WEBVTT - The Marshall Islands, Part Three: Climate Change 0:00:05.200 --> 0:00:05.480 Slow. 0:00:09.160 --> 0:00:13.080 United Airlines Flight one five four starts to Honolulu. When 0:00:13.080 --> 0:00:15.360 it leaves, it carries not only a full load of passages, 0:00:15.640 --> 0:00:18.040 but also a mechanic and spare parts for the plane. 0:00:19.160 --> 0:00:22.040 On its journey, it stops in the Marshall Islands at 0:00:22.040 --> 0:00:25.280 Marjora and Quadulin before heading west to make three stops 0:00:25.320 --> 0:00:29.640 in Micronesia, and finally it stops in Guan. The next day, 0:00:29.920 --> 0:00:32.040 it turns around does the same route in a reverse 0:00:32.920 --> 0:00:34.960 landing in Majorro you can see the ocean on both 0:00:35.000 --> 0:00:38.519 sides of the plane. In fact, you can see the 0:00:38.560 --> 0:00:40.640 ocean on both sides of the plane from a disturbingly 0:00:40.680 --> 0:00:43.720 low height, and despite this being one of the larger 0:00:43.760 --> 0:00:46.280 islands in the Marshall Islands, it almost looks like the 0:00:46.280 --> 0:00:49.080 plane won't fit on it without a wingtip overhanging the lagoon. 0:00:49.920 --> 0:00:52.080 The plane does fit, of course, and there's even room 0:00:52.159 --> 0:00:54.240 left at Major Airport for the best airport bar that 0:00:54.280 --> 0:00:57.720 I've ever seen. But even after a couple of hours 0:00:57.720 --> 0:01:00.800 in the company of the island's finest whiskey collection, it's 0:01:00.880 --> 0:01:02.720 very clear that the Marshall Islands are in a great 0:01:02.760 --> 0:01:05.320 deal of danger when it comes to rising sea levels. 0:01:05.840 --> 0:01:07.959 The Marshall Islands don't have much land to begin with, 0:01:08.319 --> 0:01:11.039 and through no fault of their own, their island paradise 0:01:11.200 --> 0:01:15.039 is being gradually lost to the ocean. Start with, I 0:01:15.080 --> 0:01:17.480 want to let Kathy Gentle Kitchener, the poet who he 0:01:17.480 --> 0:01:20.399 heard from yesterday, outline the scale of the threat. 0:01:21.080 --> 0:01:23.640 Climate change is a challenge that few want to take on, 0:01:24.280 --> 0:01:27.920 but the price of inaction is so high. Those of 0:01:28.000 --> 0:01:32.800 us from Oceania are already experiencing it firsthand. We've seen 0:01:32.880 --> 0:01:35.759 waves crashing into our homes and our bread fruit trees 0:01:35.800 --> 0:01:38.720 wither from the salt and drought. We look at our 0:01:38.800 --> 0:01:41.720 children and wonder how they will know themselves or their 0:01:41.760 --> 0:01:46.760 culture should we lose our islands. Climate change affects not 0:01:46.800 --> 0:01:51.880 only US islanders, it threatens the entire world. To tackle it, 0:01:51.920 --> 0:01:55.360 we need a radical change. Of course, this isn't easy. 0:01:55.560 --> 0:01:55.880 I know. 0:01:56.800 --> 0:02:00.880 It means ending carbon pollution within my lifetime. It means 0:02:00.920 --> 0:02:04.600 supporting those of us most affected to prepare for unavoidable 0:02:04.600 --> 0:02:09.760 climate impacts, and it means taking responsibility for irreversible loss 0:02:09.760 --> 0:02:13.920 and damage caused by greenhouse gas emissions. The people who 0:02:14.000 --> 0:02:18.400 support this movement are indigenous mothers like me, families like 0:02:18.520 --> 0:02:22.760 mine and millions more standing up for the changes needed 0:02:22.880 --> 0:02:26.800 and working to make them happen. I ask world leaders 0:02:26.840 --> 0:02:30.280 to take us all along on your ride. We won't 0:02:30.320 --> 0:02:33.840 slow you down, will help you win the most important 0:02:33.960 --> 0:02:37.280 race of all, the race to save humanity. 0:02:38.320 --> 0:02:41.840 Currently, Pacific island nations are responsible for less than zero 0:02:41.919 --> 0:02:45.360 points zero three percent of global greenhouse gas emissions, but 0:02:45.440 --> 0:02:48.880 the United Elations estimates that more than fifty thousand people 0:02:49.000 --> 0:02:51.639 in the Pacific displaced every year, many of them by 0:02:51.639 --> 0:02:56.120 climate change. Of course, people leave for other reasons. Perhaps 0:02:56.160 --> 0:02:57.919 they're looking for work, which can be hard to find 0:02:57.960 --> 0:03:00.560 on a small land, or perhaps they won the uptunities 0:03:00.560 --> 0:03:03.920 at the United States life offers. Thanks to their Compact 0:03:03.919 --> 0:03:06.720 of Free Association, Marshalise people can live and work in 0:03:06.760 --> 0:03:10.360 the USA without a visa. Most Marshallyse people who do 0:03:10.440 --> 0:03:13.800 leave the islands move to Springdale, Arkansas. It's where the 0:03:13.880 --> 0:03:17.399 largest off island Marshallese community is gathered, and they tend 0:03:17.400 --> 0:03:19.800 to cluster around the reliable jobs offered by the Tyson 0:03:19.880 --> 0:03:23.720 Chicken Factory. In twenty twenty, the Tyson Chicken Factory remained 0:03:23.760 --> 0:03:26.600 open during lockdowns, and people who had left the islands 0:03:26.600 --> 0:03:28.440 for a more steady income and a better chance for 0:03:28.480 --> 0:03:31.840 a stable future, suddenly face more great risks at work. 0:03:32.760 --> 0:03:35.240 Life is by no means easy for marshal Ease people, 0:03:35.400 --> 0:03:37.840 both in the US and at home, and the choices 0:03:37.880 --> 0:03:41.600 they face because of climate change constricting global economy and 0:03:41.640 --> 0:03:43.800 the United States refusing to pay its fair share of 0:03:43.800 --> 0:03:47.720 compensation don't make that any easier. On my last night 0:03:47.800 --> 0:03:49.720 in the Marshall Islands, I was having a beer in 0:03:49.760 --> 0:03:53.240 a bar and chatting with a local journalist. I asked 0:03:53.320 --> 0:03:55.480 him what I should write. He said that I needed 0:03:55.480 --> 0:03:57.920 to tell you that people in the RMI aren't moving 0:03:57.960 --> 0:04:01.400 because they're afraid of waves. We're not afraid of the ocean, 0:04:01.520 --> 0:04:04.200 he said. We're ocean people. We go in the ocean 0:04:04.240 --> 0:04:07.360 every day. He was right, of course. The drivers of 0:04:07.360 --> 0:04:10.680 migration are complicated, and they always have been. I always 0:04:10.720 --> 0:04:13.000 tell people who ask me what I cover that they 0:04:13.040 --> 0:04:16.640 cover climate and conflict and migration, because in fact they're 0:04:16.680 --> 0:04:20.720 largely the same things. There are many reasons for migrating 0:04:20.760 --> 0:04:23.119 from the Marshall Islands. If there are people who have left, 0:04:23.400 --> 0:04:26.520 and all of them are valid, But everyone I spoke to, 0:04:26.839 --> 0:04:28.800 whether they'd left or come back or stayed there their 0:04:28.800 --> 0:04:32.440 whole lives were pretty clear that nobody wants the community 0:04:32.480 --> 0:04:35.240 to leave. The people of the Marshall Islands love their 0:04:35.279 --> 0:04:37.880 islands and they want to raise their children and grandchildren 0:04:37.880 --> 0:04:41.279 on their ancestral land. But the people making the choices 0:04:41.279 --> 0:04:43.400 that impact their ability to do that are a long 0:04:43.520 --> 0:04:46.159 way from the lagoon that's creeping closer and closer to 0:04:46.200 --> 0:04:50.240 the houses around Magro at all. Climate change making the 0:04:50.240 --> 0:04:53.840 islands uninhabitable doesn't necessarily mean they'll be swallowed entirely by 0:04:53.880 --> 0:04:57.800 the ocean long before the last scrap of land disappears. 0:04:58.040 --> 0:05:01.320 The rising saltwater will kill bread fruit trees, and flooding 0:05:01.360 --> 0:05:04.640 will destroy homes. To get a center of that threat, 0:05:05.120 --> 0:05:06.400 we spoke to a meteorologist. 0:05:07.040 --> 0:05:12.719 I'm regally white, Regional White, and I'm the meteorologist in church. 0:05:12.640 --> 0:05:16.040 Here ready explained what climate change might do to make 0:05:16.040 --> 0:05:18.920 the islands less easy to live on and eventually perhaps 0:05:18.960 --> 0:05:22.320 impossible to live on. If something doesn't change, it's hard 0:05:22.360 --> 0:05:25.200 for people to see these kind of creeping changes. When 0:05:25.200 --> 0:05:28.320 we think about climate change rendering an island uninhabitable, we 0:05:28.400 --> 0:05:30.960 think about that island ceasing to exist, or the house 0:05:31.040 --> 0:05:33.560 is being swept away. By a storm searge or a 0:05:33.560 --> 0:05:36.960 massive king tide perhaps, but in fact the changes are 0:05:36.960 --> 0:05:39.120 more gradual, but no less destructive. 0:05:39.920 --> 0:05:43.000 We have to go back to the imagion scenarios that 0:05:43.120 --> 0:05:48.400 IP is produced, and based on them, worst case scenario, 0:05:48.600 --> 0:05:50.200 if we look at it, I have to open up 0:05:50.240 --> 0:05:52.760 the computer and look at the table. But in one 0:05:52.800 --> 0:05:57.039 hundred years we may be not complete listening, and that's 0:05:57.080 --> 0:06:00.520 not what's important here. What is important is that lens. 0:06:00.400 --> 0:06:04.680 Will be uninevitable way before they sink, because we will 0:06:04.720 --> 0:06:07.000 not be able to drive on the road. We will 0:06:07.040 --> 0:06:09.599 not be able to rely on our water lenses because 0:06:09.640 --> 0:06:13.479 they'll all have salt water into them. As more and 0:06:13.640 --> 0:06:17.400 more frequent salt water introgs and get on top and 0:06:17.520 --> 0:06:20.360 down into the water lens, they will be undrinkable. 0:06:20.960 --> 0:06:27.640 So at what stage can we put that target. I'm 0:06:27.680 --> 0:06:29.919 not comfortable at this moment to point that out, but 0:06:30.040 --> 0:06:32.359 I think anyone of us can look at the numbers 0:06:32.360 --> 0:06:36.520 and decide, based on this emission scenario, this is the day. 0:06:36.640 --> 0:06:39.560 Based on that the mission scenario, that is the day. 0:06:39.760 --> 0:06:44.640 So there's not a set day or a what do 0:06:44.640 --> 0:06:46.760 you call it the hair that broke the camel's back? 0:06:48.279 --> 0:06:50.200 What was it. What was the American saying? 0:06:52.440 --> 0:06:55.520 As Reggie explained, the impact of rising sea levels is 0:06:55.560 --> 0:06:58.400 already being seen, particularly in the case of flooding. 0:06:58.960 --> 0:07:02.680 Oh, there are many but in a low lying at all, 0:07:02.960 --> 0:07:08.080 your most concerned is flooding, coastal flooding. So we've seen 0:07:08.600 --> 0:07:13.600 more frequent flooding during Landinia. Laninea is the face where 0:07:13.640 --> 0:07:18.080 in the Marshall Islands specifically, you get elevated sea levels 0:07:18.240 --> 0:07:23.320 about ten centimeters or so eight to twelve inches on 0:07:23.400 --> 0:07:26.120 top of the normal sea level at any given time. 0:07:26.320 --> 0:07:31.400 So when there is a storm search king tide, those 0:07:31.440 --> 0:07:35.560 things compound on one another to give us more frequent 0:07:35.920 --> 0:07:38.800 coastal floodings in the low lying areas. If you go 0:07:38.880 --> 0:07:42.160 in the bag of Measuro, you will see people building 0:07:42.240 --> 0:07:46.200 up sea walls to protect their properties. With those sea 0:07:46.200 --> 0:07:50.360 walls the impact has been lessened a bit, but without 0:07:50.360 --> 0:07:55.200 those sea walls, nuisance flooding has been almost a monthly 0:07:55.360 --> 0:07:57.760 occurrence during Alminium phases. 0:07:58.960 --> 0:08:02.320 In twenty twenty one, the World Bank and the Marshalleasee 0:08:02.320 --> 0:08:06.080 government produced a report which allowed visualization of the impact 0:08:06.080 --> 0:08:10.400 of climate change on each building in Marjuro in broad strokes. 0:08:10.560 --> 0:08:14.000 The report stated that quote, rising sea levels and the 0:08:14.040 --> 0:08:16.960 atoll nation of the Marshall Islands are projected to endanger 0:08:17.080 --> 0:08:20.920 forty percent of existing buildings in the capitol Marjoro, with 0:08:21.120 --> 0:08:23.760 ninety six percent of the city at risk for frequent 0:08:23.840 --> 0:08:27.240 flooding introduced by climate change. According to a World Bank study, 0:08:28.400 --> 0:08:30.880 change seems to be very hard for the corporations and 0:08:30.920 --> 0:08:35.000 governments most responsible for it. Indeed, one could argue that 0:08:35.080 --> 0:08:38.360 seeing that change is hard because of those corporations and governments. 0:08:39.200 --> 0:08:43.760 Namia Rescuers, a Harvard historian of science, studies the propaganda 0:08:43.880 --> 0:08:46.720 that has allowed major corporations to deny the damage they 0:08:46.760 --> 0:08:49.800 do to the planet and generate massive profits by not 0:08:49.840 --> 0:08:54.400 paying for the negative externalities of their actions. Negative externalities, 0:08:54.440 --> 0:08:57.160 if you're not familiar, are the costs that their business 0:08:57.200 --> 0:09:01.000 imposes on other people but they don't pay. In her 0:09:01.040 --> 0:09:05.320 book Merchants of Doubt, Arescus traces how nuclear testing did 0:09:05.440 --> 0:09:08.360 huge damage to the ozone layer. Indeed, much of the 0:09:08.400 --> 0:09:11.480 technology we used today to track global climate change was 0:09:11.520 --> 0:09:14.920 developed using government money. Part of the reason why was 0:09:14.920 --> 0:09:17.400 to assess with the Soviet Union was doing nuclear testing 0:09:17.440 --> 0:09:21.320 by tracking the environmental damage that was done using some 0:09:21.400 --> 0:09:25.360 of the data these instruments created, scientists, among them Carl Sagan, 0:09:25.760 --> 0:09:28.480 began to discuss the possibility of a nuclear winter and 0:09:28.520 --> 0:09:31.280 the fact that any use of nuclear weapons, or even 0:09:31.320 --> 0:09:34.479 a nuclear accident, could put the future of all humanity 0:09:34.480 --> 0:09:38.360 at risk. Unsurprisingly, as huge public relations effort spun up 0:09:38.600 --> 0:09:40.800 to dismiss the idea of nuclear winter and attack the 0:09:40.840 --> 0:09:44.679 concept of nuclear war being an unwinnable proposition. There was, 0:09:44.760 --> 0:09:47.480 after all, a huge amount of money at stick. In 0:09:47.520 --> 0:09:50.280 an excellent New York CARESSI on the subject, Jill Lapour, 0:09:50.520 --> 0:09:54.840 another Harvard historian, outlines a campaign to discredit those scientists 0:09:54.880 --> 0:09:58.000 and their claims. In nineteen eighty four, in an effort 0:09:58.000 --> 0:10:00.200 to count to Carl Sagan and to defend what was 0:10:00.240 --> 0:10:04.520 called the Strategic Defense Initiative, the George C. Marshall Institute 0:10:04.600 --> 0:10:08.840 was founded by Robert Jastro, a NASA physicist, Frederick Seitz, 0:10:09.000 --> 0:10:12.040 a former president of the National Academy of Sciences, and 0:10:12.080 --> 0:10:16.120 William Nieremberg, a past director at Script's Institute of Oceanography 0:10:16.200 --> 0:10:19.600 Right here where I live in San Diego. The Marshall 0:10:19.679 --> 0:10:23.720 Institute began trying to get PBS to not air documentaries 0:10:23.760 --> 0:10:28.040 opposing the strategic defense initiative, the so called star Wars 0:10:28.120 --> 0:10:30.800 program wouldn't be of any use of a single nuclear 0:10:30.840 --> 0:10:34.800 incident could trigger devastating change in the global climate. Another 0:10:34.840 --> 0:10:38.520 Master Institute scientist, Seltz's cousin, Russell, who was a physicist 0:10:38.559 --> 0:10:41.160 at Harvard Center for International Affairs, published an essay in 0:10:41.200 --> 0:10:43.720 the National Interest in the fall of nineteen eighty six 0:10:44.240 --> 0:10:47.120 dismissing the idea of nuclear winter and saying it was 0:10:47.160 --> 0:10:51.360 nothing but a series of long conjectures. He described the 0:10:51.440 --> 0:10:55.680 nuclear winter theory as dead course of death, notorious lack 0:10:55.720 --> 0:10:59.599 of scientific integrity. By nineteen eighty eight, the Institute of 0:10:59.600 --> 0:11:03.160 pivoty and It began publishing the first of many papers 0:11:03.440 --> 0:11:08.040 on climate change. Other scientists there, including Fred Singer, challenged 0:11:08.080 --> 0:11:10.959 the model that predicted a nuclear winter. They've gone on 0:11:11.000 --> 0:11:13.080 to do the same with climate