Rare Reads | Rare

Book of the Month: January

Chesapeake Requiem: A Year with the Watermen of Vanishing Tangier Island
Earl Swift

Twelve miles off the coast of Virginia lies Tangier Island, a centuries-old fishing community known for supplying the world with the famous Chesapeake Bay Blue Crab. But climate change may make Tangier Island known for something else; scientists believe that by 2050, Tangier will have lost all of its habitable landmass to sea level rise, the first area within the United States to be completely eradicated by climate change.

In Chesapeake Requiem: A Year with the Watermen of Vanishing Tangier Island, New York Times best-selling author Earl Swift takes readers on a journey to an island that has lost two-thirds of its landmass since 1850. Day by day, the waves of a relentlessly rising sea drag more and more of Tangier into the water’s depths.

Through it all, Swift shows us a community whose skepticism about the science of climate change and their connection to a more traditional way of life does not diminish their desire to save their home. Chesapeake Requiem is a portrait of a community caught in between the past and the present, skepticism and hope.

Buy the book

Discussion questions:

1.  How does Swift present the community of Tangier? Does he offer the reader a fair and unbiased perspective of their situation?
2. How does the outside world view Tangier Island? Are outsiders sympathetic to Tangier’s situation?
3. The people of Tangier, by and large, do not believe in climate change. Regardless, they still face challenges brought on by a changing world. Find some specific examples in the book where the community of Tangier face such challenges. How do they describe those challenges? How do they feel about them?
4. Watch The BE.Center’s BE.Hour training series Part 3: “Understanding your audience.” How can you use empathy and other behavioral tools to reach the people of Tangier?
5. Refer back to the 8 Principles of Effective and Inviting Climate Communication. How would you describe the climate change situation to the people of Tangier? What words would you use, and which might you refrain from? How can language reinforce a sense of trust when working with a community?

Rare stories related to the book:

OCEAN CONSERVATION
🌊  Nine big wins for ocean conservation in 2024
🌳  Protecting and investing in Brazil’s Amazon coast for a climate-resilient future
🐟  The importance of community-led fisheries management in Palauan culture – An interview with Kevin Mesebeluu

BEHAVIOR CHANGE
💡  The levers of behavior change
🖥️  BE.Hour webinar series
🎙️  8 PRINCIPLES FOR EFFECTIVE CLIMATE COMMUNICATION