their hands are sticky and coated with honey. the hottest of suns beats through the gaps in concrete buildings. they’ve just finished harvesting their own honey from the beehives at bruce monroe community garden this august. 

this is a moment of stillness that they have rarely felt in the past year after being pushed out of their home just 10 months ago. a stillness that may not last as the legal battle with the city continues over developing this park, the new place they call home. 

high and her daughter were tending to the bees with the park’s self-appointed beekeeper and advocate marc poe. as they harvested raw honey for themselves, amarissa ignored her mom’s plea to not mess with the bees that day. she was stung on her ear.

but the park represents more than just abundant plots in a community garden, it is a place for the people in ward 1 to build community. this is something high and other residents of the park morton public housing complex have lost in the past 16 years as more and more of the historic public housing units are demolished and residents are displaced. 

now the city is planning on developing housing units — to partially replace the old public housing units — where the green space is currently at bruce monroe elementary school in ward 1, she said. 

“it’s literally one of the few green spaces left right here in ward 1. so it gets used a lot. you know, there’s tennis courts, there’s a garden back here in the back,” high said. “[amarissa] gets a lot out of it. she gets play time, she gets to meet new friends. we come up here and roller skate on the basketball top when there’s nobody out here playing. so this place means everything to us. we need to keep this green space.”

high was a resident of the park morton apartment complex for 21 years and president of their resident council. she founded her own company in disaster preparedness and relief for her community, high alert emergency preparedness. her inspiration came after seeing the basement community spaces and outdoor green spaces at park morton flood after light rain, seeing one too many of her neighbors’ units catch on fire due to old wiring and lack of maintenance, and seeing how covid-19 isolated this community even more, leaving seniors in the units without adequate supplies or care.

but her relationship with park morton and bruce monroe is complicated.

in 2007, d.c. city council passed the new communities initiative to help revitalize public housing in the city, specifically targeting park morton without displacing or unhousing its current residents. they also promised to rebuild the community to be more sustainable and resilient to the effects of climate change. 

“through both the neighborhood planning and architectural design, the plan promotes sustainability in a variety of ways,” according to the final draft of the park morton-specific new communities initiative. “the plan promotes development that meets the requirements of the d.c. green building act of 2006 using the green communities criteria as a guide for sustainable design.”

these proposed new residences would require eight main sustainability points:

1. increased pedestrian access
2. maximized green spaces
3. energy-efficient appliances
4. locally sourced building materials
5. cleaner indoor air quality
6. low volume water fixtures
7. rain barrels
8. cut off lights in public areas 

it has been 16 years. there has been little progress and little follow-through on the promises made to the residents of park morton. high was not offered temporary housing and had to take the city to court to fight for the voucher that was previously promised to her.

“one of the reasons i went into business for myself was because of this, and i’m certified to do it,” high said. “i kept telling housing authority, you need to work with me to have an emergency preparedness plan for the residents of park morton in case this flooding goes way past the circle and goes past the first floor. they wouldn’t do it… we definitely feel left behind.”

flooding in ward 1 has increased as a staggering effect of climate change. in a report published by the d.c. flood task force in july 2023 the city recognized the disproportionate impact of flooding on low income neighborhoods.

increased flood patterns in 2020 “underscored the growing risk of severe flooding due to climate change and the urgency to do something about it,” tommy wells, director of district department of energy and environment, and david l. gadis, chief executive officer and general manager of dc water said in a statement in 2021. 

the task force recognized that flood maps of d.c. needed updating, as more basement units and businesses flooded in the city, and they needed to create a better plan for mitigating the effects of climate change for the most vulnerable communities. 

high said the concrete edifices of park morton have been getting hotter and hotter each year as well. the buildings constructed in 1961 trap the heat as ward 1 becomes more prominent in washington’s urban heat island. park view, the neighborhood that houses park morton has a heat vulnerability index (hvi) of 0.583 which categorizes this neighborhood as having higher risks of health complications with the rising temperatures, according to the d.c. policy center. 

park morton is now a total of five buildings – three of which are chain locked up with boarded windows. the units only have two buildings with residents, the majority of whom are seniors. 

“when i became a resident there, i noticed that, you know, once you, once you found your place in the community, they became a family. you built kinships,” high said. 

“excuse me if i get a little emotional because i’m still a little raw from everything, but when they broke up the community, everybody didn’t have that sense of security anymore.” 

she protested leaving her home, building 615. neighbors of park morton remember seeing signs that read “let us stay!” and “we want to stay!” 

“we celebrated birthdays, holidays. just any time to celebrate, you know,” high said. “it could be raining outside like this today, and i could just knock on candy door, knock on lou door and be like, ‘hey, y’all trying to eat something? y’all trying to have a drink? what y’all trying to do?’ and next thing you know candy cooking up something, i’m cooking up something, lou fixing drinks.”

as president of the resident council, she wants to advocate and fight for her community to stay a community. as a mom, she was hurt to leave the place where she raised her children, where she founded her company, she said. 

“they always make promises, but the problem is they don’t honor their promises,” high said. “that was one of the hardest moves.”

and now, the one other space that high and her daughter made their community in bruce monroe park will be partially developed to replace the park morton apartments. one of the only green spaces left in their community is in the process of being sold to developers to create a senior unit, a row of townhomes and a studio-1 bedroom complex, poe said.

this is despite a community survey conducted by the advisory neighborhood commissions (anc) in 2016 that revealed that 647 out of 814 subjects polled preferred the bruce monroe park be used for a “park” – 431 preferred “public uses” and 455 disliked “commercial/residential development.”  

poe expressed that this survey was misleading and provided more opportunities for respondents to pick what kind of “development” they preferred.

“the park is getting ready to be, partially, i should say, disposed of because our councilwoman breanne nadeau… decided without any community feedback that this was going to be the replacement area for park morton apartments,” high said.

the councilwoman denied an interview request about park morton and bruce monroe. 

“i almost feel like housing has betrayed us,” high said. “it’s like a magic trick when the magician gets you to watch one hand while he slights the other.”

she is now forced to pick between preserving a sustainable green space or new housing for the displaced park morton residents – at least one third of them, as only 33% of the new development would be housing for previous public housing residents, she said. 

“i used to be a pessimist, but now i’m an optimist,” high said. “i see that when you grind your heels in, you can really get something done. something has to give. something has to give.”

poe is involved with the two lawsuits against the city in the dc court of appeals to preserve bruce morton park as a green space and prevent the city from moving forward with the development. one of the lawsuits succeeded in 2016 which resulted in the court of appeals requiring the developers to “vacate and be remanded,” poe said. starting in 2021, poe is now appealing the “comprehensive plan” order.