change, claiming that in 0:11:13.120 --> 0:11:16.480 both cases it was far from certain that catastrophic consequences 0:11:16.520 --> 0:11:22.120 would occur. Singer incidentally was a consultant for Arco exon 0:11:22.360 --> 0:11:26.560 shell oil and sol oil. He died in twenty twenty 0:11:26.960 --> 0:11:29.599 after serving for years as a director of Science and 0:11:29.720 --> 0:11:33.160 environment policy at the Heartland Institute, which was founded in 0:11:33.240 --> 0:11:36.439 nineteen eighty four. Its position on global warming at the 0:11:36.480 --> 0:11:41.040 time was quote, most scientists do not believe human greenhouse 0:11:41.080 --> 0:11:44.040 gas emissions are a proven threat to the environment or 0:11:44.120 --> 0:11:48.720 human well being, despite a barrage of propaganda insisting otherwise 0:11:48.800 --> 0:11:52.080 coming from the environmental movement and echoed by its sickophants 0:11:52.120 --> 0:11:55.559 in the mainstream media. In the Marshall Islands, this kind 0:11:55.600 --> 0:11:58.880 of de nihilism, no matter how well funded and qualified, 0:11:59.000 --> 0:12:02.760 really isn't going to stick. Everyone here is personally seen 0:12:02.800 --> 0:12:05.120 the impacts of rising sea levels eroding away on their 0:12:05.160 --> 0:12:08.320 precious land. But it's the actions of people everywhere can 0:12:08.400 --> 0:12:11.720 impact people here, so they have to persuade the rest 0:12:11.720 --> 0:12:13.200 of the world to care about them. 0:12:13.920 --> 0:12:20.720 I will bet that every Marshal Marshalise understand impacts because 0:12:20.760 --> 0:12:25.480 every Marshalise has been a victim of some coastal inandvision 0:12:25.520 --> 0:12:28.320 has been you know, has been impacted by those, so 0:12:28.360 --> 0:12:29.520 they understand. 0:12:29.760 --> 0:12:29.960 Uh. 0:12:30.040 --> 0:12:32.960 The youngest ones maybe they experienced there first, but the 0:12:33.040 --> 0:12:35.880 older ones they've been around during those days when the 0:12:36.280 --> 0:12:51.080 you know, coastal flooding wasn't an issue. 0:12:54.320 --> 0:12:55.560 One of the things I like to do in my 0:12:55.640 --> 0:12:59.040 free time is to freedom Sometimes I can collect sea 0:12:59.080 --> 0:13:01.680 urchins or cools, but lots of the time I just 0:13:01.720 --> 0:13:05.120 like to be underwater. I've never done scuba diving. All 0:13:05.200 --> 0:13:08.280 the gear and equipment kind of scares me, but holding 0:13:08.280 --> 0:13:10.280 my breath and swimming around the reef is probably the 0:13:10.280 --> 0:13:13.240 closest thing I'll ever feel to flying. To be able 0:13:13.240 --> 0:13:15.360 to hold your breath for a minute or two underwater, 0:13:15.679 --> 0:13:18.200 you need to get your heart rate very low, and 0:13:18.240 --> 0:13:21.800 this means being very calm, letting tension and stress float away. 0:13:22.520 --> 0:13:24.840 It's a magical feeling, and one that I've tapped into 0:13:24.840 --> 0:13:29.080 even outside the water. In stressful situations. Sometimes that ability 0:13:29.080 --> 0:13:31.720 to calm yourself could be a bit too effective. I 0:13:31.720 --> 0:13:34.440 remember once starting to walk off a broken pelvis and 0:13:34.440 --> 0:13:38.880 passing out from blood loss later. Sometimes that calm focus, though, 0:13:38.960 --> 0:13:41.800 can be exactly what you need, like when you're holding 0:13:41.800 --> 0:13:43.240 your breath on the bottom of the ocean and you 0:13:43.280 --> 0:13:45.320 realize that you got your fins tangled and an abandoned 0:13:45.320 --> 0:13:46.800 fishing line and you need to cut it so you 0:13:46.840 --> 0:13:49.360 can get back to the surface and breathe. I saw 0:13:49.400 --> 0:13:52.800 that same ability to remain calm and even happy despite 0:13:52.800 --> 0:13:55.520 what seems like another impending crisis every time I spoke 0:13:55.559 --> 0:13:59.800 to Marshally's people about climate change between their nuclear past 0:14:00.000 --> 0:14:03.040 and their perilous future. The Marshallese people have every right 0:14:03.080 --> 0:14:05.440 to be angry, and maybe they are angry when they're 0:14:05.440 --> 0:14:09.080 not told them to British journalists. But whenever I ask people, 0:14:09.200 --> 0:14:12.360 they still seem hopeful, upbeat and excited about the future 0:14:12.400 --> 0:14:16.480 of their country. As we're going to see tomorrow, marshal Lease, 0:14:16.520 --> 0:14:19.640 people are still very much investing in their shared future. 