Climate-Focused Field Research within the Kwajalein Atoll Sustainability Laboratory

Abstract

The Kwajalein Atoll Sustainability Laboratory (KASL) is being established in Q3 2022 on a remote atoll in the northern Marshall Islands where research has already demonstrated evidence of significant disruption from climate alterations. KASL will be located on Ebeye, an island in the southeastern corner of Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands that sits less than three meters above sea level. It has been formed as a Marshallese non-governmental organization within the new campus of the College of the Marshall Islands on Ebeye and is designed to host field experiments that meet global criteria for social, political, technical, and economic sustainability. The Marshallese are aware of the environmental threats they face and wish to work with global scientists, engineers, and entrepreneurs to explore climate mitigation strategies that might help a poor and highly vulnerable population in the remote equatorial Pacific survive the coming decades.