ABSTRACT
Tuvalu is a tiny Pacific Island nation battling the effects of climate change, including rising sea levels, increased ocean temperatures, and more frequent weather events, threatening its existence as an independent state. Regrettably, the narratives of its people are mostly left behind in international literature. This article helps bridge the gap by documenting the viewpoints of 19 adult Tuvaluan nationals and descendants through online qualitative interviews. It adopts posthumanism as a philosophical roadmap to guide the construction of arguments. Outcomes suggest that Tuvaluan policymakers are science-fictional by planning to replicate their country in the metaverse, a virtual and permanently unfinished dimension. The scheme reveals the embodiment and embeddedness of human beings with technology, which, according to the interviewees, allows them to overcome the limits of statehood and personhood. The posthuman category of the cyborg, fusing cables, microchips, and flesh, emerged during the discussions. Furthermore, findings uncover divergent sociological and legal appraisals of climate refugees. While the latter term is frequently used in academic discussions, it is not recognised in international law. Finally, results underscore how environmental degradation triggers the growth of (eco) hierarchies between subjects who can cope with global warming and those who cannot, persons who can afford to travel, and those unable to do so. In this context, overt and covert discrimination takes the form of sub-par jobs offered to disenfranchised individuals, a situation at the forefront of the participants’ memories.
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