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Speaker 1: Hey, this is and Samantha. Welcome to stuff I've never

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Speaker 1: told your production of iHeartRadio.

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Speaker 2: And as it is the tail end of AAPI or

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Speaker 2: API History Month, we are closing it out with an activist,

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Speaker 2: a writer, and a poet, Selena Limb. Now Limb is

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Speaker 2: an activist from the Marshall Islands and has been a

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Speaker 2: leader for our community for a while now. At the

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Speaker 2: age of eighteen, Limb was the youngest delegate to speak

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Speaker 2: at the COP twenty one where she spoke about the

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Speaker 2: impact of climate change and what was happening to her homeland.

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Speaker 1: So the Republic of the Marshall Islands is located in

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Speaker 1: the Micronesia region in the northwestern Pacific Ocean. Here's some

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Speaker 1: more information from Britannica dot com quote Marshall Islands Country

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Speaker 1: and the Central Pacific Ocean. It consists of some of

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Speaker 1: the easternmost islands of Micronesia. The Marshals are composed of

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Speaker 1: more than twelve hundred islands and islets in two parallel

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Speaker 1: chains of coral atolls, the Ratak Or sunrise to the

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Speaker 1: east and the rolic Or sunset to the west. None

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Speaker 1: of the twenty nine low lying coral atolls and the

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Speaker 1: five coral islands in the Marshall Group rises to more

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Speaker 1: than twenty feet six meters above high tide. The islands

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Speaker 1: are coral caps set on the rims of submerged volcanoes

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Speaker 1: rising from the ocean floor. The island units of the

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Speaker 1: Marshalls are scattered over about one hundred and eighty thousand

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Speaker 1: square miles of the Pacific.

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Speaker 2: And because of where the country is located as well

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Speaker 2: as the makeup of the land, they're in a pretty

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Speaker 2: precarious state, especially with the ongo and climate crisis. Here's

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Speaker 2: something from Hakai magazine dot com To say that the

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Speaker 2: Republic of the Marshall Islands is vulnerable to sea level

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Speaker 2: rise is an understatement. Two million square kilometers of Pacific

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Speaker 2: Ocean surround the country's a smattering of islands and tiny atolls,

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Speaker 2: of which are less than two meters above sea level.

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Speaker 2: Since nineteen ninety three, the surrounding ocean has risen by

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Speaker 2: more than twelve centimeters. Today, it regularly floods some neighborhoods,

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Speaker 2: fills roads, and even graveyards. And this is just the beginning.

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Speaker 2: If glaciers and polar ice sheets continue melting at the

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Speaker 2: current rate, which is likely Even if global carbon emissions

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Speaker 2: are capped, climate scientists expect the ocean around the Marshall

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Speaker 2: Islands to rise as much as one point three meters

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Speaker 2: by the year twenty one hundred. Powerful storms and extra

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Speaker 2: big waves could temporarily push it even higher. Without drastic intervention,

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Speaker 2: much of the country could be rendered uninhabitable.

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Speaker 1: And this is why Lim has become a leader for

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Speaker 1: climate justice. She has been working since her teens to

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Speaker 1: not only bring attention to what is happening to her home,

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Speaker 1: but also advocating and pushing political leaders to make change.

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Speaker 1: When speaking about her work and her home, she said,

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Speaker 1: my people are counting on me to share what is

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Speaker 1: happening in the vast ocean of the Pacific, too small

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Speaker 1: for people to see, too far for people to reach,

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Speaker 1: and a number of fifty two, six hundred and thirty

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Speaker 1: four people too little for people to care. Our islands

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Speaker 1: are not just barely their dots on the maps for

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Speaker 1: many to turn a blind eye. They are our home.

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Speaker 2: So in an interview with thread dot Com, she talks

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Speaker 2: about why she began her works. She said, as a child,

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Speaker 2: my grandfather would reprimmend me and tell me that the

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Speaker 2: ice in the north and south poles were melting, and

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Speaker 2: that the water would eventually flood our islands. This was terrifying.

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Speaker 2: I would have nightmares of my family drowning and me

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Speaker 2: desperately trying to save them. This made me extremely conscious

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Speaker 2: of the changing environment around me, and I began to

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Speaker 2: pick up on increasing temperatures and rising sea levels year

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Speaker 2: in year out. I quickly realized just how dire the

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Speaker 2: situation had become and decided I had to do something

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Speaker 2: about it.

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Speaker 1: And she has been speaking up about her concerns, including

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Speaker 1: permafrost melting, forest fires, and droughts which continue to threaten

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Speaker 1: her home, and educating others and helping others to understand

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Speaker 1: the crisis is something that she does often. She told

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Speaker 1: World Bank dot org quotelimate change impacts, gender inequality, high

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Speaker 1: unemployment rate, high school dropouts, noncommunicable diseases are some of

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Speaker 1: the biggest issues we are facing right now. Our country

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Speaker 1: is poor and a huge part of our government's budget

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Speaker 1: comes from the United States government funding. I believe education

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Speaker 1: is the first step to addressing these issues. Once we

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Speaker 1: know what they are, what are the causes, the history,

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Speaker 1: how it impacts us, why they must and need to

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Speaker 1: be addressed and the support from our family, our community,

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Speaker 1: our government, and internationally, then we are on the right path.

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Speaker 1: It is important that there is a clear understanding and

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Speaker 1: communication between the government and its people. Right now, the

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Speaker 1: entire world's biggest threat is climate change.

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Speaker 2: Not only has she used her voice to speak up

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Speaker 2: in international conferences in front of powerful world leaders, but

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Speaker 2: has used her voice in performing spoken word and poetry.

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Speaker 2: She was also featured in Before the Flood, a documentary

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Speaker 2: talking about the climate crisis, in which she talks about

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Speaker 2: her land. Apparently it was produced by Leonardo Dicaprille. That's

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Speaker 2: a bit tidbit. There you go.