“when they did a survey of what was going to stay a park and what was going to be developed, they conveniently took over another 500 square feet of space for them,” poe said. “it’s not much, [but] it says it should be exact.”

the new order from the city has tried to redefine what this development would mean for the replacement units of the residents in park morton. 

“where [high] used to live, they had two bedroom apartments,” poe said. “they could call it a housing unit. so they’re replacing a house – a two bedroom housing unit – with a studio/one bedroom housing unit because they’re both one for one replacement is what they call it. so it’s bullshit.”

the appeal moves forward to oral arguments nov. 8 of 2023. meanwhile, the state of park morton, bruce monroe park and the community that they serve is stuck in this period of waiting.

“hope is like a hot air balloon, right? it takes a while for your hope to take off. because there’s always some resistance,” high said. “but when it gets up there, it’s something. as long as you’re floating – meaning fighting – being part of your active community, helping with something that matters to the people, there’s always going to be hope. that balloon will float on for a long time.”

washington – climate experts warned lawmakers about the effect of climate change on extreme weather during the first-ever congressional hearing on extreme event attribution, a field of climate science, on nov. 1. they offered solutions to help congress navigate more frequent and intensified weather events, like storms, droughts and heatwaves. 

“we’re the first generation to suffer from climate change, but the last generation which can do anything about it, so that’s our challenge,” said sen. edward markey (d-mass.). 

instances of extreme weather events are on the rise. this summer, phoenix set a record of 31 consecutive days of temperatures at or above 110 degrees. on the other side of the country, florida experienced severe rainfall, leading to flooding in the streets. 

sen. tom carper (d-del.) said extreme event attribution, which detects the extent to which man-made global warming influences extreme weather, can be an “important tool,” as congress takes steps to manage and prepare for severe weather events.  

“these questions matter because the human harms and costs of climate change are massive, and sadly, they are growing,” carper said. “we are going to focus on how it’s fueling extreme weather and what we can do about it.”

sen. shelley moore capito (r-w.va.) stressed the importance of finding bipartisan solutions over debating the causes of extreme weather, highlighting that extreme event attribution can’t tell whether global warming “caused” a specific event. 

michael wehner, a climate scientist at the applied mathematics and computational research division at the lawrence berkeley national laboratory, also emphasized the economic consequences of extreme weather. he estimated that global warming was responsible for about $50 billion in damages from flooding during hurricane harvey, a category 4 storm that made landfall in texas and louisiana in 2017.

extreme weather disproportionately impacts younger, older and low-income populations, wehner added. poor people are among the most vulnerable, as they are the least able to recover from these kinds of events, he said. 

“these damages were not equally distributed within socioeconomic groups,” wehner said. “the most vulnerable portion of the local population was disproportionately affected, and climate change exacerbated this injustice.”

paul dabbar, a former department of energy official, advocated for “technology-neutral innovation” and open strategies, which would further the competition of discovery. 

“the right strategy for the world today is to continue discovery, innovation and deployment of new options,” dabbar said. “while we certainly need to understand the drivers of climate change, we should focus on solutions also.” 

carper asked how attribution science could inform the designing and engineering of infrastructure, such that roads, bridges and pipes could better withstand severe weather. in response, wehner described his experience working with the san francisco city government on their waste management system, which had raised concerns about extreme precipitation. he quoted one city official, who said: “there ain’t no pipe good enough.”

“that has sent the engineers and designers back to the drawing room, saying ‘how will we accommodate these storms in a world that might be considerably warmer,’” he testified. 

wehner told the medill news service that cities need to adapt to increased extreme weather conditions by being more proactive, like adding green roofs or rethinking wastewater management systems. 

“in order to avoid more dangerous climate change, we have to have the entire planet go to zero emissions to stabilize the climate — that’s not going to happen in my lifetime,” wehner said. “so then, we have to adapt.”

sen. sheldon whitehouse (d-r.i.) asked how insurance companies were dealing with extreme flooding in florida, to which jennifer jurado, the chief resilience officer for broward county, florida, replied that some local insurance companies in florida are going bankrupt, while others are pulling out of the state altogether to avoid future risk. 

lawmakers stressed the importance of working together to find solutions to mitigate the effects of extreme weather events in the future. 

“while climate change is driving extreme weather, we are not helpless. this situation is not hopeless,” carper said. “working together, we can prevent the worst impacts of global warming by reducing greenhouse gas emissions.”

washington– developing new systems to detect disasters before they strike can reduce the damage communities suffer as climate change increases the intensity and frequencies of landslides, floods and other disasters in the himalayan region, experts said on october 19 in a panel called, “cascading disasters and vulnerable infrastructure in the himalaya: placing the sikkim and melamchi floods in context.”

the urgency to implement better warning systems was made clear earlier this month when a glacial lake in the himalayas flooded, destroying a dam and starting an avalanche. the disaster resulted in scores of deaths and more than 100 people missing, according to the stimson center, the think tank that organized thursday’s panel. 

“we are everywhere being faced with this increasing brunt of climate change that leaves us puzzled and a bit worried what is gonna happen next,” said jakob steiner, ph.d., a geoscientist from the himalayan university 2022年世界杯亚洲预选赛结果 .

as global temperatures rise and other effects from climate change impact local communities, environmental experts have been looking for different early warning systems to prevent “cascading disasters,” climate events that follow from a primary trigger. 

brian eyler, the director of the stimson center’s energy, water, and sustainability program, said that experts can better understand and prevent future climate disasters by studying different types of imagery, including satellite imagery, from past events. this technology “provides an opportunity to look backwards” and “conduct an autopsy” on the disaster, eyler said.

sanchita neupane, a disaster risk specialist at the human rights organization people in need, said that there are many benefits to working with local communities and governments in the himalayan region. while her group has been primarily focused on the human impact following landslides, what they learned can carry over to a wide range of disasters. her group prepares people in risk areas for disasters by communicating with the communities and discussing indicators of possible climate events.

