For thousands of years, Pacific Island communities survived rising seas, volcanic eruptions, tsunamis, and storms—without satellites, sensors, or climate models.

In this episode of H2O and Beyond, I speak with Patrick Nunn, a geologist who has spent more than three decades working with Pacific Island communities, learning how traditional knowledge preserved real environmental history—and how colonization disrupted it.

We explore how myths and legends are actually encoded memories of past disasters, why many Pacific Islanders historically avoided coastlines, and how modern climate adaptation efforts often fail when they ignore local knowledge. We also discuss why money alone won’t solve climate change, and why the future depends on combining Indigenous knowledge with Western science. This episode challenges the idea that vulnerable communities are helpless—and asks what we’ve lost by failing to listen.

00:00 Intro

06:10 Who are the Pacific Islanders?

10:28 What is traditional knowledge?

16:39 Current sea level rise in the Pacific Islands

21:24 The problem with money-first climate aid

24:12 When scientists ignore traditional knowledge

29:00 Why money won’t solve climate change

30:38 How have communities lost their traditional knowledge?

33:00 Place-based knowledge vs global science

35:51 Why has traditional knowledge been ignored in the past?

43:04 How should aid communities go about helping?

46:17 What role does religion play in educating pacific islanders?

49:07 Closing

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Learn more about Dr. Nunn's work! https://patricknunn.org/