

Capital: Dhaka – population 23,209,616 (2023 estimate).

(The World Factbook, no date – c)

The video’s second contributor, Huq (whom you met in Videos 1 and 3) is from Bangladesh, and he provides examples of climate adaptation as the country has moved from being one of the world’s most vulnerable in terms of the effects of the climate crisis, to being one of the world’s most resilient countries. Bangladesh’s long experience of the impacts of the climate crisis – floods, droughts, heatwaves and cyclones, for example – has meant that the country has developed successful ways to minimise the impact of these extreme weather patterns. From high-tech early warning cyclone systems through to programmes that enable schoolchildren in flood- and cyclone-prone areas to play a key role in helping residents get to storm shelters safely, the Global North has a lot to learn about how to adapt to the impacts of the climate crisis. 

9.1 Working with Voices from the Global South 6

Now watch Voices from the Global South 6 - The view from Nepal and Bangladesh: lessons in mitigation and adaptation. As with the last few videos you have watched, this video visits two countries, Nepal and Bangladesh, so you might want to pay attention to the similarities and differences of the impacts of the climate crisis, and the strategies of mitigation and adaptation used in both contexts.

Please note: Logan-Riley uses some strong language in this video.

Transcript (34.5 KB) .

Here are a few questions you might like to consider:

• What are the reasons behind the introduction of the Community Forest Programme in Nepal that Satyal talks about, and what are some of the key benefits to local communities?
• Why are community forests seen as ‘nature-based solutions’?
• What is Bangladesh’s ‘early warning system’? How might it serve as an example for countries of the Global North when considering adaptation to the climate crisis? 
• Finally, at the end of video 6, contributors from each of the videos you have watched suggest one thing that they feel the Global North could learn from the Global South. Why not try writing a microblog post (50 words maximum) about what you think someone in the Global North, perhaps someone embarking on a geography course, might learn from listening to the voices from the Global South on this International virtual field trip.

As with all geography field trips, now is the time for a post-trip reflection on what’s been learned and what questions have been raised.

Conclusion

The hope is that this has been an unusual and invigorating international field trip providing a rare and privileged opportunity to listen to a range of experts, from academics, and those involved in the development of climate policy, to climate activists. And importantly, those you heard from came from countries across the Global South. Their voices, and the varied contexts they spoke both about and from, are too often unheard, yet are crucial to a full understanding of the impact of the climate crisis globally. You certainly are not expected to have picked up everything each video has to offer, nor to become authorities on the impact of the climate crisis on communities in, for example, South Africa, Uganda or Chile. You will, however, have learned many things during the field trip, not least the value of listening to voices and viewpoints that you might not ordinarily encounter, at least not in such a direct way as the videos provided. You can now use what you have heard and seen in the videos to not only question your understanding of the impact of the climate crisis across the Global South, but also to consider the nature of the ‘global challenge’ that the climate crisis presents. Geographical thinking, open to and informed by the range of voices you’ve encountered in the past week, can contribute to a much needed and more inclusive conversation about the climate crisis. 

Reflecting on your learning

It is important to spend some time reflecting on what you feel you have learned. Not only can reflecting on your learning help you to identify things you might benefit from revisiting, but it can also help you to improve the way you study in the future. 

Listening

This piece by Jens Korff provides a wonderful introduction to how Aboriginal people practise deep listening, dadirri. There is a brief introduction, and then the chance to further explore the topic through links to other resources. The RSA (Royal Society of Arts) link is to a similar resource but provided via YouTube. One of the contributors to this is Professor Norm Sheehan, Professor of Indigenous knowledge, University of Queensland.

• Korff, J. (2023) ‘Deep listening (dadirri)’, Creative Spirits, 18 March.
• RSA (2021) Indigenous knowledge: the wisdom of deep listening, 21 October.

Whose Green transition?

You may be interested in Sonia Ramos’ interview for the Extraordinary Women podcast, in which she draws attention to the threats lithium mining poses to local ecosystems.

• Cole, L. (2023) Who cares wins with Lily Cole – Sonia Ramos: walking for Chile’s Indigenous rights (part 2).

Indigenous ways of knowing

The following two pieces provide accessible and engaging introductions to the importance of thinking about knowledge and evidence outside the Western mindset. A joint project between scientists at the University of Queensland and Indjalandji-Dhidhanu people serves as an example of how knowledge collaboration can work.

• Institute of Public Administration Australia (2024) Indigenous evidence and knowledge offer exciting ways forward.
• University of Queensland (no date) Indigenous opportunity sprouts from desert discovery’.

