Marshall Islands: Nuclear Testing, Navigation Charts and Rising Seas
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The United States conducted 67 nuclear tests in the Marshall Islands between 1946 and 1958 — including the Castle Bravo test of 1954, the largest US nuclear weapon ever detonated, which contaminated the Bikini Atoll and the surrounding ocean and forced the evacuation of communities whose descendants are still displaced. The Bikinians were told in 1946 that they needed to leave their islands temporarily for the good of mankind. Most have never returned. Bikini Atoll is now a UNESCO World Heritage site — notable for both its nuclear history and for the extraordinary marine ecosystem that developed in the absence of human habitation.
The Marshallese people developed one of the most sophisticated navigation systems in human history. Using stick charts — arrangements of pandanus sticks and shells that map ocean swell patterns between islands — navigators could feel their way across open ocean by reading how the hull of a canoe interacted with the underwater topography of swells bouncing between islands. The knowledge was not read from the charts at sea. The charts were learning tools, used on land to internalise patterns that were then felt through the body during voyaging. The skill was generational.
The Marshall Islands is among the countries most immediately threatened by sea level rise. The atolls average two metres above sea level. Saltwater intrusion already affects fresh water supplies. King tides flood roads and homes on a regular basis. The government is negotiating relocation agreements with the United States and other countries while simultaneously asserting that the Marshall Islands intends to remain a sovereign nation even if its physical territory is submerged.
