It's definitely picking up fast already getting out here. Well I just feel so
unbelievably lucky to be allowed to live on Lake Superior. Lake Superior is such
an amazing place I think it's really important to protect that because just
because it's so many unique it's one of the only places like it in the whole
world and so just be able to swim in there every day get our water from there
it's pretty special so I feel like we should we really need to protect that
resource. The climate is just it's changing and and one of the ways it's
changing in a big way around here is unpredictability with the weather and
just not knowing what we can expect anymore and it's a shame you know
because we're losing our boreal forests the water's heating up fishing is
terrible right now on the lake. It's just really important that we go out there
and let people know that this is an issue that needs to be resolved. We sat
down we thought you know what can we do, you know we're we're sailors that's our
business that's our where we live and all that, and well let's see if we get
some college kids to go with us and go around the lake and start talking about
climate change. The reality of climate change is that the effects are here and
they're happening now and part of this trip really exposed me to the effects
that humans are having on the environment and they are dramatic and
they're threatening many places. We do a month-long trip in May with University
students who live around the lake in various places and one of the main
purposes of that trip is citizen engagement and particularly student
engagement, because what we do is we sail to ports and then we go into the schools
and do these presentations and slideshows on climate change on Lake
Superior and what does it look like here. Trying to help people connect the dots
between what they're seeing outside and what's happening with climate change.
A lot of people they don't know how big of a problem it is
it kind of crosses their mind you know I shouldn't pollute stuff like that, but
sometimes I don't know like people just they don't know that much about it so
once they are more educated about it then more people can make a difference
and a lot more change can happen. This is what we do not want to do. We embark on
carbon cutting projects and these are just various projects. We have the
original idea but the kids take it wherever they will. We do where they can
start a no idling policy at their school, we do a lot of work with food and
composting and where are their lunches coming from, they write letters to
their legislators. I think it's really important that they understood
that they can make such a big difference in their just their schools alone let
alone the world so that definitely stuck with me it gives me a lot of hope a lot
of them were very interested and like had a lot of answers and they just had
this great curiosity and drive to make the world a better place. These kids will
be the future and I'm have no doubt that they will be brilliant in creating new
ways of infrastructure that is a lot more sustainable. Towards the end of June
we do a 14 day trip with teenagers. Rather than going into schools we try to
do community presentations when we can and we're also focusing on these Arctic
disjunct plants. And these plants are threatened from climate change not only
warming temperatures, warming water temperatures, warming air temperatures
and also a lack of ice, because when big ice sheets rake over this bedrock
year after year it rakes away all the competition, and these tiny little plants
are the ones that survive, but without the ice you know ice cover has gone down
79 percent since 1980 on Lake Superior. We also test water clarity and
temperature. We've learned, the data which is that Lake Superior is warming about
twice the rate of the air two degrees per decade since 1980, so we know the
lake is warming, we have experienced that for sure even in the last say 15
years that we've been sailing on Lake Superior. When it comes down to it you
know, it really to me it always comes back to my kids you know.
I want them to have a livable world. Well I think that the younger generation is very active on climate change already, just because we're the ones who
are going to inherit this world, and so I think that there's already a lot of
really good action being taken by the my generation on climate change and so I
think that that just will keep progressing as we get older and keep the
momentum going. A change can start from a grassroots level and that's what we're
trying to do. We talked to 800 school kids this year and seven different
schools and every single one of those schools committed to a carbon cutting
project, and that's just you know eight of us on a boat just doing our own thing
without any big financial backing or anything like that, and so we're trying
to inspire people to take the next step for the planet you know and because they
can. Part of our presentation is we have this big page and it says 50 things you
can do to help save the planet and it's from like buying your food local to
don't idle and then if that's not enough we have a not a page with another 50
things you can do. Not one person can do it all on their own but there's so many
small things that you can do to just try to help things out for yourselves and
for your whole community, be something simple like stop using plastic water
bottles. We are going to transform to renewable energy, it's just a matter of
how long that's going to take. We're very hopeful and very positive that we are
going to overcome this it's just a how long is it going to take. What I would
say to people who are feeling depressed or overwhelmed is find a group that's
inspiring you, find a project that is going to make a difference and get going,
get to work. You know ease was not the deal of life you know, it wasn't supposed
to be easy it's supposed to be meaningful, so I
don't have a lot of patience for moaning and groaning and all it's all so
hopeless, it's like you can choose for to be hopeless, or you can choose to be part
of the solution.