The seaweed farming families of Beniamina inhabit a rapidly eroding Solomon Islands atoll. In their part of the South Pacific Ocean, sea level is rising over 7-10mm per year.
No passive 'victims' of global warming, their aquaculture is carbon negative: their seaweed grows through CO₂ drawdown.
The Beniamina project shows how those living low-carbon lifestyles are existentially affected by actions, decisions and emissions we make a world away...
…and why climate justice is essential to addressing the global climate crisis.
The farming is centred around cultivating red algae (Kappaphycus alvarezii seaweed) which grows, in part, by sequestering carbon dioxide. The islanders themselves (pop.130) use portable solar panels and batteries for lighting but lack the money for sea walls, artificial reefs or revegetation to mitigate storm damage to their home.
As former UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon noted, smallholder farmers produce up to 80% of the food in parts of the world yet receive only 1.7% of climate adaptation finance:
“What an injustice. If we want a world free of hunger while adapting to climate change, we need to put smallholder farmers at its centre.”
A 1 km farm of Kappaphycus seaweed can drawdown around 350 tons of CO₂ per year.
Around 11% of the seaweed is captured carbon dioxide.
Once dried, it's exported for use in bioplastics, in pharmaceuticals, and as a food stabiliser.
This is a short teaser of the opening. The full 5'00" documentary video artwork can be viewed in various exhibitions throughout 2026 as one of the Project Groundswell showcase award winners, beginning with Photo Museum Ireland in Dublin (curator: Tanya Kiang) from 5 March 2026. Please contact Adam to exhibit the film or photos elsewhere.
SOS Beniamina
SOS Beniamina is an additional, interactive 360º resource (below) for schoolchildren.
Beginning with a view of the village's children forming (in human letters) an “SOS” on their rapidly eroding island, users can move around a full 360º aerial panorama, clicking on hotspots to find documentary fragments about Beniamina relating to Pacific Ocean sea level rise, loss & damage, climate change adaptation, local resilience, and sustainable smallholder agriculture through blue carbon sinks.
Beniamina is a crucible of the issues underlining “climate justice” – and the just transition needed to get there.
EDUCATIONAL USAGE
Although all materials here are copyright, the work may be used in schools, on screens of at least tablet size (use the “fullscreen” icon).
As it is self-funded, teachers are honourably requested to declare it on reports of educational material usage so that the artist can continue making such works:
"SOS Beniamina" by Adam Sébire ©2026 www.adamsebire.info/sos
PRIZES
🏆 Showcase Award Winner, Project Groundswell, 2026.
🏅 Finalist, the 2023 Climate Change Communication Award (Euro-Mediterranean Centre for Climate Change).
🏆 Winner, 1st prize, "Climate Change - the Grand Challenge” (SUTC Venice in cooperation with Ca'Foscari University, Venice), 1 Dec 2023.
Interactive 360º (2026 version)
PANORAMA IMAGE
The SOS Beniamina panorama (right) is a photograph made in collaboration with the island community, who wanted to show the world their situation. The story behind its making – wherein all the island’s children form a human ’SOS’ – was published in the South Sydney Herald.
It has been exhibited in multiple contexts, from the Royal Geographic Society in London, UK (finalist for EarthPhoto 2023) to its antipodes as finalist for the Head On Photo Festival’s Environmental Prize in Sydney, Australia.
Prints are sold through the 80:20 Artist Agency, with profits to be returned to the community.*
SOS Beniamina 2023. Glossy print on alupanel, 20x40cm.
(Please enquire for larger sizes up to 300cm.)
Prices from AUD$250 / NOK1700.- / EUR€150 plus tax/postage.
* 80:20 Artist Agency (Australia) is waiving its commission and the artist has committed to return all profits from its sale to the islanders’ Board of Elders for use by the community to deal with problems such as salinity & revegetation. This is expected to be around 75% of the sale price per print sold.
Storm damage to Beniamina's sea-wall and seaweed drying tables, Jan '24.
Photo: Andrew Tovu, Beniamina farmer.
Some of the project photos exhibited in Climate Outreach’s Ocean Visuals exhibition at Sydney Opera House, April 2023.
Photo: Marnie Sebire
Adam Sébire
Based in the Norwegian Arctic; filmmaking anywhere...
Images & text © MMXXVI adamsebire@gmail.com
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