This article uses adhesives or what I am calling here ‘sticky matter,’ to illustrate multispecies relationships in Macao, a subtropical coastal region in South China. It focuses primarily on a traditional rammed earth material known as chunambo in Macao and other former Portuguese colonies. Composed of oyster shell, straw, rice, local soils and sand chemically bounded together by slacked lime, this precursor to modern day concrete has a unique combination of porosity and structural integrity that makes it particularly adaptable to tropical climates and a contrast to contemporary building practices which are often designed to create sealed interior environments. Discussions of porosity within New Materialism, Urban Studies and Chinese aesthetics will be used to think stickiness alongside questions of material integrity in the face of sea level rise, erosion and anthropogenic forces. Much like limestone sediments formed over the course of thousands of years at the bottom of ancient tropical sea beds, chunambo invites speculation about material permanence in the face of climate futures and a changing urban environment.

Mirages seen at sea have a long history of being interpreted as distant islands and mythological realms. Hot and cool pockets of air refracting light can make boats and islands appear as if floating in air. These atmospheric visions can be studied as physical phenomena and as cultural imaginaries, an extension of what Philip Hayward has called the aquapelagic imaginary. In alliance with Donna Haraway’s mythology-inspired Chthulucene, this article will use the Chinese folklore of the shen (蜃) (‘clam-monster’) to consider ecological issues around deep sea mining. In the ancient etiology of the shen, its breath was thought responsible for visions of Penglai, the fabled island home to the Eight Immortals believed to lie somewhere in the Yellow Sea. The search for Penglai and its rumored elixir of life has now been supplanted by exploration for methane, a largely untapped fossil fuel seeping up from the ocean floor. The clams and multi-species communities that cluster around these emissions, alongside mythological sea creatures, give shape to changing affects and atmospheres on the horizon.

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This article uses diatoms and the role they play in cloud formation as a prompt to consider histories of weather modification in practice, science fiction and possible future applications to address climate change. Diatoms are a form of microalgae that are present in all waterways and contribute significantly to atmospheric oxygen. They also provide condensation nuclei around which water droplets form, effectively creating clouds. Such naturally occurring particulate matter interacts with intentional and unintentional anthropogenic influence on the atmosphere. The long history of folk speculation and scientific experimentation about effective ways of seeding clouds for rain can help us consider the potential impacts of new forms of atmospheric intervention. From the use of algae as a tool for bioremediation to marine cloud brightening techniques, a multiscalar ecological awareness needs to be publicly fostered in making choices about how to influence climate futures.