You might want to explore some of the material below if certain videos from this International virtual field trip, or certain parts of the videos, really grabbed your attention or made you curious about a particular issue mentioned by a contributor. For example, in Video 1, Voices from the Global South 1. The view from Glasgow: we’re not drowning we’re fighting; Logan-Riley mentions the ‘Doctrine of Discovery.’ If you want to find out more about this, click the link for Video 1 below, then click on the resource that mentions ‘Doctrine of Discovery’. Similarly, if you want to read more about the climate-related policies being introduced in Bangladesh, and referred to in Videos 3 and 6, then you’ll find suggested links under each of those headings.

• Voices from the Global South 1. The view from Glasgow: we’re not drowning, we’re fighting
• Voices from the Global South 2. The view from Cape Town: colonialism, class and climate
• Voices from the Global South 3. The view from Bangladesh and Uganda: power, policy and potential
• Voices from the Global South 4. The view from Aboriginal Australia and Chile: a sense of country
• Voices from the Global South 5. The view from Fiji and Aotearoa: changing climate narratives
• Voices from the Global South 6. The view from Nepal and Bangladesh: lessons in mitigation and adaptation

Voices from the Global South 1. The view from Glasgow: we’re not drowning, we’re fighting.

• Royal Geographical Society (no date) 60 second guide to: Global North South divide.
• UNFCCC (2015) Paris Agreement, COP 21, Paris, 30 November–12 December.
• Harris, K. (2021) ‘In the loop: Māori climate activist India Logan-Riley on what it’s like inside COP26’, New Zealand Herald, 4 November.
• Indigenous Corporate Training Inc. (2023) Christopher Columbus and the doctrine of discovery – 5 things to know, 30 March.
• Letzing, J. (2023) What’s in a name? For the ‘Global South,’ it depends on who you ask, 31 July.
• Mottley, M.A. (2021) ‘Opening ceremony remarks’, COP26, Glasgow, 31 October–13 November 2021.
• NASA Global Climate Change (2023) How do we know climate change is real?
• Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (2021) ‘World leaders told – “We are not drowning, we are fighting”’, 2 November.
• UN (2021) ‘Women bear the brunt of the climate crisis, COP26 highlights’, UN News, 9 November
• UN (no date) The Paris Agreement.
• United Nations Climate Change (no date) The Paris Agreement: what is the Paris Agreement?

Voices from the Global South 2. The view from Cape Town: colonialism, class and climate.

• Carrington, D. (2023) ‘Swimming pools of the rich driving city water crises, study says’, Guardian, 10 April.
• International Union for Conservation of Nature (2022) Indigenous voices demand an end to colonial conservation at Africa Protected Areas Congress, 5 August.
• Lephalia, D. ‘There’s no catch: it’s climate change …’ World Wildlife Foundation, 4 October.
• Machel, G. (2022) ‘Give Africa’s youth a voice in shaping the climate agenda. It is their future at stake,’ Guardian, 6 September.
• Mbatha, P. (2022) ‘Unravelling the perpetuated marginalization of customary livelihoods on the coast by plural and multi-level conservation governance systems’, Marine Policy, 143, article number 105143.
• Murugesu, J.A. (2023) ‘Rich people use so much water that it is threatening the global supply’, New Scientist, 10 April. 
• Seiff, K. (2018) ‘Divided by drought: Cape Town is running out of water, and the crisis has highlighted the vast divide between rich and poor’, The Washington Post, February 23.
• van Wilgen, B and van Wilgen-Bredenkamp, N. (2021) ‘The Table Mountain fire: what we can learn from the main drivers of wildfires’, The Conversation, 22 April

Voices from the Global South 3. The view from Bangladesh and Uganda: power, policy and potential.

• Climate Vulnerable Forum (2016) The Climate Vulnerable Forum vision. Outcome document of the CVF High Level Meeting, Marrakech, Morocco, 18 November.
• Finance Center for South-South Cooperation (2015) Global South countries (group of 77 and China).
• International Center for Climate Change and Development (ICCCAD) (2023) Global Centre of Excellence on Climate Change and Development.
• International Center for Climate Change and Development (ICCCAD) (2023) Saleemul Huq appointed to the UN’s Scientific Advisory Board, 4 August.
• McDonald, M. (2015) ‘Saleemul Huq: if climate talks were democratic, vulnerable countries “would have won already”’, The Conversation, 8 December.
• Paul, B.G. and Vogl, C.R. (2011) ‘Impacts of shrimp farming in Bangladesh: challenges and alternatives’, Ocean & Coastal Management, 54(3), pp. 210–211.
• Pradhan, S.D. (2023) ‘Voice of Global South Summit: empowering developing and underdeveloped nations’, The Times of India, 19 January.
• Satyal, P., Fibieger Byskov, M. and Hyams, K. (2021) ‘Addressing multi-dimensional injustice in indigenous adaptation: the case of Uganda’s Batwa community’, Climate and Development, 13(6), pp. 529–542.
• Satyal, P., Kumpel, N., Hyams, K. and Fibieger Byskov, M. (2021) ‘Uganda’s Batwa community are vulnerable to climate change, but aren’t involved in adaptation decisions’, The Conversation, 3 February.
• Singh, A. (2023) ‘India’s G20 presidency: giving voice to the Global South’, The Diplomat, 24 June.
• Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment (2022) A conversation with Saleemul Huq, International Centre for Climate Change and Development, 26 January.
• United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) (no date) UN list of least developed countries.
• Vulnerable Group of 20 (V20) (2021) About.
• V20 (2015) Founding communique: Vulnerable Twenty Group of Ministers of Finance. Communiqué of inagural V20 Ministerial Meeting, Lima, Peru, October.

