- We now recognize more than ever
that diversity is a strength,
and if we bring more people into the conversation,
in particular, women and people of color
and people with disabilities,
people who don't get heard in science and policy decisions,
that is how we are going to solve these problems.
It's not just old white guys in lab coats.
That's not who scientists are.
(lava crashing)
I don't think the message
of the changing climate is one of doom and gloom.
It's one of a hell of a challenge.
We're here in Yellowstone and this is amazing!
Hi, I'm Jess Phoenix.
I'm a volcanologist and the executive director
of the nonprofit research organization Blueprint Earth.
One of the things
that I have always appreciated about geology
is it doesn't just give you the key to understanding
how the mountains formed,
but it also gives you the opportunity
to go out into the mountains
and see and experience this stuff,
and feel like you're just one small piece
in this giant scheme
that somehow is held together
and functions and we live.
I'm here in Kawah Ijen Volcano.
I'm actually in the crater
at the summit of the volcano
and behind me is the largest acidic lake in the world.
Volcanology is the study of volcanoes,
and that covers both active erupting volcanoes
and ones that have erupted in the past,
maybe even millions of years ago.
Over 500 million people
around the world live in the shadow of active volcanoes.
That means that they're potentially at risk.
When I was in high school,
I had a really bad experience with science.
I actually got a C in high school chemistry.
It really put me off.
I thought science wasn't for me.
Any scientist we've seen on TV,
when I was growing up it was Mr. Wizard
and then Bill Nye the Science Guy.
They're both guys,
and, you know, they're wonderful,
but they didn't look like me.
I think it's really important to note
that if you don't see yourself doing something,
if you don't see yourself reflected
in a particular career field, or a sport, or a hobby,
it's much harder to imagine yourself doing that thing.
So I went into college and I started studying English,
but I did take some geology while I was an undergrad,
and I didn't even know that geology was a career option.
A few years later, I found a program
at the Cal State University system,
I went to Cal State Los Angeles,
they actually allow you
to take a master's degree in just about anything,
so I was able to really dive into geology
at a decently high level,
and I ended up working at the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory.
I'm gonna spin around so you guys can see back there.
That's the source of the big cloud.
There are fumaroles actively degassing
and that's because there's a magma chamber right down below.
The first time I ever set foot on a volcano knowingly,
and one that could erupt, was Mauna Loa.
The scale of this volcano is just enormous.
I mean, it makes up more than half
of the Big Island of Hawaii's land mass,
and the summit of the volcano
is a couple of miles across by several miles long.
So I stood up on the rim of it
and saw a sea of silvery, shiny lava
that was younger than I am,
and it sort of broke my brain to think
that that whole area had been active flowing lava
when I was two years old.
Having the ability to study this
and work with really great scientists,
these guys had been doing this for years,
they were all older male scientists,
and, you know, they let me sit there
and have my moment of, you know, mind-blowing wonder,
and when I caught up to them they said,
"Yeah we still feel that every time we're up here too."
That showed me that I was really into something special.
Because I think these are all connected.
Here, here, and here we've now found water on the surface,
but then these two, A and B, are new.
People who are on the climate-denier side like to say
that volcanoes produce more CO2 emissions than humans.
That is a lie.
Volcanoes produce 1% of all of the emissions
that humans produce in terms of carbon dioxide.
So they're not a climate change driver
and that is a big problem.
We need to educate people,
and so this misinformation and these lies don't spread.
I decided to run for United States Congress
for the 2018 election cycle
because I was represented by a climate-science denier.
Even though I didn't win the election,
I actually have a really good platform now
to talk to people from all different backgrounds,
and that is one thing running for office gives you,
is a complete fearlessness
of talking to anyone about anything at any time.
- [Announcer] It's a difficult task
to introduce someone like Jess Phoenix.
She's a volcanologist, a public scientist, an explorer,
Jess Phoenix.
(audience clapping)
- It really isn't about the people who are on stage now,
it's about you all
because you all are the future of science,
you're the future of research,
you're the future of humanities.
The student population
does not look like the stereotypical view
of an old white man scientist in a lab coat,
and my goal is really to encourage them
to keep going despite the obstacles
that they're going to face,
because they will face obstacles in their career.
So many times in the course of my career,
I've had a door shut,
and I have it relatively easy compared
to a lot of people out there who are trying
to make their way through the professional world.
I think I can be better served advocating for science,
and advocating for bringing more diversity into science.
I founded Blueprint Earth which
is an interdisciplinary environmental research nonprofit.
We work with students
to get them out into the field doing environmental research.
We do this at no cost to the students.
So students of all different backgrounds have access
to this kind of science.
So Blueprint Earth is 76% women participating.
We have 54% people of color,
and 60% of our participants come
from low-income backgrounds.
It's pretty diverse group naturally
and I love being able to point
to our Blueprint Earth social media
and say this is the face of science,
and this is the future of where we're going.
Until we start showing on the big and small screen
that people come from different backgrounds,
different, you know, races, ethnicities, religions,
we aren't gonna see that science
is as diverse as the human population in our planet.
The planet's gonna be here long after we're gone
and it will continue to evolve and change,
and that just blows my mind in a really good way.