Jeremy Lewan

Bucket List for the Traveler: Edinburgh of the Seven Seas, Tristan da Cunha

By: Jeremy Lewan

Looking to get away from it all? Well, I have the escape of a lifetime for you, “far from the madding crowd” (Millington)! Like a green iceberg lost adrift in the turbulent sea, flung thousands of miles away from any other landmasses, lies the most remote inhabited island archipelago in the world: Tristan da Cunha (National Geographic Society, 2017). It’s about as far as you can get off the beaten path!

Tristan da Cunha is a British overseas territory consisting of six small islands: Tristan da Cunha, Inaccessible, Nightingale, Middle, Stoltenhoff, and Gough (Murray, 2014; Isaacson, 2020). Of the six, Tristan da Cunha Island, referred to simply as Tristan by the nearly 250 residents who live on the archipelago, is the only inhabited island (Isaacson, 2020). (The only exception is the team of less than 10--meteorologists, medics, engineers, biologists--employed yearround by the South African Weather Service at the Gough Island Weather Station (Gough Base, 2018).)

Tristan da Cunha sits almost smack-dab in the center of the remote waters of the South Atlantic Ocean, over from even its closest neighbor, St. Helena! The Gough Island Weather Station

All residents on the island live in a small settlement, Edinburgh of the Seven Seas, and are descendants of the original nine male founders on the island (Green).

The nine surnames--Collins, Glass, Green, Hagan, Lavarello, Repetto, Rogers, Squibb, and Swain--preserve and are held dearly by the island’s eighty families (Green). Ethnically ambiguous, they are of diverse ancestry, including Scottish, Dutch, Italian, and American and speak a TristanianEnglish patois, a dialect influenced by Afrikaans, Italian and American tongues

(Isaacson 2014). They live without locks on their doors and with windows open and children are allowed to play freely without fear of harm. Everyone shares resources; they help each other communally.

There is no air service to the island, so it is accessible only to those who are able to afford thousands of dollars to sail there on a mailship or research vessel. Also being able to afford to spend a month on Tristan before the ship makes its returning voyage from either continent adds an additional barrier (Isaacson, 2014). Since there are no hotels or motels, visitors must lodge with one of the families, providing them with an excellent opportunity to become acquainted with the local people and immerse themselves in Tristanian culture.

In addition to those with a taste for unusual and extraordinary vacations, the island beckons many other specialists. Lobster-lovers delight on Tristan. The crustacean is a main staple of the local diet and the island’s chief export, carefully and sustainably harvested (Redfern, 2016b). Anyone who enjoys eating lobster will be happy at mealtime on the island. Potatoes often accompany every meal-boiled, baked, mashed, stuffed, fried, you name it!-- as every family owns several fields in the Potato Patches to grow their primary and vital potato crop (Issacson, 2014).

Volcanologists rejoice as they climb to the nearly 7,000 foot Queen Mary’s Peak, the top of the massive shield volcano that forms the island (Murray, 2014). It is an active volcano, having last erupted in 1961, almost destroying the village and forcing the inhabitants to evacuate for a short period of time (Redfern, 2016a).

Those who wish to explore or just commune with nature without accidentally stepping on a loathsome reptile will be happy here, as there are no snakes on Tristan (Grundy). (St. Patrick must have sent one of his deputies.)

Lovers of marine and avian wildlife will have an unparalleled experience observing native and unique species. Schools of Tristan five-finger, Tristan wrasse, and False Jacopever are abundant, weaving among the 150-foot-tall giant kelp forest high-rises they call home (Grundy; Redfern, 2016b).

Conrad Glass, the island’s only police officer and former chief islander

The giant kelp cities are constantly growing too, at an accelerating rate of over a foot a day (Redfern, 2016b)! Subantarctic fur seals, and many varieties of whales and dolphins also find themselves indulging lavishly in the rich Tristan waters (Grundy; Redfern, 2016b).

There are three native albatross species that nest exclusively on the Tristan da Cunha Islands: Atlantic yellow-nosed albatross, sooty albatross, and Tristan wandering albatross (Grundy). Hundreds of thousands of Great Shearwaters also breed exclusively on the islands (Redfern, 2016b). Tristan is home to a sprawling community (up to 75% of the world’s population) of Northern Rockhopper penguins, known on the island as pinnamins (Grundy; Redfern, 2016b). Although one of the smallest penguin species, they are some of the most agile, and can be seen swiftly catching a bite to eat in the teeming waters off the coast of the island (Grundy). Luckily, not a single COVID-19 case was

reported on the island and the British Ministry of Defense went to great lengths to deliver and administer OxfordAstraZeneca vaccinations to all of the residents (Adams, 2021). With the pandemic waning, travel to this most remote and intriguing of destinations seems possible in the very near future, after which you can boast to your other well-traveled friends that you have gone to a place they have never even heard of before.

Giant kelp forests provide a habitat for a multiplicity of unique marine species.

References

Adams, P. (2021, April 29). Covid: How the UK has been getting jabs to remote territories. Retrieved April 27, 2022, from https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-56923016

Gough Base: South African National Antarctic Programme. (2018, August 29). Retrieved April 27, 2022, from https://blogs.sun.ac.za/sanap/stations/ gough-base/#:~:text=Gough%20Island%20is% 20located%20at,weather%20observations%20are% 20more%20accurate.