Voices from the Global South 4. The view from Aboriginal Australia and Chile: a sense of country.

• Fitzgerald, O.E. and Watt-Cloutier, S. (2018) ‘Humanizing climate change: a conversation with Sheila Watt-Cloutier’, Centre for International Governance Innovation, 18 October.
• Forest People’s Programme (2019) Statement on the IPCC Special Report on Climate Change and Land from Indigenous peoples and local communities, 8 August.
• Greenfield, N. (2022) ‘Lithium mining is leaving Chile’s Indigenous communities high and dry (literally)’, National Resources Defense Council, 26 April.
• UNFCCC (2020) Local Communities and Indigenous Peoples Platform – Overview.
• Riofrancos, T. (2021) ‘The rush to “go electric” comes with a hidden cost: destructive lithium mining’, Guardian, 14 June.
• Wegman, I. (2021) ‘How early Australian settlers drew maps to erase Indigenous people and push ideas of colonial superiority’, The Conversation, 26 May.

Voices from the Global South 5. The view from Fiji and Aotearoa: changing climate narratives.

• Allen, T. (2022) ‘India Miro Logan-Riley on how youth will lead climate justice and Indigenous sovereignty’, Impact Boom, 17 October.
• Hura, N.A. (2019) ‘How to centre Indigenous people in climate conversations’, The Spinoff, 1 November.
• Husband, D. (2020) ‘Steven Ratuva: decolonising our “differences”’, E-Tangata, 30 August.
• Kubota, T. (2021) ‘Indigenous climate activist wins 2021 Standford Bright Award’, Stanford News, 5 October.
• Letman, J. (2021) ‘The house that can withstand a cyclone: how traditional dwellings are making a comeback in Vanuatu’, Guardian, 8 August.
• Lyons, K. (2022) ‘How to move a country: Fiji’s radical plan to escape rising sea levels – podcast’, Guardian, 8 November.
• Ministry of Economy, Republic of Fifi (2018) Planned relocation guidelines: a framework to undertake climate change related relocation.
• Ogar, E., Pecl, G. and Mustonen, T. (2020) ‘Science must embrace traditional and Indigenous knowledge to solve our biodiversity crisis’, One Earth, 3(2), pp. 162–165.
• Plunkett, G.M. and Balick, M.J. (2018) ‘Traditional shelters, cyclone houses, and the temptations of modern construction’, New York Botanical Gardens, September 18.
• Vula, T. (2021) ‘USP and University of Canterbury partner for unique research project in Pacific’, The Fiji Times, 31 August.
• Weatherill, C.K. (2022) ‘July 18, 2012: climate justice poem – “Tell Them” by Kathy Jetnil-Kijiner – hits the internet’, Environmental Politics, 17 July.

Voices from the Global South 6. The view from Nepal and Bangladesh: lessons in mitigation and adaptation.

• Bodrud-Doza, M.D. (2022) ‘Boosting disaster preparedness in the Ganges Delta’, International Centre for Climate Change and Development, 11 June.
• Cassidy, E. (no date) ‘How Nepal regenerated its forests,’ NASA Earth observatory.
• ClientEarth Communications (2018) ‘What can we learn from community forests in Nepal?’, ClientEarth, 6 February.
• Davison, C. (2022) ‘The country trailblazing the fight against disasters’, BBC Future, 20 July.
• Huq, S. (2022) ‘Bangladesh takes another step in leading global climate adaptation’, The Daily Star, 20 December.
• Huq, S. (2022) ‘Developing countries are leading climate actions’, Climate Vulnerable Forum, 9 March.
• Huq, S. and Khan, M.R. (2017) ‘Planning for adaptation in Bangladesh: past, present and future’, International Centre for Climate Change and Development, 11 August.
• Satyal, P. (2023) ‘Breaking boundaries: decolonising and diversifying conservation’, British Ornithologists Union, 31 August
• Tye, S., Waslander, J. and Peimbert-Rappaport, N. (2020) ‘6 keys to turn coastal resilience plans into action’, The City Fix, 29 September.
• UN (no date) Climate adaptation.
• The World Bank (2022) Key highlights: country climate and development report for Bangladesh.