Both naturally-occurring climate cycles as well as man’s potential influence on the Earth’s weather is an issue that has come to the forefront on a global scale in recent decades. In small Pacific island nations, the impacts of climate change are reported to be widespread, affecting food security, economic development, and increasing the risk of island communities to natural disasters. While much of our knowledge of the impacts in the Pacific are largely generalized based on studies conducted on a few islands in this region as well as model predictions provided by the Intergovernmental Panel of Climate Change, impacts remain poorly understood particularly on remote islands where resources are limited for consistent monitoring and reporting on this issue.