“the more and more we promoted local observation and monitoring this year, we found that, first, it allows people to be more aware of their surroundings so they automatically take more responsive decisions to the landslide cues and signs that happen to the surroundings,” neupane said. “next, it allows humanitarian agencies to link early warnings made through community observation to early action.” 

experts said that accessible communication channels that are in the local language, specifically two-way communication channels between policymakers and community members, are also beneficial.

as people become more aware of climate hazards, that increases pressure on policymakers which leads to better protection for the community, amelie huber, ph.d., an expert from the euronatur foundation, an organization that focuses on conservation, said.

“activists, civil society, intellectuals, general citizens started to talk about these things whereas before they hadn’t,” she said. “so it just shows risks much more, and that makes people talk about it. and i think that’s what’s needed to increase pressure on governments and developers to engage with the risks.”

wildfire recovery is a major issue in colorado, with the two largest fires in the state’s history (the cameron peak and east troublesome fire) burning over 400,000 acres in 2020. even though these fires were three years ago, the path to recovery is just beginning. a recent article from the coloradoan highlighted that the intensity of these fires has caused around half of that 400,000 acres burn scar to show little to zero regrowth.

the effects of wildfire go beyond the flames and can impact water quality, cause flooding, and harm wildlife. research on these lasting impacts is being done by colorado state university (csu) organizations radical open science syndicate (ross) and geospatial centroid. these organizations want to go beyond sharing science with their fellow researchers and communicate their findings to the public in engaging ways, and that is why they developed the from burn to bloom event.

with over 300 people at the event, it was a significant success that informed the public in an uplifting fashion about wildfire recovery and how it impacts them while providing insights on how to help.

the drought was severe, drying up most rivers and leaving lesotho’s largest water reservoir, katse dam, at only 50% capacity which declined even further following the el niño. many fields were left unplanted and those that were planted yielded very little, everything was barren.

according to national geographic, “el niño is a climate pattern that describes the unusual warming of surface waters in the eastern tropical pacific ocean. el niño is the “warm phase” of a larger phenomenon called the el niño-southern oscillation (enso). 

led by the work of sir gilbert walker in the 1930s, climatologists determined that el niño occurs simultaneously with the southern oscillation. the southern oscillation is a change in air pressure over the tropical pacific ocean. when coastal waters become warmer in the eastern tropical pacific (el niño), the atmospheric pressure above the ocean decreases.”

the situation in 2015 and 2016 was quite alarming as we witnessed the impacts of el nino within our communities and saw how our community members were faced with the despair, frustration, and hopelessness of failing crops. as climate change is expected to increasingly magnify the effects of el niños, countries like lesotho will need to implement effective measures to address the worsening impacts.     

early warning systems efficiency in lesotho

earlier this year, lesotho meteorological services issued a press release predicting drier conditions starting in october 2023 and likely to continue until march 2024. this period coincides with lesotho’s planting season, and the lack of rain coupled with warmer temperatures could adversely affect agricultural production. 

although it is still uncertain whether the country will be receiving average to below normal rainfall this rainy season, the government is prepared to face the worst. additionally, non-governmental organizations and developmental partners such as fao, are actively seeking funding to respond quickly in the event of a drought caused by el niño.

“we cannot confirm that we will have a drought because the southern oscillation is not yet established, and we do not want to cause panic. we, however, still advise our farmers to be cautious. farmers are urged to seek expert advice and use the available agric extension services to maximize their production and minimize losses should the country experience drought,” said rammolenyana lethaha, weather forecaster at lesotho meteorological services. 

building resilience across communities 

during the 2015 and 2016 el niño, several organizations worked together to help communities deal with the impacts of the drought and recover from the effects. among the actors was the food and agriculture organization (fao) in lesotho, which assisted communities in building their drought resilience. 

according to david mwesigwa, emergency and resilience coordinator at fao lesotho, some of the interventions included researching early-maturing seed varieties for crop production, while other interventions were implemented to improve livestock care.

these included drilling boreholes in water-scarce communities that capture groundwater for reuse and establishing animal drinking points to provide water for animals. interventions by other actors included training smallholder farmers on climate-smart agriculture techniques, distributing water to water-stressed communities, and providing food aid.

“one of the significant lessons was to strengthen stakeholder coordination to build a more coordinated response team and inclusive efforts (between communities),” mwesigwa said. coordination across communities will reduce redundancy, ensuring that available resources reach a larger population. 

he later mentioned that vulnerability assessments and the national information system for social assistance (nissa) database were beneficial in identifying vulnerable households and communities. strengthening of such tools is crucial for ensuring the shortest possible response time and bringing the right solutions to communities who need them.

mwesigwa also noted specific ways that lesotho can adapt to agricultural stressors in the future. “the country’s irrigation coverage is currently at only 2.6%, which means the country heavily relies on rainfed agriculture. hence, investing in irrigation is crucial to improve agricultural yields,” he said.

as farmers plan for the future, they should aim to increase their yield in both average and above-average rainfall years, in order to prepare for droughts. additionally, they can intensify their water harvesting efforts during years with ample rainfall, to have a reserve supply of water for farming purposes.

“it is crucial for lesotho to have contingency plans, be self-sufficient and stop relying on south africa for seeds and fertilizers” mwesigwa said. relying on south africa positions lesotho at a vulnerable position during climatic shocks as south africa will need to satisfy its farmers first. lesotho’s needs may not be met or the supply may come very late into the planting season.

 “adopting climate-smart agriculture techniques and enhancing land and water conservation practices can also contribute to boosting productivity. strengthening early warning systems is also necessary to mitigate risks. lastly, coordination and information sharing should be improved to ensure efficient execution of plans,” mphatsoane said. 

staying positive despite the challenges of the el niño  

thakane mphatsoane, a farmer from nazareth in western lesotho, describes the impacts of the 2015 and 2016 drought as detrimental to her farming business. the el niño presented a major shock, as she had just started her agri-business. “i lost everything during the drought, it was (too) dry and hot for any of my crops to survive and i did not have any alternatives,” mphatsoane said. 

she also mentioned that one of the challenges has been the emergence of pests, most of which could not be controlled by the organic pest repellents they had been using, forcing her to buy chemical pesticides to control the situation.

mphatsoane believes this invasion of pests is a result of the changing climate and was exacerbated by the extremely dry and hot conditions during the el niño. according to the us department of agriculture, climate change and especially the increase in temperature will increase pests populations and their geographic distribution.

is lesotho prepared for another el niño?

with the help of lesotho meteorological services, other relevant ministries, and developmental partners’ guidance, lesotho can move from panic every time a disaster hits to being prepared and more resilient to these shocks. 

hopefully, the country can reach a stage where farmers can handle different climate-related surprises and adapt effectively. there is a need for the government to invest more in climate-smart agriculture to help farmers adapt to the changing climate and keep their family’s food secure.

after facing a severe drought when she first started farming, mphatsoane has now recovered and even added farming tunnels to her farm. these tunnels are useful during extreme temperatures and rain-deficient periods. 

local farmers face more than just a lack of rain. they also have to deal with alternating periods of low and excessive rainfall, which can be challenging. this has caused mphatsoane to come up with creative solutions to combat this issue, such as building a fish pond on her farm.

