Climate change impacts coastal communities around the world. Islands are going underwater and people are losing their homes. The ocean waters are warming and species are disappearing.
But what are people doing about it? And what changes–and solutions–are making any difference? What do we have to learn from small communities and islands that could help towns and cities on coasts throughout the world?
On our 39-foot sailboat, we (Jess, Josh, and our dog Ulysses) traveled to communities throughout Mexico, Central America, and the Caribbean, to study adaptation to (climate) change through the lens of both science and story. By traveling under sail, we connected with the natural cycles of the sea and the people who live as part of it. We shared the coastal challenge of surviving by the whims of the water, living through triumph, uncertainty, terror, and loss.
The stories and the ocean seascape reveal what the data cannot tell. Our personal story grows out of our journey, expanding beyond the coast to a tiny community in Utah to have a baby and build a home base–then returning to the coast again.
This video, created for our funders during our sail, gets at the heart of what we do, and why: