Engaging Indigenous Communities: My Remarks at Climate Connections 2.0
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Photo courtesy of John Dos Passos Coggin |
I was invited to give opening remarks at NOAA's Climate Connections 2.0 on October 29, 2024.
5 years ago last Friday, Super Typhoon Yutu crashed into the southern end of Saipan with sustained winds of 175 mph and gusts of 190 mph. It was the second strongest storm to ever strike the United States and caused 800 million dollars in damages. The storm killed 2 people, left thousands homeless, and tens of thousands without power for months. I had friends and family living in FEMA tents for months on end, and when they say they lost everything they owned, they literally meant everything they owned.
As the ocean continues to warm, we can expect to see more of these monster storms. Americans living on islands and in low-lying flood-prone coastal areas are the most vulnerable people to these storms – and are overwhelmingly from black, brown, and Indigenous communities.
I want to recognize the building where we stand today and thank Hunter for his land acknowledgement. We are surrounded by ancient and modern artifacts from Indigenous peoples who have called this country home for thousands of years. If you go upstairs they have on display some of the 374 treaties signed between the United States and Native American nations – along with exhibits showing how many of those treaties were broken over the ensuing years.
If you have time, I hope you can spend some time with those exhibits and I invite you to ponder how this legacy impacts your important climate services work today, and the role it plays in delivering on the NOAA mission.
One of the candidates for public office this year went viral when she said “you think you just fell out of a coconut tree? You exist in the context of all in which you live and what came before you.”
As uncomfortable as this is for many of you to hear, it is impossible to have an honest discussion about Native and Indigenous issues without also discussing the ravages of colonialism. “The past can hurt, but the way I see it, you can either run from it, or learn from it.”
For too long many climate decisions and decisions on how to manage ocean resources have been made without involving the people who have to live with those decisions, particularly Indigenous peoples. This is despite evidence showing that including Indigenous knowledge and values in conservation efforts leads to better outcomes for people and nature.
We must recognize that the solutions to this global crisis cannot come from a single source or perspective. They must be inclusive, drawing on the wisdom and experiences of all people, especially those who have been stewards of our planet for generations.
Incorporating Indigenous peoples into climate services is not just a matter of justice; it is a strategic necessity. Our deep-rooted understanding of local ecosystems can enhance scientific models and improve our ability to predict and mitigate the impacts of climate change.
Moreover, Indigenous communities are on the front lines of climate change. They are among the first to experience its impacts, from rising sea levels threatening coastal communities to changing weather patterns disrupting traditional livelihoods, to the devastating storms that occur with greater frequency. By including us in climate services, we ensure that our collective responses are informed by those who are most affected and who have the most to lose. This inclusivity fosters resilience and empowers communities to adapt and thrive in the face of adversity.
But beyond the practical benefits, there is a deeper, more profound reason to include Indigenous peoples in our climate efforts. It is a recognition of our inherent dignity and our right to participate in decisions that affect our lives and our lands. It is an acknowledgment that we are all interconnected, that the health of our planet depends on the health of all its inhabitants.
In my prep call for these remarks, I was told that all six line offices are represented here today. I think this is a reflection of your commitment to broadening your focus beyond traditional conservation efforts. But I think it is important that you all recognize that NOAA has internal conflicting priorities, and the internal conflicts that you have within your offices in Silver Spring often spread externally to small communities across the country.
For example, I was the nominator of the erstwhile Mariana Trench national marine sanctuary. When our nomination was submitted in 2016, our community was in a place where it would have been receptive to a new sanctuary. And while I am aware of who was in charge of things the four years following that, there was zero engagement between NOAA sanctuaries and our community during that time. When NOAA created a new process to assess sanctuary nominations that had expired after five years, our community was not prepared to move on NOAA’s timelines. A handful of community members were left to carry the burden of pushing back on the fisheries council misinformation funded by NOAA fisheries – creating needless conflict in our communities for a proposal that specifically and loudly was not trying to address any domestic fishing – banning only foreign fishing. NOAA leadership did little to nothing to help, and not a single sanctuary staffer stepped foot on the island between the sanctuary being placed on the inventory list and being withdrawn from the nominators seven years later.
Compare that to the sanctuary nomination for the Pacific Remote Islands. No government representatives from the territories were invited to participate in the March 2023 White House event where the sanctuary was announced, nor were they informed ahead of time that a sanctuary announcement was taking place, nor were they involved in designing federal public hearings on their own islands. Were these actions equitable? Were they even ethical?
Now these weren’t the only NOAA touch points in my community in the last few years, of course. Beyond the weather service, monument, sanctuaries, and fisheries, there were also endangered species act listings for giant clams and critical habitat listings for turtles and corals. I didn’t look up the totals for the purposes of these remarks, but NOAA funds nearly all the coastal, climate, and ocean conservation work back home.
I believe that the United States can address climate change, and have the world’s best managed fisheries and network of protected areas, all at the same time. All of your work is important, and has had its ups and downs, but one thing is clear: a lot of it would have gone a lot better if you had understood the context of my community. An important aspect of being equitable requires you to navigate the complexities of your agency and find ways to reduce internal conflicts that may extend to the communities you serve.
We can imagine a world where our shared ocean and climate challenges are not just tackled by a select few, but by a diverse tapestry of voices, each bringing their unique perspectives and knowledge to the table. My colleague Dr. Asha DeVos likes to say that the world’s biggest habitat is going to need the world's biggest team to protect it. This is the vision we must strive for in climate services—a field that has the potential to unite us in our shared responsibility to protect and understand our planet’s most expansive and vital ecosystems.
I just want to close by thanking all of you for the work that you do every single day to serve this country. The great American philosopher Ron Swanson from Pawnee, Indiana once said, “You choose a thankless job, you can't be upset when nobody thanks you.” I see your hard work. I see your dedication. And my corner of the climate community doesn’t do enough to thank you for what you do. The work that you do literally saves lives when extreme weather occurs, and your efforts make this country a better place to live and breathe.
Usually I’m the one asking the assistant secretary to come to my events. I’m the ocean co-lead for the America the Beautiful for All Coalition, and for the last few years we’ve been hounding her and the NOAA team to advance marine monument management plans and new sanctuary designations.
And you have delivered. We are days away from the final, final, final designation of the Chumash Heritage national marine sanctuary, with others in various stages of development. And marine monuments designated by Bush and Obama that went years without final management plans are heading towards active management thanks to you and your colleagues. On behalf of our coalitions, I want to thank all of you for these important milestones. Please give yourselves and your colleagues a big round of applause. Thank you, everybody.
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