“in preparation for future dry spells, i have captured storm water and continue to construct more ponds which will reserve water that i can use for irrigation. i also intend to plant drought resistant crops during the dry period,” mphatsoane said.

research indicates that climate change will worsen and cause more climate shocks in the near future. for farmers like mphatsoane, adapting to drier planting seasons and more extreme weather events is crucial.

“i believe it is important for farmers like me to explore stormwater capturing and store enough water for the dry seasons. it is important that we irrigate our crops and not depend entirely on rainfall. as farmers, we should also invest in drought resistant seeds, get access to weather outlook and receive expert recommendations on what plants to grow in various climate conditions,” mphatsoane said.

earlier this year, several dozen small fires burned through 50 acres in the small unincorporated community of mariposa, california. over 100 people watched the flames, yet no one complained or rushed to put out the fire.

that’s because these weren’t your typical fires — instead, it was a cultural burn, conducted by tribal cultural burners to rejuvenate native species like the oak tree and stimulate regrowth of resources for medicinal and cultural uses. cultural burning involves small-scale burns often targeted toward a specific plant resource and is careful not to destroy the vegetation outright.“

nobody in the valley even knew we burned,” the honorable ron w. goode, tribal chairman of the north fork mono tribe in central california, said. goode has led countless cultural burns, all of which are intended to produce minimal smoke and create defensible space, or an area of less flammable plants. this practice mitigates fire risk amid intensifying fire seasons without detrimental impacts to surrounding areas.

but throughout his 40 years as tribal chairman, goode says he has encountered relentless resistance to cultural burning from federal and state agencies that manage wildfires, like the u.s. forest service (usfs) and the california department of forestry and fire protection (cal fire). 

goode is no stranger to these federal agencies, having worked on the dinkey collaborative, an alliance between the usfs and various tribes in california to restore the landscape in the sierra national forest. however, these agencies won’t budge when it comes to cultural burning, as they’ve continued to restrict its practice and it still isn’t permitted on most federal lands. 

at first glance, this resistance might seem surprising: cultural burning has been shown to yield positive impacts for the environment and bears significance for indigenous populations in california and across the country. 

yet these agencies’ stringent regulations on cultural burning aren’t a surprise to goode, given the long history of institutional disparaging of this practice. the u.s. government throughout the 19th and 20th centuries criminalized cultural burning, alleging that indigenous communities were “the hand of the incendiary.”

instead, state agencies have mainly championed the prescribed burning method, which is markedly different and creates a spate of negative effects. this involves compiling huge piles of fuel, a collection of dry brush “as big as a house,” according to goode. 

this strategy can lower the risk of a wildfire occurring in an area, meaning there will be less material that could start or exacerbate one. however, these prescribed burns, according to goode, could be significantly harder to control due to their size, especially when combined with high winds. for example, the 2022 calf canyon/hermit’s peak blaze in new mexico, which started as two prescribed fires, jumped containment lines and burned 341,000 acres — the state’s largest wildfire in history.

in addition, the devastating heat from the large amount of material burned in prescribed burning destroys soil microbes, resulting in a hostile environment for plants. the destruction of these microbes, while invisible to the naked eye, can have visible, cascading impacts on an entire ecosystem — starting with the absence of plants, which depend on microbes for basic functions such as nitrogen fixation and nutrient cycling.

with all these risks, why do the usfs and cal fire still practice prescribed burning in this way? to goode, these policies are reflective of the agencies’ role as managers of the land who make decisions based on economics. in fact, their budgets increase based on how much acreage they can burn in a year. not to mention that these entities still grapple with their historical precedent of deprioritizing indigenous ecological knowledge.

“until the economics mindset changes, we’re not going to make vast changes on the land and we’re always going to have extreme wildfires,” goode said.

this difference in mindset triggers distinctions in approach downstream.

“when you do cultural burning, you’re burning for the resources and in a much different manner than burning for acreage,” goode said. the pernicious misconception is that they’re one and the same — when their philosophies and methods are fundamentally different and distinguishable.

for cultural burners, small piles are the key to prevent the soil-scorching impacts of prescribed burns and to keep the flames from ever burning out of control.

“our piles, we call them ‘beaver huts.’ if i see one that’s over six feet tall…someone’s going to be getting in trouble,” goode said. “my leaders, who have been training for years, can’t make those kinds of mistakes.”

goode and other cultural burners will often conduct 45–70 small-scale burns each outing, with acreage limited to 50 acres at most. he is adamant that the small scale is evident that “we get the job done and we get the job done right.”

because tribal cultural burners aren’t conducting large burns for acreage, they don’t need to have extensive firefighting gear and multiple fire trucks waiting in the wings. according to goode, the fact that federal and state agencies have all this equipment at the ready for prescribed burns, in contrast, shows that they actually shouldn’t be burning in the first place because they are already at risk.

“you are already saying that if you light a fire, you have to have this much personnel, and this much equipment, to fight the fire that you just lit,” goode said. “therefore you shouldn’t be lighting a fire. but they won’t touch a prescribed fire unless they have that.”

instead, “you need to get naked. you need to get to the point where you strip all your yellow outfits, and your fire trucks,” he said. “and then you go out and light your fire.”

but organizations like the usfs and cal fire are not following suit. they continue to burn over 100 acres per outing, which goode says greatly affects the health of those in local communities.

