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climate change is a human story the
causes of climate change are man-made
and the solutions must be man-made
in order to reduce climate change in
order to adapt to these changes and to
mitigate our impact on the planet we
have to start with human stories I love
listening to people's stories
I'm Victoria Herrmann I'm a geographer
and a National Geographic Explorer when
people read stories about climate change
it's often in far-off places like the
Arctic or small islands but climate
change affects everyone by the end of
this century at least 420 town cities
and villages across the United States
will be partially underwater no matter
how much we reduce our greenhouse gases
today but there's never a narrative that
should be hopeless there is hope in
every climate change story it's just
about finding the right solutions over
the course of 2016 and 2017 I traveled
across the United States and US
territories and conducted over 350
interviews with local leaders from the
Chesapeake Bay to American Samoa from
Alabama to Alaska
at first I thought the biggest
challenges were going to be the loss of
property the loss of houses of critical
infrastructure but what people really
wanted to talk to me about was losing
histories the traditions that they can
pass down to the next generation I think
of myself as first a listener and then a
connector most days for me are coming to
places like here we are on the eastern
shore of the Chesapeake Bay
geographically Warren a place called
Poverty Point but the great organization
we're working with has renamed it
Patriot Point to reflect the work
they're doing with vets this is an
incredible property where vets come to
hunt to fish to seek the healing that
they need these are the coats that we
give out to wounded service members when
they come in the owners a patriot point
didn't realize that climate change would
impact them so quickly and so intensely
I want to understand their history their
landscape and their climate change
challenges so when you see shoreline
erosion is it usually with a big storm
that's coming in or is it just a king
when we think of sea level rise and
extreme storms we first go to our
shorelines to the Jersey Shore with
hurricane sandy or to Louisiana with
Hurricane Katrina but climate change
impacts all bodies of water whether
they're Bay's they can see sea level
rise or rivers they can see flooding
into the planes around them
the Chesapeake Bay is one of the fastest
changing ecosystems in the United States
who related to climate change at Patriot
Point I walked along the eroding edges
to see how the land has changed over the
past year decade maybe 50 years we're
looking for trees falling over for tides
rising above the marshland to understand
the rate of erosion and how much sea
levels are rising
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to get a different perspective on that
we jumped onto a boat and saw it from
the water side so we can see how those
waves are cutting under the land and
seeing how that is making this whole
property more vulnerable to sea-level
rise now that was the title pond right
there oh I'll build that and we're
losing a little bit there all local
people are valuable experts here lately
we've had the 65 70 mile an hour
northwest winds northeast winds and
there's nothing here to stop it
the best knowledge that we get from any
place is the people who are living there
24/7 the people who are living through
those changes when you got to almost two
and a half miles of waterfront it's hard
especially when that waterfront is
changing constantly
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I take everything that I've listened to
and analyze it
think about what potential solutions
what other expertise we can bring in to
make that place safe climate change
adaptations along shorelines often take
two different forms greener solutions
which use nature to make our landscapes
more resilient creating salt resistant
marshes creating areas that can flood
and bounce back or more gray solutions
using concrete to build up a seawall
patriot point can benefit from both of
these if you've grown up working and
living on the water not being able to
live on the Chesapeake Bay
fundamentally changes who you are and
that's what people are afraid of people
are afraid of losing their identity I
love this area
born and raised here and like I say this
is what I truly love how can you leave
this place that's it
each of us has expertise that we need to
share so we can make better solutions we
have skills based volunteers working all
across the country whether it's
rebuilding a seawall in Alaska helping
to move a building in Louisiana we are
helping preserve local histories in the
face of sea-level rise
the more people we have working on a
climate change solution but better it
will be my grandparents were Holocaust
survivors they were survivors of
Auschwitz concentration camp and they
came to this country with nothing but
themselves and the memories of those who
were lost and built an incredible life
and gave back to their community if they
could find hope and Brazilians in that
story there's no reason why I can't
share that same hope and Brazilians and
climate change stories today
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the future can be hopeful if you can
work together and you can identify what
every person can contribute to a climate
change solution
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