The clear, sparkling water around Japan’s “Lucky Island” belies a problem. In the middle of the sea between Japan and South Korea, the waters around Iki may look pristine to the thousands of tourists who visit each summer, but for the islanders—the fishermen, farmers and free divers that gather abalone—the clear, emerald-green sea tells a more disturbing story, one of rapid decline in the seaweed and marine organisms that once fed vast shoals of fish.
Iki was the first city district in Japan to declare a climate emergency in 2019—a unique and beautiful ecosystem that has been thrown out of balance by global warming. Known as Lucky Island for its beauty and its location out of the path of Japan’s frequent natural disasters, Iki is now reeling from extreme weather events and the devastating effect of rising sea temperatures.
Climate change has already arrived here, forcing the islanders to choose between trying to maintain their traditional marine-based way of life, or to embrace big bets on wind and solar power that are unlikely to restore the island’s prosperity and could accelerate the destruction of its traditional economy. Iki is Japan’s climate nexus—an example of the paradox many rural communities around the world face as we try to rein in global emissions.
“It’s hell for us either way,” said Terutaka Okubo, 75-year-old head of Katsumoto Fishery Cooperative, the biggest of five on Iki, in his office overlooking the dock where daily catches are auctioned each day…