“when the agencies put their fires on the ground, immediately the smoke, the particles, all affect the local neighbors, and down in the valley, in the urban areas. people with health issues are stricken,” he said.

in contrast, as seen with the cultural burn in mariposa, people are often unaware when a cultural burn takes place — again, a testament to the effectiveness of burning small piles and intimately understanding the properties of fire.

even still, the usfs and cal fire haven’t made the necessary inroads to collaborate with indigenous cultural burning practitioners. even worse, as mentioned earlier, cultural burners often cannot even practice burning on federal lands and when attempting to do so, face arduous bureaucratic obstacles, like going through the permit application process.

for goode, the ideal future is one where there is more space for cultural burns, and especially where cultural burners can have a “playground” to conduct their burns. “if we had tribes doing that in their areas, in their homelands, we would have a lot more defensible space,” goode said. “you would think that would become more important to the agencies, but it hasn’t, not yet.”

goode pointed to the cost share master agreement in 2018 between the north fork mono tribe and the sierra national forest as an example of what cooperation between indigenous tribes and federal agencies could look like. through the agreement, the north fork mono tribe will be able to help restore meadows through cultural burning. “more of that needs to happen not only in the meadows, but throughout the forest,” he said.

it is becoming increasingly important that the usfs and cal fire step up in crafting these agreements. california’s fire seasons are only getting longer and hotter, and the need for collaboration between managers and stewards has never been more apparent.

“we need to learn how to play together, work together,” said goode. “when i have my burns, which is either private land or tribal land, and i invite all of the agency people to come and learn what we do…that’s the future that i see, us working together. but it can’t be on their terms, and not necessarily solely on our terms either.”

note: this piece discusses violence and genocide against indigenous communities.

my dad’s hands gripped the steering wheel as we drove along the winding, narrow roads of yosemite national park –– eyes trained ahead, he explained that though he wanted to see the scenery, he was both terrified of heights and of crashing the car. so i described to him what i saw: trees for as far as the eye could see, packed together in what my younger self thought was the perfect vision of a forest. pure nature, i thought to myself. what an escape.

but these landscapes concealed an unsettling truth behind the park, which the u.s. national park service (nps) has controlled since 1864. tourists’ cameras now point at lands that indigenous communities lived on and managed for thousands of years before they were forcibly removed by the government. and the densely packed trees that define their photos are live wildfire risks, evidence of the land’s changes without indigenous tribes’ stewardship.

the park is rife with signs extolling the nps’s conservation efforts and the achievements of john muir (1838–1914), the “father of the national park system” who is credited with leading the campaign to “preserve” yosemite as a national park. but what the signs won’t tell you is that he and the nps were active proponents of forcibly expelling yosemite’s vital indigenous communities, like the ahwahneechee people.

the smothering of “good fire”

the land the ahwahneechee people called ahwahnee or “big mouth”, now coined as yosemite, was a wonder to western settlers in the 19th century: it was an area of “broadly spaced trees, open meadows, and abundant wildlife.” when the settlers encountered the ahwahneechee people, they failed to connect the dots between the well-tended environment they saw and the involvement of the ahwahneechee, who practiced cultural burning to revitalize the land.

cultural burning involves lighting small-scale burns in a specific area to promote plant and resource renewal, with the ash from the burn combining with topsoil to create a nutrient-rich soil that promotes fresh plant regrowth. these burns prompt the germination of fire-activated seeds, which play an important role in local food chains and ecosystem processes. this includes native shrubs whose berries have major cultural, medicinal, and culinary implications. cultural burns can also be used to selectively remove invasive plants that are poorly adapted for the frequent flames of the native biome. in the context of cultural burning, the flames provide rejuvenation rather than destruction.

for the ahwahneechee and other indigenous communities, this “good fire” reflects “spiritual and ethical obligation to care for the land.” but to the settlers, all fire was dangerous, threatening to destroy the natural landscapes they suddenly felt an urge to “protect” –– or in other words, exploit. they used this as justification –– masking their racist and capitalist motivations –– to embark on a genocidal campaign to remove the ahwahneechee people and their practices from the land. throughout the mid-1800s, armed vigilantes attacked the ahwahneechee, bolstered by laws which outlawed cultural burning and calls for a “war of extermination.” and as recently as 1969, the nps burned down the remainder of ahwahneechee homes, explaining this heinous action as nothing more than a “fire fighting drill.”

adding fuel to the fire

under the eyes of an unsuspecting public, yosemite valley has continued to experience the consequences of both the removal of the ahwahneechee and the nps’s “fire suppression era” from 1850 to 1970. during this period, the nps and u.s. forest service followed the “10 a.m. policy,” which mandated that fires “must be contained and controlled by 10 o’clock the morning after their initial report.” however, after 1970, the nps finally recognized that this focus on suppression drastically changed the fire regimes, or the “patterns of fire characteristics” in yosemite, leading to deleterious effects on the lower mixed conifer vegetation there.

a 2010 study conducted by researchers at pennsylvania state university revealed that as a result of fire suppression policies based on muir’s philosophy, biodiversity had significantly decreased within the bounds of the park. in the absence of regular fires, flammable tree species such as the white fir crowded out shade-intolerant, fire-resistant trees like the native california black oak, which saw significant population declines. consequently, yosemite valley became “two times more densely packed than it had been in the nineteenth century” –– a number which might even be higher now.

without the sparsely-spaced trees and open vegetation that the ahwahneechee people’s fire regime cultivated — and amidst worsening climate change –– the land has become increasingly susceptible to intense wildfires. and we have seen the results of this in real time: in 2022, the creek fire and oak fire burned tens of thousands of acres within the park.

since 1970, the nps has practiced prescribed burning to try and manage the landscape, which is a marked improvement in policy and has set the standard for other national parks. but prescribed burning and cultural burning are different. “prescribed burning” refers to using intentional fire to reduce the amount of fuel, or “combustible biomass” like dead trees and brush, thereby lowering the likelihood of a wildfire occurring there.

however, it involves the compilation of large piles of vegetation gathered across maximum acreage, which burn at high temperatures and “cook the soil” (goode et al., 2022). the intense heat damages soil microbes and therefore does not allow for a quick recovery of soil health and the plants that depend on it. in contrast, cultural burning involves a smaller accumulation of brush and is more deliberate about what is burned. this allows the ecosystem to regenerate, creating a “defensible landscape” against wildfires in the process (goode et al., 2022). while both methods may reduce the risk of severe wildlife, cultural burning has far greater benefit for the ecosystem.

calling for a new yosemite

while the nps’s turn toward prescribed burning is a start, it isn’t enough to rectify historical injustices or to promote ecosystem health in yosemite. at present, indigenous tribes like the ahwahneechee are still not allowed to practice cultural burning on federal lands like yosemite. the nps needs to acknowledge the holistic relationship that cultural burning practitioners have with fire and the ecosystem. furthermore, they need to recognize that the guidance of these practitioners is key to a successful and sustainable strategy moving forward.

