"[Sea Change's] essays, maps, art and poetry place small islands (vanishing under rising seas right now) at the centre of the climate story. This is a refreshingly different perspective."—New Scientist
“This is not just an Atlas but more an experience. As you turn the pages you realise that you are hearing life and death stories of communities that are in danger of disappearing.”—UK National Association for Environmental Education
"Gerhardt could have created a purely scientific report of what’s been happening to such far-flung places as Lnnui Mnukuk, the Mi’kmaq name for Lennox Island in Canada’s North Atlantic provinces, and the Republic of Nauru in the Pacific, the world’s smallest independent island nation. Instead, she considers her artfully designed book a 'transportive atlas' that incorporates maps, essays, poetry and images, along with brief histories outlining the impacts of colonialism and imperialism, providing more of a holistic and multi-media experience."—Berkeleyside
"[I]rresistible . . . The book covers 49 islands, island groups and island nations around the world, each with its own short chapter giving an overview of the location’s history, the present, and the impending dangerous future Each is also accompanied by a map. Most chapters are straightforward narrative, but there is also poetry and art sprinkled throughout. The effect is to both expand the view to every ocean around the world, but to also keep the focus on a very personal, human level."—Daily Kos
"Gerhardt’s book . . . feature[s], on each spread, a map of an island or island group; visualizations of the island’s sea level today and in 2050 and 2100; geographic data about each island; demographic data about its Indigenous inhabitants; a timeline of Indigenous, 'pre-contact,' and climate-related histories; and an essay on the island and its inhabitants. Each narrative . . . depict[s] various 'solutions' deployed both by global and national governments and by Indigenous peoples: from sea walls and geoengineering to preserving and restoring coral and oyster reefs, mangrove marshes, wetlands, and other natural buffers."—Shannon Mattern The Avery Review
"The most beautiful title on our list, Sea Change is also the most shocking. Atlases are being redrawn as islands vanish into the ocean. This remarkable hardback combines bold, slick and effective visualisations of those changes with factual information, cultural traditions and scientific research about the planet’s most vulnerable isles, and asks what might save them."—Environment Journal
"In this definitive and authoritative guide, Gerhardt fuses the poetic voices of the islanders themselves along with visual maps, highlighting where the issues are likely to be felt the most. The priority in this text, repeated throughout, is that of being a testimony to the cultures, histories and values that are in danger of being lost, as sea level rise continues."—Climate with Brian
"Christina Gerhardt has done an exceptional job of detailing the predicaments being faced by some of the world’s most vulnerable island communities . . . this is a highly respectable piece of journalistic work, and simultaneously a beautiful design object . . . Sea Change’s aesthetic allure will mean that it reaches the coffee tables of those who might not have ordinarily thought themselves interested in the topics being addressed, and that feels crucial right now."—Geographical Magazine
"[Sea Change] is an ode to islands large and small, north and south, and the many peoples who call them home. It is a book of science and stories and, yes, even hope amidst the rising waters. . . . I guarantee anyone who reads it will come away with a better understanding of the world’s many islands and a desire to do something about protecting them."—EcoLit
"Sea level rise will make all current atlases obsolete as it encroaches on coastlines and erases whole islands from the Arctic to the South Pacific. In Christina Gerhardt's stunning atlas of the present and future, we not only see these living places disappear in stages, but hear from their inhabitants in this mix of cartography, science, history, and urgent outcry about the climate crisis. This book makes tangible and visible both the physical changes and their cultural, emotional, and social impact."—Rebecca Solnit, author of several books including
Infinite Cities: A Trilogy of Atlases—San Francisco, New Orleans, New York "This book presents islands as more than just geographic locations, as places of resilience replete with history and culture laced with the fiber that underscores the interface of planet, people, and other beings in the time of looming catastrophic climate change.
Sea Change: An Atlas of Islands in a Rising Ocean maps hopes and histories and offers cautionary tales and wake-up calls couched in sensitive yet expansive poetics of life. This is a rare gift."—Nnimmo Bassey, author of
To Cook a Continent: Destructive Extraction and the Climate Crisis in Africa "Islands are extraordinarily rich—in history, culture, and biodiversity. In an age of climate change, they're also incredibly vulnerable. At once lyrical and clear-sighted,
Sea Change: An Atlas of Islands in a Rising Ocean invites us to rethink our relationship to these magical, threatened places."—Elizabeth Kolbert, author of
The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History "A vital guide to understanding and navigating this time of rising oceans. A love song to island peoples and civilizations facing unimaginable loss. A paean of resistance and re-visioning, towards livable futures."—Shailja Patel, author of
Migritude "In this engaging and timely work, Gerhardt maps how islands have and will continue to change due to rising sea levels. She invites us to
see these changes, not only through the form and genre of the atlas, but also through the eyes, voices, and perspectives of islanders themselves."—Craig Santos Perez, author of
Navigating CHamoru Poetry: Indigeneity, Aesthetics, and Decolonization “Christina Gerhardt's
Sea Change is an urgent resource for an urgent moment of social and climatological upheaval. Islands—reproduced in a colonial imagination as bounded, isolated geographies—are dynamic sites of political imagination and ecological worldmaking. Gerhardt provides us with a grammar to make sense of our shared predicaments and unsung solidarities as island-dwelling communities.”—Ryan Jobson, University of Chicago