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Speaker 1: Well, thank you for the tidbit. In the same threat

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Speaker 1: dot Com interview, she talks about the power of the

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Speaker 1: arts and why creativity is important in her activism. She said,

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Speaker 1: quote creativity connects us with our core, which is our

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Speaker 1: emotion and what makes us human. I'm privileged to have

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Speaker 1: been born in this era because it's so easy to

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Speaker 1: mental health, setting boundaries and how to move forward with

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Speaker 1: my generation. We're part of a community, so that when

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Speaker 1: ego anxiety is gripping my heart and I feel so

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Speaker 1: overwhelmed with the state of things, I'm able to feel

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Speaker 1: grounded and remind myself that I'm not alone. We're all

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Speaker 1: in this together, and that if I need to take

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Speaker 1: a break to look after myself, it's okay, because they'll

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Speaker 1: keep fighting for me in the meantime. And she goes

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Speaker 1: on talking about why storytelling is an important medium quote

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Speaker 1: because it's human. It's how my grandparents taught me to

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Speaker 1: keep our cultures, proverbs, morals, and values alone. This is

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Speaker 1: why I find it a very powerful and effective tool

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Speaker 1: to use.

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Speaker 2: Right And obviously her works have gained some notoriety, including

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Speaker 2: the fact that she was nominated for a Contributing Performance

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Speaker 2: in the Best Indigenous Language Album category at the thirty

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Speaker 2: third Golden Melody Awards. And I'm sure we'll hear more

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Speaker 2: from her because her work is beautiful. And with that,

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Speaker 2: we wanted to read a bit of her poem. And

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Speaker 2: this is just like a small snippet of her poem

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Speaker 2: that she presented to the cop twenty six. It was

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Speaker 2: the poem that we mentioned earlier. I grew giant and

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Speaker 2: all BT dubs. I'm gonna put this in there. They

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Speaker 2: also speak Marshallesee in here. Obviously I do not know

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Speaker 2: this language. I could not really, just find a pronunciation

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Speaker 2: or translation for it for me, which is good because

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Speaker 2: she did this purposefully. So I'm going to try my

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Speaker 2: best and excuse my pronunciation. If you actually speak Marshal

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Speaker 2: Lesee and want to send in a corrected version, please

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Speaker 2: do because we would love to hear it. So here

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Speaker 2: we go. Now is what I need you respond to.

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Speaker 2: I've seen bones of loved ones spilling out of broken graves,

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Speaker 2: torn by the angry waves. Nightmares haunt me at night

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Speaker 2: and follows me throughout the day. The terror I feel

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Speaker 2: act now I stand here najhatukijin for my people, my home,

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Speaker 2: non homage rao nani ju jiku. Our corals never grew

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Speaker 2: to be the giant we needed them to be to

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Speaker 2: protect us from the rising water. But I did to

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Speaker 2: five three the giant to protect my home from the

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Speaker 2: waves of deniers and work hand in hand with those

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Speaker 2: fighting for our planet together, each of us, like the

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Speaker 2: tiny corals my friends and I put out in a

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Speaker 2: horizontal line near the outer reef, grow tall Tuesday to

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Speaker 2: be giants for our planet. And again, this is just

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Speaker 2: a small piece, and her whole piece was beautiful. You

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Speaker 2: can actually look this up. They do have it on

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Speaker 2: medium dot com where they speak about her a little

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Speaker 2: bit and give the entirety of the poem. But yes,

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Speaker 2: obviously this is really really important work. And I was

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Speaker 2: admitting to any earlier that my geography is way off

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Speaker 2: because I did not know that the Republic of the

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Speaker 2: Marshall Islands existed and didn't know its history and what

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Speaker 2: was happening there. Obviously there's a lot happening, and islands

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Speaker 2: and countries like these are very heavily affected by what

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Speaker 2: is happening with the climate change, and they have become

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Speaker 2: the people of the Marshall Islands have become leaders in

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Speaker 2: this movement, I mean true leaders with some amazing plans,

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Speaker 2: and I didn't even talk about what they've been doing

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Speaker 2: and the whole layout they have to try to protect

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Speaker 2: their lands because as Liam told another interview that she

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Speaker 2: knows people who've lived there all their lives, like their

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Speaker 2: families from there, and they said they would drown on

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Speaker 2: that island before ever leaving it because they love their

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Speaker 2: home so much. So it's definitely something that we need

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Speaker 2: to be talking about more. And also it was acknowledging

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Speaker 2: in the fact that yes, again I feel real ignorant,

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Speaker 2: not even knowing that the existence of this country was here,

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Speaker 2: and even the impact that the US had on them,

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Speaker 2: which was not great, but the fact that they were

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Speaker 2: able to get their independence and now doing what they're

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Speaker 2: trying to do to save their land really important.

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Speaker 1: Work is always and yeah, listeners, if you have any

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Speaker 1: further information or any thoughts about this or anything related

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Speaker 1: to this, experiences or anything like that, please let us know.

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Speaker 1: You can email u at stuff at your mom Stuff

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Speaker 1: at iHeartMedia dot com. You can find us on Twitter

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Speaker 1: at mom Stuff podcast, or on Instagram and TikTok at

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Speaker 1: stuff I've Never Told You for us on YouTube. We

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Speaker 1: have a tea public store merchandise. We have a book

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Speaker 1: you can get wherever you get your books. Thanks as

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Speaker 1: always to our super producer Christine, our executive producer May,

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Speaker 1: and our contributor Joey.

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Speaker 2: Thank you.

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Speaker 1: Thanks to you for listening Stuff Never Told You suspection

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Speaker 1: of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts to my heart Radio. You

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