by working in tandem, perhaps visitors to yosemite will begin seeing landscapes characterized not by packed trees and devastating wildfires but by open meadows teeming with biodiverse life. but if the nps fails to take steps toward building these relationships with indigenous tribes, the lands within the park will continue to be a tinderbox waiting for a match.

natural disasters happen everyday, all over the world; from droughts and floods to tornadoes and extreme climate changes, this phenomena can greatly disrupt the living conditions for residents in a given region. displacements can happen within nations, but with climate catastrophes experienced in some parts of the world more than others, some may opt to cross national borders. these people are often referred to as climate refugees, and many come from countries experiencing high magnitude climate disasters including afghanistan, pakistan and india.

it’s likely that the population of climate refugees will only continue to rise, with the world bank estimating that nearly 216 million people could be affected by 2050. a key question this raises is, “where do they go?” countries poised to accept climate refugees, like germany, are struggling to define the problem.

research from the european parliamentary research service finds that europe is likely to be one of the regions least affected by climate-related disasters, accounting for only one percent of internal displacements in 2020. south asia accounted for 30 percent that same year. like in other countries, individuals who are displaced as a result of natural disasters do not receive refugee or subsidiary protection in germany at the moment. but as the european parliamentary research service put it, “through its cooperation with the countries affected, the eu can put in place safe legal pathways for climate migrants.”

disputes over the idea of “climate refugee”

from 2014 to 2021 germany accepted more refugees in total than any other eu member state, according to data from eurostat. but the german government in the past has explicitly expressed that climate refugees cannot claim asylum in germany. as a reaction to the united nations human rights committee, which ruled in january 2020 that nations may not deport individuals who are affected by “climate change-induced conditions that violate the right to life,” a spokesperson from the interior ministry said the link between climate change and migration is under-researched. “most studies suggest that environmental changes are triggers for migration decisions, but are not the sole cause,” the spokesperson told deutsche welle.

globally there have been disagreements on who qualifies as a refugee in the first place. the united nations definition of a refugee, which describes them as “people who have fled violence, war, conflict or persecution,” is subject to interpretation by immigration courts across the world. while the united nations is one assembly that has made multiple policy recommendations for increasing protections for refugees in general, individual countries still reserve the right to deny asylum applications. one important international human rights law, european convention on human rights (echr) article 3, which finds that “the prohibition of inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment,” has been used in germany specifically to consider humanitarian conditions in certain nations that may justify flight. 

compounding harms during displacement

“a lot of the challenges we see in relatively stable contexts are then exasperated in a migrant context, whether it’s access to sexual reproductive health or problems with gender based violence,” said maureen mcgowan, ph.d. candidate at the heidelberg institute of global health and researcher with the global health and migration hub. “then with climate coming into that, a big challenge is also things like access to nutritional food or access to water in the immediate moment, but also in the long term.”

echr article 3 was referenced by the german higher administrative court which made a significant ruling banning the deportation of an afghan citizen in december 2020. the court’s primary reasoning was that the covid-19 pandemic has led to a significant decline in the humanitarian conditions in afghanistan. the court explicitly cited environmental conditions, including climate and natural disasters, as relevant factors in assessing the humanitarian conditions in the country. camilla schloss, a judge in the administrative court of berlin, wrote in a blog about how this case might show how courts may have the power to create more avenues for climate refugees outside of the 1951 refugee convention. but some researchers say that climate change cannot be the sole consideration for granting asylum.

“you have to say goodbye to the point of view that climate change is a main reason for migration. this is just one of several factors,” said benjamin schraven, an associate researcher at the german institute of development and sustainability who specializes in environmental change and migration.  in an interview with t-online, he said given the lack of solid evidence that can attribute migration to natural disasters, germany, as well as other countries, may not create legal pathways so easily.

“many forecasts are old and have a weak basis for argumentation. you should be very careful with numbers, even if they are often used in a political context,” said schraven. “what should be changed is that migrants should be able to move in more fair conditions.”

the potential in research

the german advisory council on global change (wbgu) released a policy paper in august 2018 that suggested the creation of a “climate passport” for the implementation of a “just and in-time” climate policy framework in germany. the concept is modeled after the nansen passport for stateless persons, which facilitated the resettlement of hundreds of thousands of people seeking asylum following world war i. 

the first objective is to give people from low-lying island nations such as the maldives and kiribati that are at high risk of being affected by climate change similar access and rights to those of citizens in germany. they then propose that in the future, it would be expanded to include refugees from other states that face similar climate-related challenges to create “early, voluntary and dignified migration” options. however, there has been very little note or update on wgbu’s website about any moves from the government to implement this proposal. 

while research options about legal protections for climate refugees is otherwise scant, mcgowan said it is likely one of the tools that will create conversations about potential policy changes. 

“research has that ability to highlight what the gaps are and then policymakers can start looking at what needs to be filled, if it’s relevant or necessary to be filled, and decide where some of those initial priorities should go,” said mcgowan.

i can recall when the floods occurred in kashmir in 2014. the damage was so severe that when i visited in 2016, you could still see the water seeping through the walls. more than 700 villages in just the city of srinigar were submerged in floodwater, and more than 300 people lost their lives, 53,082 people were sickened or injured, and 226,000 were evacuated, according to a report in the international journal of commerce and management.

in 2014 i was only 10 years old, so i did not particularly understand how large the predicament was for my family. when i was younger i would often visit kashmir once every other year. that year i hadn’t, but i remember that my other family members who were visiting were forced to scramble to get back home to the u.s. or find a safe place to evacuate to. power lines were down, so my mother had no clue what situation her parents or other family members were in, but in truth, this is a normal year for kashmir. 

whether it has to do with natural disasters or political uprisings (being that kashmir is right between pakistan and india, so there are many political tensions), there are often times when my family in the u.s. is cut off from communicating with my family in kashmir. floods are a frequent occurrence and when they happen in kashmir, they also affect surrounding areas, like pakistan. unfortunately, when these things happen, there is often a severe lack of western media coverage and aid to these eastern countries because these problems are not seen as relevant to the average person in the u.s. we are now seeing the same thing happen with the ongoing flooding in pakistan since june. 

with the growth of social media as a tool for advocacy, many people’s perceptions of international issues have changed. however, we still need to pay more attention to how developing countries are disproportionately affected by climate change issues because of a lack of resources and frequently inept governments. 

what is happening in pakistan? 

