The view coming into SEA-TAC airport
Hello to all! My name is Will James, and even though my internship at the Woods Hole Research Center has yet to begin I have plenty to report!
From June 27th through the 29th I as fortunate enough to attend The Climate Reality Project’s climate leadership training in Bellevue, Washington. The week was jam-packed not only with the conference, but with plenty of fun on the side as well.
First, I need to mention that the weather was spectacular thoughout my time in Bellevue, as close to cloudless skies as possible and temperatures from 70-90 made this whole week all the better. With that done let’s get to what you care about:
The Climate Reality Project is most famous for its chairman and founder: Al Gore. As part of the Climate Reality Projects mission they train climate activists not only on the facts and statistics associated with climate change, but how to more effectively catalyze action on climate change as well as convince those on the fence to make climate change important come voting time.
My view of Al Gore just prior to him presenting
Due to Pinhead’s connections to the Climate Reality Project, I was put at one of the front tables every day, allowing me to meet numerous speakers for the training as well as see Al Gore present his signature Keynote from the front row.
As I mentioned earlier, I learned a great deal about how to more effectively communicate the issue of climate change. While I met only a fraction of the more than 800 people who attended the training, but everyone that I did have the chance to meet was equally inspirational: from a doctor who quit his job to become a full time activist, to the local tribal leaders, and, especially, the other people near my age. I had the chance to talk to numerous other high school students from Washington State and elsewhere in the United States. This was particularly amazing in that now we have a network and can be resources for each other as we go through our summer and next year at school in order to bolster each of our individual clubs, organizations, and initiatives.
A few of the other student climate reality leaders
Like all good things however, the conference ended at 3:30 p.m. on the 29th which left me to travel across the nation to Detroit Metro Airport, where I am now, staging and getting ready to leave tomorrow for Cape Cod and the East Coast along with my family prior to my internship at the Woods Hole Research Center: which was just named the worlds number one climate think tank for the fourth year in a row!
I look forward to filling you all in again next week as I get settled and started in Woods Hole, Massachusetts!
-Will
(It should come as no surprise that I am a HUGE nerd, and I love playing the card game Magic the Gathering, part of traveling to larger towns and cities is I have the chance to play yet again, which is super exciting for me. During my last night in Bellevue I had the chance to play in a tournament and went 1-1-2, hopefully I will put some of my tournament results at the bottom here weekly!)
Nice Blog post Will- and way to make the most of every opportunity. Keep up the great work on protecting our climate so that those glaciers on Mt. Rainier (from your first photo) stay in place. I look forward to reading more once your internship starts in earnest, and then following up with you when you’re back in Telluride.
Thanks Andy! I look forward to updating you all on my first stretch of time here in MA as well!
http://seaice.alaska.edu/gi/observatories/barrow_webcam
http://seaice.alaska.edu/gi/observatories/barrow_breakup
http://icestories.exploratorium.edu/dispatches/big-ideas/the-people-of-the-arctic/the-inupiaq-people-of-barrow-alaska/
The native people that live in the Northernmost climate will tell you how this has affected their lifestyle and how sensitive they are to climate change. Can’t wait to hear more.
I’ve got some great quotes from the tribal leaders from the conference, and I would be more than happy to share with you specifically what they said (I dont have the quotes in front of me but I did write them down) their perspective is amazing in that it compares the old ways of living and how nature supported them to the struggles face now: very powerful.