If your Thanksgiving is anything like mine, you might find yourself sitting at a table talking to a relative who says, You work for who? Next you might have to explain what people protesting drilling in the Arctic has to do with anything here in the lower 48.
Im not so good at explaining these things. Which is why I make videos.
I wanted to make a video featuring the people who know about climate change better than anyone. They are not scientists. They are not politicians. They arent necessarily activists. But they are the real experts. They are the people whove lived through the storms, the hurricanes, the droughts and the floods. They are from the East Coast, the West, the Deep South and the North Slope. They are survivors of Hurricane Katrina , Superstorm Sandy, the recent Colorado floods, and dramatic sea level rise in Lousiana and Alaska. Many of them are also witnesses to the countrys worst oil spills on record and really understand what such an oil spill would mean if it happened in the Arctic.
These people know firsthand just how important climate action is. To me, their thanks mean more than data. They are the living proof that every action to save the climate counts, no matter how big, no matter how small.
This Thanksgiving I will challenge my skeptical relative to listen to these people, who have lost homes and sometimes more, and still question the actions of people trying to slow climate change.
And I hope if the people who are risking their lives in the Arctic to stop drilling ever see this video, they will be reminded that what theyre doing means the world to us. Thank you.