as of september 2022, about one-third of pakistan’s area was still submerged in water due to constant flooding that began in june. given the geographic location of pakistan, it has always been susceptible to monsoons. however, a study mentioned in a 2022 article written by raymond zhong for the new york times found global warming likely worsened the amount of rainfall that pakistan received during its most recent monsoon season. the main issue is that since pakistan is a vulnerable area, small changes in climate make a big difference.

additionally, a study done by the world weather attribution found that climate change made rainfall 50 percent more intense in pakistan’s sindh and balochistan provinces. jacob kurtzer of the center for strategic & international studies stated that, on top of climate change, the devastating effects of the floods are largely due to the pakistani government “paying the price for years of delays in addressing the problem.”

this includes mismanagement of the country’s water resources, like illegally or poorly built structures that cannot withstand the forces of floods or rainfall. of course, this means that those on the bottom of the economic class will suffer the most, which is, unfortunately, most of pakistan’s population. as a result of the june 2022 disaster, as kurtzer reported, 4.2 million people have been affected, nearly 1,400 people have died, more than 1,600 are injured, half a million are displaced, and more than one million homes are damaged. authorities say the water could take up to six months to recede. the financial damage of the floods in pakistan has exceeded $30 billion, causing the united nations to “(launch) a flash appeal of $160 million to help flood victims,” according to a bloomberg article. the u.s. and other countries have also pledged to give large amounts of money, but donations cannot entirely fix all infrastructural and systemic problems.

why this is our problem

due to the fact that the global north is far more industrialized than many other parts of the world, we end up being responsible for a majority of carbon emissions and global pollution. these emissions lead to climate change that affects areas in the global south, like pakistan. corporate america ignores the consequences of their actions especially when it comes to environmental regulations for their own economic gain. many s&p 500 companies (the largest publicly traded companies in the u.s.) claim that they are “accelerating efforts to reduce the climate crisis,” but the new york times reports, marketing and investor presentations reveal they fail to take into account the largest source of carbon emissions, and if left ignored, these emissions could triple what they should be in 2050. 

pakistan is home to 2.6 percent of the world’s population, but, according to kurtzer’s report, the country is only responsible for 0.4 percent of global carbon emissions since 1959, while the u.s. has 4 percent of the world’s population and is responsible for 13 percent of global carbon emissions.

countries in the global north have exceeded their global emissions quotas by more than 90 percent with 100 companies responsible for 71 percent of emissions, according to a 2017 report. so while the monsoons in pakistan are a natural occurrence, the effects have clearly worsened due to climate change with pakistan seeing 190 percent more rain than the 30-year average, reuters reported. first world countries like the u.s. have accelerated the effects of climate change in other countries, which makes it our responsibility to stay informed and fix our own failed environmental regulations that are causing harm all over the globe. 

the bigger issue

it’s equally important to address that, because climate change primarily affects marginalized communities, it often seems that many people in the global north display a lack of care and empathy when reacting to these increasingly frequent disasters. the u.n. secretary-general antónio guterres himself has said that he “never [has] seen climate carnage” at this scale and has warned that tomorrow this (in reference to the floods) could be happening to your country. guterres has called on the world to stop “sleepwalking” through this crisis and to be more aware of what is happening in pakistan, the associated press reported in september.

essentially, if this was happening to your country, or your people, you would care. however, since many in the u.s. lack an interest in the rest of the world and popular media tends to focus on domestic issues, it’s easy to stay blissfully ignorant of what’s happening elsewhere. western media and its people typically lack empathy for what is happening in pakistan because it’s an underdeveloped, non-white, and non-majority christian society, therefore people can immediately write it off as a place they can’t relate or connect to. and while pakistan has received a great deal of international humanitarian care, it pales in comparison to the response aid that some european countries have recently received.

how to help

i know i would have appreciated awareness and empathy when kashmir was hit with its disaster in 2014. so if you want to help aid in this crisis it’s likely that your school has a pakistani student association or other related south asian organizations where you can find fundraisers or places to donate. it will take time for governments globally to make systemic change and effectively lessen the effects of climate change, but you can make an impact by starting small. simply volunteering and working with your local organizers/politicians to enact policies that will aid vulnerable communities can make a big difference for the families that are affected. the intersections of race and class with climate change are important and complex issues, hence why they should never be ignored whenever we talk about the climate crisis.

to an untrained eye, it would be difficult to discern that this was the site of mauritius’s greatest oil spill disaster just two years previous; however, still lurking beneath the water’s surface are remnants of one of the most complicated environmental disasters ever faced by mauritius –– especially for the nation’s young people.

the 2020 oil spill

during the evening hours of july 25, 2020, japanese-owned bulk carrier mv wakashio ran aground on a coral reef just off the southern shore of mauritius. in addition to the reef, near the lodged ship were also several other protected environmental areas, including blue bay marine park, pointe d’esny mangroves, and the Île aux aigrettes. according to the un convention on biological diversity, the mauritian marine environment is home to an estimated 1,700 unique species, including around 800 kinds of fish, 17 types of marine mammals, and two species of turtles. Île aux aigrettes is home to some of the rarest species on earth, including the pink pigeon, mauritius fody, and bojer’s skink –– many of which were in direct threat because of the oil spill.

at the time of the oil spill, the vessel, flying a panamanian flag, was sailing to brazil from china. while the wakashio did not have any cargo on board, officials reported it was carrying 3,984 tons of a new low-sulfur fuel oil, 207 tons of diesel, and an additional 90 tons of lubricant oil. the vessel had veered an estimated 55 nautical miles off standard shipping lanes at the time of the grounding. the captain would later cite an attempt to access cell phone reception, coupled with distractions related to a birthday party taking place onboard, as reasons for the significant course deviation.

rough seas and a slow response from governmental stakeholders quickly turned what might have been a minor accident into a massive environmental and economic disaster. the lack of precedent marine oil spills of the low-sulfur “frankenstein fuel,” which behaves differently than standard fuel when suspended in water, further hindered initial response efforts. salvage teams arrived and began to work to mitigate effects of the grounding on july 26, but they were quickly removed after monitoring officials detected several cracks on the ship’s hull. before their evacuation, response teams pumped a portion of the fuel off of the vessel, but the ship continued to split. on august 6, cracks in the tanks became large enough that the fuel oil started to ooze unabated into the marine ecosystem –– creating large clouds acting as a visible indicator to the public of the situation’s gravity. 

on august 7, 13 days after the grounding of the wakashio, mauritian prime minister pravind jugnauth declared a state of emergency, stating the nation did not have “the skills and expertise to refloat stranded ships.” as the government waited for foreign assistance, conservation groups around mauritius sprung into action in an attempt to contain the oil spill. volunteers dashed to collect materials and construct containment booms themselves, stuffing a skeleton of cloth and buoyant plastic bottles with human hair to help absorb the oil. sugarcane farmers on the island also donated around 8 tons of bagasse, fibrous remains of the harvesting process, for use as an alternative filler for the booms.