0:14:20.520 --> 0:14:22.640 I think that's something we can all learn from. Resilience 0:14:22.640 --> 0:14:25.400 to the Marshallese community, even in the face of what 0:14:25.520 --> 0:14:29.200 seems like a second apocalyptic threat. He's Reggie discussing how 0:14:29.240 --> 0:14:31.160 climate change makes him feel well. 0:14:31.200 --> 0:14:33.800 I try not to dwell on what could happen. I 0:14:33.920 --> 0:14:36.640 could try to think of what we could do now 0:14:36.840 --> 0:14:40.040 to change people's heart, to change how we behave how 0:14:40.080 --> 0:14:44.160 we treat the world. I mean, it's our only home. 0:14:45.000 --> 0:14:48.000 You go out in space and look back. It's one 0:14:48.120 --> 0:14:52.320 lonely place in an entire galaxy of stars and whatever. 0:14:52.360 --> 0:14:55.040 You But when you look at it that way, you 0:14:55.360 --> 0:14:58.520 begin to realize I must respect my police. Who else 0:14:58.560 --> 0:15:00.160 will respect? The divide. 0:15:00.720 --> 0:15:02.560 It's worth noting that some people we talk to are 0:15:02.600 --> 0:15:04.200 less concerned about climate change. 0:15:04.760 --> 0:15:09.120 My name is Juliet Maranda from Mussel Island. I live 0:15:09.200 --> 0:15:09.800 on Takhan. 0:15:10.640 --> 0:15:13.200 Juliet's an older resident of wrong Rum, one of the 0:15:13.200 --> 0:15:16.200 outer islands on madro At all her life there is 0:15:16.240 --> 0:15:19.680 in many senses adyllic. Her cook house is built around 0:15:19.720 --> 0:15:22.680 a large bread fruit tree. The tree also serves as 0:15:22.720 --> 0:15:25.960 a work service. It's like a solar punk vision of 0:15:26.040 --> 0:15:28.520 the future where we live in harmony with nature. But 0:15:28.640 --> 0:15:31.040 for her it's just a place she makes lunch along 0:15:31.080 --> 0:15:33.960 with the other wrong Wrung islanders. She served a visiting 0:15:34.040 --> 0:15:36.160 group that I was part of, a delicious lunch of 0:15:36.200 --> 0:15:41.240 coconut breadfruit, pandanas, crabs and rice, where we talked about 0:15:41.240 --> 0:15:43.880 what brought her back to the Marshall Islands after thirty 0:15:43.960 --> 0:15:45.720 years living in the United States. 0:15:46.160 --> 0:15:50.560 Well, so though you always are own sick when I'm 0:15:50.640 --> 0:15:56.680 in USA, I miss my you know, war around freedom 0:15:56.840 --> 0:16:02.840 like USA, not go to next door, be goes, you know, 0:16:03.480 --> 0:16:08.920 trust passing, But around here you do everything. Yes, it's 0:16:08.960 --> 0:16:13.440 it's different, lots different. So I love a the USA. 0:16:13.760 --> 0:16:17.600 Tell liber is good and a lot of different things 0:16:18.400 --> 0:16:22.880 you as do then modules so I love it here. 0:16:23.200 --> 0:16:27.560 I do all my old thing I usually do, breaking 0:16:27.920 --> 0:16:33.280 and make my home chicken and chewing in and on pigeon. 0:16:33.400 --> 0:16:36.720 Shanna Barbara, you have to get a guy to go 0:16:36.960 --> 0:16:40.920 to the peach over year recruiting Peachie. 0:16:43.160 --> 0:16:45.320 She clearly loves her little piece of paradise, and it's 0:16:45.320 --> 0:16:48.120 easy to see why she was happy to share it 0:16:48.160 --> 0:16:50.560 with us, as were all the islands on Wrong Room, 0:16:51.160 --> 0:16:53.440 I short walk away from her house. Her neighbor's children 0:16:53.480 --> 0:16:56.200 played in the sand with their pigs, chickens and dogs, 0:16:56.400 --> 0:16:58.640 and it's certainly a very different place from Santa Barbara. Well, 0:16:58.680 --> 0:17:02.000 she spent much of her time in States, but it's 0:17:02.040 --> 0:17:04.879 no less special. Like many Marshal