Transcript
ISHA ALEXANDER: These small islands, we get affected, I don't want to say the worst but probably the soonest. There is data out there, for example, the Marshall Islands that are going to be under water in the next 50 years. So rising sea levels [when] you live on 212 square miles of a loch, there is no place to go and you are only so high there are obviously concerns. The other side of that is with the eco-system that we happen to have, coral bleaching affects us significantly and it affects the capacity to do sustainable fishing. It affects the food chain all the way down. Most island cultures depend on the ocean for their sustainable living. You can't really grow as many things on Guam in soil to make up for not being able to fish. It is mostly limestone.
BEN ROBINSON DRAWBRIDGE: What about an increased frequency of storms and unsettled weather? Are you experiencing that?
IA: Well yes and no. Our last typhoon season we had an unprecedented number of weather phenomenon. This year was relatively mild for us. We didn't even have a single typhoon warning. However [a location] that is just a couple of islands over got hit by a big one. I'm not a climate scientist, I'm a wildlife biologist by trade, but the fact we are having cooler temperatures juxtapostioned with warmer temperatures with storms at unanticipated times, coupled with storms that we don't have that we expect to, all of that breathes into that.
BRD: Okay, so mounting evidence of climate change, it must be concerning for you and I suppose it was for some of the people on your march then, to then compare it with how your new president Donald Trump is handling environmental issues?
IA: Yes there is a lot of concern about the way the administration is rolling out or rolling back either a lot of laws that have been put in place since the '70s that are either being appealed or the funding for the agencies that enforce them are being cut back. Then you have got science being cut, which of course, one of the ways we have demonstrated that climate change is real.
BRD: The president justifies these reviews and these changes as a means to stimulate the economy and create more jobs though.
IA: There are enough statistics out there about green energy and jobs that they create, just like you can create some jobs with oil. Why would you need to go that route, is a question that has been asked and hasn't been answered and that is one of the reasons why we are all marching.