“we were googling things, learning how to contain the spill on our own. you didn’t see any guidance from the government or other organizations,” gwenael monasie, now 22 years old and studying business management, noted. “we were just doing our best and hoping that was enough.” as a volunteer at the spill site, he harnessed his personal network to get more volunteers and worked to sew and fill the handmade booms.

mv wakashio split into two distinct pieces on august 15, estimated by responders to be holding around 90 tons of fuel at the time. since the ship’s initial leaks a week earlier, around 1,000 tons of the franken-fuel was spilled into the reefs and surrounding marine ecosystem.

several days later, the mauritian government sunk the remaining forward section of the vessel 13 nautical miles offshore in an area known to be a whale nursing and breeding ground. despite officials assuring this would have no effect on the ecosystem, an estimated 39 dolphins and whales beached between the hull completing sinking on august 24 and the publishing of a non-governmental report on august 28. 

protecting “mama nature”

this july marks two years since the mv wakashio oil spill. though environmental ngos have left the island and news coverage of the disaster has ceased, youth around mauritius are still reeling from the effects of the tragedy.

“many of us view nature as very sacred,” fatimah dowlut, a recent graduate of a small private mauritian university told me. “we often call our environment mama nature –– mother nature –– in creole. we are quite close to nature, so there was a feeling of proudness, being able to contribute [to the clean up efforts].” she continued, “i still feel quite proud of my country and of the people around me because this was like one of those rare situations where everyone was together in a way, but i also fear about the long-term damage to the sea. we absolutely love our sea and the blue water and the clean, crystal water as well. so the thought of fishes dying, of the marine ecosystem being destroyed, that hurts.” 

starting in primary school, mauritian students are taught the importance of the country’s coral reefs and how to promote their protection. multiple mauritians i spoke with recounted local ngo educators visiting their classes, showing them artifacts related to reef conservation and facilitating hands-on activities to illustrate their roles in protecting the environment. because protection of the natural world is stressed so much in mauritian culture, many were surprised by the governmental inaction in responding to the oil spill and the lack of local media coverage early on.

thekishta beerachee, 23, said, “when the spill happened, i realized the gravity of the situation when international media started posting about it –– talking negatively about how the island has not been able to solve the situation quickly and had a delayed reaction that could have prevented the oil spill… same with the celebrities i follow on instagram that [were talking] about it.”

“it was a situation where you don’t believe it is happening to you or your country because it was so bad,” she explained. “people from all social backgrounds immediately started looking for solutions, working together to help prevent the oil from spreading throughout the lagoon. it was quite emotional –– something happens in your country and suddenly everyone was involved trying to help out.”

even after official cleanup concluded, the physical effects of the oil spill were still present. “i went to a beach in the south in february 2021 and you could still spot the oil traces on the water,” ramma elysia, a first-year student at the university of mauritius, told me. “you cannot swim in that water. you cannot fish. all of the sea creatures were toxic… there was no way to undergo business, creating a major disadvantage for a nation that relies on beaches for so many parts of our lives.”

on the other side of the island, thekishta didn’t know anyone who worked as a fisherman in the south, the region still feeling the most severe impacts of the oil spill. for her and her friends in the north, the impacts were less tangible, though thekishta noted that the spill made her more engaged politically, especially around environmental issues. “becoming a young adult, i feel like there are things that should be prioritized that are not,” she said.

mauritian youth dive in  

the wakashio oil spill was also a catalyst to action for gwenael, who has been active within environmental activism groups across the island since he was in grade school. “[taking care of the environment] is our responsibility,” he said. “i knew that i couldn’t sit home and watch others working to protect it –– i had to be out there helping.” 

“a lot of us leave the country and get educated elsewhere, and then come back to implement projects here,” gwenael explained. “we chat a lot about things that impact the island –– climate change being one of them. [even after the spill], there’s virtually no action by the government outside of cleaner energy… it’s frustrating for all of us.” 

globally, these are feelings many youth can relate to. in fact, a recent lancet study of 10,000 people in ten countries between ages 16 to 20  found more than 65% of participants thought government inaction to climate change related issues is “failing young people,” with 60% feeling governments are “dismissing peoples’ distress” around such issues. the same survey indicated a meager 33% percent of participants felt the government was “protecting me, my future, the planet, and future generations” and 31% felt the government was “doing enough to avoid catastrophe.”

gweneal points to these feelings as one reason why many young people aren’t staying in mauritius. “i don’t think older people don’t care,” he said. “it’s just as young people, we think it’s our responsibility to do our best to have a future here. this means protecting the environment as best as we can. hopefully, the government will soon help.” 

fortunately, these apprehensions haven’t stopped mauritian youth from gathering together to continue pushing for environmental change and celebrating their accomplishments. “very rarely will you see situations where all mauritians have the same goal –– of protecting our country,” fatimah mentioned. “​​the productiveness of the mauritian people was beyond that of the government. and because there were so many people –– they were super active, they had the support of many private companies, so they started getting resources. only then, the government started to catch up a little bit.” she explained that many people her age feel responsible to keep this momentum for change going, pushing the government to enact legislation necessary to better protect the myriad of ecosystems around mauritius in addition to the creatures within them.

“we are very proud of what we’ve done,” gweneal echoed.  “if you are a friend i text every day or even if we’ve just met, we’re all trying together to help protect our shores… it’s already a disaster. we shouldn’t make it worse [through division].” 

gwenael has been able to keep in contact with many of the people he met volunteering at the shore and is hopeful they can get together once again as covid-19 restrictions are lifted further in mauritius.  he also mentioned wanting to try to connect all of the oil spill volunteers –– estimated to be several thousand of individuals — via social media groups to keep everyone informed for future projects and ready to respond to an environmental catastrophe if the need arises again on the island. 

“as a 20-year-old, i wasn’t really thinking that way. now, as i’m 22 and a little bit more mature, i don’t think we need to wait until the next disaster to bring such a team together.”