Leaves, she has a 0:17:05.000 --> 0:17:08.400 very strong faith, and that faith is helping her explain 0:17:08.440 --> 0:17:12.719 why climate change is happening. Do you think it's because 0:17:12.840 --> 0:17:15.960 their sea levels rising? You think it's gonna make it 0:17:16.040 --> 0:17:16.920 harder for people to. 0:17:16.880 --> 0:17:20.359 Live in Some people do that, but I don't believe it. 0:17:20.560 --> 0:17:26.520 Only God will do it. I believe in God. When 0:17:26.600 --> 0:17:29.720 they do the weather and said it's going to rain tomorrow, 0:17:30.040 --> 0:17:33.320 and tomorrow is not going to be rain, God's going 0:17:33.400 --> 0:17:40.399 to make it rain. The nost no, you know it, 0:17:40.560 --> 0:17:44.080 you're for others. 0:17:44.400 --> 0:17:47.879 The threat is already here. Here's one conversation with Monique 0:17:47.880 --> 0:17:51.160 and Francine from Core and Akarmi, a local NGO who 0:17:51.160 --> 0:17:54.600 you'll hear a lot about tomorrow. They're doing incredible work 0:17:54.640 --> 0:17:57.119 investing in the future of the Marshall Islands by installing 0:17:57.200 --> 0:17:59.800 water filters and smokeless stoves and homes across the nation. 0:18:00.600 --> 0:18:02.320 You might never have had to worry about clean water 0:18:02.520 --> 0:18:05.120 or never been concerned that cooking your food might hurt 0:18:05.119 --> 0:18:08.080 your lungs, but both of those things are massive public 0:18:08.119 --> 0:18:11.160 health issues if we don't have access to electricity, gas 0:18:11.200 --> 0:18:13.280 and clean water from a pipe that comes into your home. 0:18:14.040 --> 0:18:17.240 One night before dinner, we talked to them about climate change. 0:18:17.880 --> 0:18:22.760 The scientists are saying that you've got so many years 0:18:22.840 --> 0:18:30.879 until all eyes melts and affects us. We don't have 0:18:31.000 --> 0:18:34.920 mountains to run to. In some places they can just 0:18:35.080 --> 0:18:36.000 runt of the mountains. 0:18:36.040 --> 0:18:36.440 We don't. 0:18:37.440 --> 0:18:43.360 Yeah, so it's Marshall Islands too. 0:18:43.359 --> 0:18:52.360 Well, we're at the front clives. So you're also blessed 0:18:52.359 --> 0:18:56.320 that you get to see the Marshall Islands. Yeah, and 0:18:56.480 --> 0:19:03.200 really well, really see firsthand what the plastic. 0:19:04.480 --> 0:19:07.280 The impact goes beyond the individual though. When we heard 0:19:07.280 --> 0:19:09.080 from the Ministry of Health and the impact the climate 0:19:09.119 --> 0:19:11.520 change is already having on the well being of Marshallys people. 0:19:11.880 --> 0:19:14.480 They reminded us of both the physical and mental health 0:19:14.520 --> 0:19:16.200 of residents has been affected. 0:19:17.359 --> 0:19:23.320 So we are well uh, as active secretary said, my 0:19:23.440 --> 0:19:28.040 name is Nathan Carbon Climate Change and amn. 0:19:29.880 --> 0:19:34.000 Uh. Well, first of all, we'll come to our very 0:19:34.040 --> 0:19:38.439 wonderful here to visit us. I think Michael and Jackson 0:19:38.480 --> 0:19:40.959 said I best. Do you want to see change in 0:19:40.960 --> 0:19:42.520 the world, you have to look in the mirror. And 0:19:44.800 --> 0:19:47.680 so this is our climate Change of Health. 0:19:47.480 --> 0:19:49.600 To frontment uh uh. 0:19:50.440 --> 0:19:52.880 Climate impacts on health and well being. 0:19:53.359 --> 0:19:56.520 Nathan went on to explain what that means both in 0:19:56.560 --> 0:19:59.679 terms of mental health and in physical health as mosquitoes 0:19:59.680 --> 0:20:02.240 and other disease vectors adapt to the changing climate and 0:20:02.359 --> 0:20:03.680 rising sea levels. 0:20:04.560 --> 0:20:12.040 I communicable diseases and x CDs, reducing vulnerabilities with the 0:20:12.280 --> 0:20:18.879 vector borne diseases and then improving mental health resilience. 0:20:19.320 --> 0:20:22.120 So the mental health resilience is a really key thing. 0:20:22.600 --> 0:20:26.159 We have our seminar that's ongoing right now partnership with. 0:20:27.760 --> 0:20:32.920 Jojibu, which lets the youth express how climate change based 0:20:32.960 --> 0:20:33.960 their field. 