Green, C. (n.d.). Tristan da Cunha Population Update. Retrieved April 27, 2022, from https://www.tristandc.com/population.php

Grundy, R. (n.d.). Wild Tristan da Cunha. Retrieved April 27, 2022, from https://www.tristandc.com/wildlife.php

Isaacson, A. (2020, May 20). A Visual Dispatch from One of the World's Most Remote Islands.Retrieved April 27, 2022, from https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/20/travel/tristan-dacunha.html

Isaacson, A. (2014, July 09). Tristan da Cunha: Island at the End of the World. Retrieved April 27, 2022, from https:// www.nationalgeographic.com/travel/article/tristan-da-cunha

Millington, P. (Director). (n.d.). Tristan da Cunha Website [Video file]. Retrieved April 27, 2022,from https://www.tristandc.com/ index.php

Murray, L. (2014). Tristan da Cunha. Retrieved April 27, 2022, from https://www.britannica.com/place/Tristan-da-Cunha-islandgroup

National Geographic Society. (2017, January). Tristan da Cunha. Retrieved April 27, 2022, from https:// www.nationalgeographic.org/projects/pristine-seas/expeditions/ tristan-da-cunha/

Redfern. (Director). (2016a, April 08). Life on Tristan da Cunha –The World's Most Remote Inhabited Island [Video file]. Retrieved April 27, 2022, from https://www.youtube.com/watch? v=n4ElF8awm90

Redfern (Director). (2016b, April 08). Tristan da Cunha - Wildlife and Heritage [Video file]. Retrieved April 27, 2022, from https:// www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fspkfxcrfwc

Analyzing the Ongoing Migrant Crisis Through a Climate Change Lens

By Enya Laumbach

Turn on Fox News, and you’re likely to hear mention of the “Border Crisis” afflicting our nation. This is usually accompanied with a tantrum about how we should be protecting our own border rather than Ukraine’s. Right-wing pundits seem to have an effortless ability to drone on and on about the threat of thousands of undocumented immigrants swarming our border. When President Joe Biden slightly relaxed border policies, a Republican representative commented that we as a nation were, "rolling out the welcome mat for millions of illegal immigrants to rush to our border ultimately overpowering our already drained resources.” He further states, “everyone from the cartels, human traffickers and drug smugglers are standing idly by, waiting for May 23 to reignite their efforts to surge the United States with illegal immigrants, drugs and convicted criminals.” From the way the issue is being talked about you’d

think that migrants were coming here to rob us blind, put drugs in our kids and, god forbid, spice in our food.

But is the issue so cut and dry? Obviously not, as Tucker Carlson’s beautifully sheltered mind and miniscule worldview is capable of handling. These people believe it or not, are quite literally the opposite of criminals. They are refugees of a growing sort: Climate refugees. And they’re refugees because of the real criminals, us Americans. When it comes to global warming, the first world often pollutes without consequence, while the third world, in a more precarious economic and environmental position, is routinely the victim. Despite making up a far smaller proportion of global emissions. But how is it that climate change is creating refugees? While no established definition exists for climate refugees, UN Environment Programme

(UNEP) expert Essam El-Hinnawi defines 'environmental refugees' (interchangeable with climate refugeeism) as: '...those people who have been forced to leave their traditional habitat, temporarily or permanently, because of marked environmental disruption (natural and/ or triggered by people) that jeopardized their existence and/or seriously affected the quality of their life.’ Does this characterize those immigrants coming from Central America? Absolutely. Climate change vulnerability manifests in two distinct crises throughout Central America, food insecurity and political violence. Food insecurity is a direct result of global warming, with inclement weather and dry temperatures creating food shortages. Especially along the so-called “dry corridor” , a dry stretch of agricultural land which holds a majority of Central America’s poor smallholder farmers. The corridor's arid nature makes it incredibly susceptible to rising temperatures. Additionally, political violence is an indirect result of climate change. Take Honduras for example, where mining companies wield large social, economic and political power and regularly carry out extrajudicial killings of activists. Making Honduras one of the most deadly regions of the world for environmental advocates. This violence spills over, and contributes to the flow of migrants out of the country hoping to escape said political violence. These two crises intersect at the

populations most vulnerable to either: Indigenous Central Americans. Indigenous Central Americans have seen a big increase in the number of persons seeking migration, both illegal and legal, in recent years. That is because Indigenous Hondurans are both majority small holder farmers and thus more vulnerable to food insecurity. They are also largely the victims of political violence due to issues between indigenous land rights and private corporations. Furthermore, many prominent environmental activists have come from the indigenous community. The issue has gotten so bad that now, border services are desperate to find and hire Quiche and other Mayan dialect speakers. They are needed to act as interpreters for the influx of indigenous Mayans with no English or even Spanish skills. Clearly, this is a last resort for many. The final result then is a humanitarian crisis, not a border one.

The worst irony of all is that Republicans continue to on the one hand decry the border crisis while also playing into climate change denial. The cognitive dissonance exhibited in this, and throughout right-wing circles, is immense and shows a great dedication to the craft of deception.

However, what we can do is fight back against this disconnect? Educate people about how these two issues are connected, and that one cannot be argued against without also arguing against the other. That a solution that addresses climate change is one that addresses the border crisis. Then hopefully, we can shut Tucker Carlson up, together. Work Cited https://www.foxnews.com/politics/goplawmakers-warn-catastrophe-southernborder-migrant-caravan-travels-us

https://www.theguardian.com/ environment/andes-to-theamazon/2015/apr/22/honduras-worldsnumber-one-killing-environmentalactivists

https://news.mongabay.com/2022/03/ honduras-bans-open-pit-mining-citingenvironmental-and-public-healthconcerns/#:~:text=Currently%2C% 20there%20are%20217% 20mining,near%20or%20inside% 20Indigenous%20territory

https://www.humanium.org/en/focuson/environment/child-climate-refugees/

https://www.sierraclub.org/sierra/ hondurans-flee-climate-change-violenceand-mining-project

https://www.newyorker.com/ magazine/2020/01/06/a-translationcrisis-at-the-border