Pacific Climate Justice TREK

Hello, and welcome to the official blog site for The College of Wooster’s Pacific Climate Justice TREK. Between June 4 – 25, 2026 a group of 10 students and 2 faculty will be traveling to Fiji and Tuvalu as part of a Wooster course called “Climate Justice and Religion in the Pacific.” (Click here to meet our team.)

What to Expect on this Blog

Each day during our trip, one of the students will post a daily blog update here with stories, photos, and more about our shared experiences. The purposes of this blog are threefold.

1. First, it’s one of the assessment tools used in the course, requiring students to intentionally reflect on and summarize what they’re learning and experiencing.
2. Second, it’s a great way for the students to keep in touch with you–their peers, friends, and family.
3. Finally, and most importantly, through this blog we aim to amplify the voices of Pacific peoples so as to bring awareness to the unique challenges (and injustices) brought by climate change to the Pacific AND to bring awareness to the unique strengths, skills, and solutions that Pacific and indigenous peoples have to offer regarding the climate crisis.

You can expect daily updates here, typically posted early in the morning (we’ll be 16 hours ahead of Eastern Daylight Time). In addition to the blog, you can get many more updates from our the Sustainability Office’s Instagram account (@WooSustainability), as students will also be using this social media platform to communicate more frequent posts, photos, and videos.

Our Itinerary

We’ll spend our first 10 days in and around Suva, Fiji, the cultural and economic heart of the Pacific. Students will learn about how climate change is impacting the Pacific region, how colonialism has influenced Pacific cultures, and different ways that people and institutions in the region are responding to this global challenge. Our hosts, the Pacific Conference of Churches (PCC), will connect our students with community leaders, youth activists, academics, NGO leaders, and ordinary people using their skills and their voices to bring global attention to the climate crisis. Religion forms a core part of Pacific culture and identity, so our TREK is focusing particularly on how religious groups (such as the PCC) help address climate justice concerns.

Next we’ll travel to Funafuti, Tuvalu to spend 6 days in one of the smallest and least visited countries in the world. Given that almost the entire country is less than 1 meter above sea level, Tuvalu represents the literal frontlines of climate change impacts, as sea level rise, saltwater intrusion in aquifers, droughts, and storm surge all threaten the future livability of the nation. Yet Tuvaluans are resilient and have taken an outsized leadership role on the global stage. Over the course of the next year this remote country will host both the pre-COP meetings (where planning for the annual UN climate summit take place) and the 2nd Transition Away From Fossil Fuels Conference (a new and exciting multilateral effort to accelerate the clean energy transition). During our time in Tuvalu we’ll build relationships with their youth, meet with government ministers, participate in a coral planting project, and learn about climate communication from the Tuvalu Climate Action Network (TuCAN).

Finally, we’ll return to beautiful Yasawa Islands in Fiji for a few days of relaxation, team reflection, and bringing everything we’ve learned together into concrete “what next” ideas.

What Can You Do?

First, follow us on Instagram and subscribe to this blog. Knowing about climate injustice is the first step to righting the wrongs that our actions have inadvertently caused.

Next, share what you’re learning! Repost social media content. Forward blog posts to your friends. Invite one of the students on the trip to present about their experience to your church, your rotary club, your school, or just a group of friends.

Consider how you can reduce your own climate impact. There are countless online resources to help you with this, but often simple actions are the easiest. Bike somewhere instead of driving. Eat less beef this week. Change your light bulbs. Turn your thermostat up/down a degree or two.

Donate to a group that works to address climate justice challenges. TuCAN is part of a larger organization called the Climate Action Network that does climate advocacy around the world. Citizens’ Climate Lobby works to empower ordinary people to help influence political change. For those who are religious, the Pacific Conference of Churches has climate justice as one of their core project areas. And there are many more…

Thank you!

Finally, we want to thank the Wallace Genetic Foundation for a very generous grant that has helped make this TREK possible. Their grant has significantly subsidized this trip for students, making it more accessible for all students and giving us the opportunity to work with our Pacific partners to amplify the voices of those on the frontlines of the climate crisis. Thank you!