0:20:35.880 --> 0:20:36.800 And also. 0:20:38.000 --> 0:20:46.480 In h involving the community and getting their feedback. You know, 0:20:47.520 --> 0:20:50.960 the climate issue is not just at a national level, 0:20:51.240 --> 0:20:53.120 it's mostly at the community level. 0:21:06.359 --> 0:21:08.840 All of these changes are hard to predict, but it's 0:21:08.920 --> 0:21:11.440 easy to see the impact climate change has already had. 0:21:12.000 --> 0:21:14.800 We spoke to the island's Environmental Protection Agency to get 0:21:14.840 --> 0:21:15.840 a sense of what that meant. 0:21:16.320 --> 0:21:19.680 My name is Marianna Phillip and I'm the general manager here. 0:21:20.600 --> 0:21:23.520 As you can see, we're a very small organization with 0:21:24.359 --> 0:21:33.040 a very broad mandate anything environmental related. We are accountable too, 0:21:33.720 --> 0:21:41.240 and we're supposed to provide advice to the government and 0:21:41.280 --> 0:21:45.000 the Marshal Lease people about new issues that are coming up. 0:21:45.640 --> 0:21:46.000 And so. 0:21:48.640 --> 0:21:54.439 You know, we're easily overwhelmed and outmatched. And then you know, 0:21:54.520 --> 0:22:03.719 you throwing climate change into the mix, and suddenly I 0:22:03.760 --> 0:22:07.600 can't even imagine what the change is going to be 0:22:07.920 --> 0:22:12.280 like in the next five years or ten years. It's 0:22:12.320 --> 0:22:14.480 hard for me to imagine. When I was a child, 0:22:14.640 --> 0:22:17.800 I used to go to the school over across the 0:22:17.840 --> 0:22:22.119 street is a DS is a public school, and we 0:22:22.200 --> 0:22:26.520 would cross the road and swim from here all the 0:22:26.560 --> 0:22:29.720 way to develop and then cross the road and go home. 0:22:30.440 --> 0:22:36.960 This was all white Sandy Beach you know, obviously that's 0:22:37.200 --> 0:22:39.000 not the case anymore. 0:22:39.320 --> 0:22:41.520 One way that the Marshal Lease community has responded to 0:22:41.520 --> 0:22:44.159 climate change is to take a position of leadership on 0:22:44.320 --> 0:22:48.320 mitigating carbon emissions. We heard about this all over the island, 0:22:48.600 --> 0:22:52.200 with solutions ranging from electric canoes to sailboats to a 0:22:52.240 --> 0:22:55.880 grid that runs on renewable energy. They've also taken leadership 0:22:56.040 --> 0:22:59.160 and how aid money is spent, rather than just accepting 0:22:59.200 --> 0:23:01.800 the projects has fund to suggest him. The RMI has 0:23:01.800 --> 0:23:04.360 been vocal in making sure that unique challenges that they 0:23:04.359 --> 0:23:08.760 face are reflected with unique solutions that they propose. For example, 0:23:09.200 --> 0:23:11.679 they simply don't have the space for larger solar farms, 0:23:11.720 --> 0:23:13.000 even though they do have the funding. 0:23:13.960 --> 0:23:18.040 My name is Angeline Heini Rammers. Other than being part 0:23:18.080 --> 0:23:23.520 of PO, I'm also the director for the National Energy Office. 0:23:23.600 --> 0:23:28.560 And then i'd like to introduce you to Ben. He's 0:23:28.720 --> 0:23:34.399 the deputy director. So we're a very small office. It's 0:23:34.440 --> 0:23:39.520 newly created. It was developed in twenty eighteen, so we're 0:23:39.520 --> 0:23:42.560 trying to be creative and we partnered with our local 0:23:42.600 --> 0:23:49.240 government in exchange building them basketball courts. The reason why 0:23:49.280 --> 0:23:53.879 there's so many basketball courts is that we'll be installing 0:23:53.960 --> 0:23:56.040 rooftop and on the rooftop thats we're going to be 0:23:56.119 --> 0:24:00.320 housing the solar connecting it to the grid. And it's 0:24:01.119 --> 0:24:04.240 with this project we had. It took us I think 0:24:04.280 --> 0:24:06.320 more than a year, Ben right, so went back and 0:24:06.359 --> 0:24:10.320 forth with our partner because they just wanted to go 0:24:10.320 --> 0:24:11.879 ahead and put on solver. 0:24:12.440 --> 0:24:16.199