Speaker: Gail Woon, Freeport, Grand Bahama Island, The Bahamas
How (and why) are you taking action on climate change solutions in, for, and with your community?
Gail Woon: My name is Gail Woon and I am from the Bahamas. I'm a marine biologist and aquaculture specialist. I'm taking action on climate change solutions because I was made homeless three times by climate change, hurricanes hitting my island. So I feel it very personally. So we're, I am working on a project to restore the mangroves to a community called Water Key, which was a bone fishing destination. So we're engaging with the community there, all of whom were also displaced by climate change. Hurricane Dorian in 2019. It is now 2024 and no one has been able to move back yet. They're living on the main island of Grand Bahama. They go on the weekends to try to rebuild their homes. But um we're hoping now that when we plant thousands, hundreds of thousands of mangroves in and around that area that they will still be able to be a bone fishing destination and that those mangroves will grow. At the same time, the community will be able to move back to the island. So, community engagement is super important for the success of this project and we're really happy that we've gotten many, almost all persons from the community involved and we're doing a planting coming up at the end of this month and at the end of earth month. So that's why I'm doing my climate change solutions for my community.
Who or what inspires/inspired you to care about climate change and climate solutions?
Gail Woon: My name is Gail Woon and I'm from the Bahamas. I'm a marine biologist. And so what inspired me to care about climate change and climate solutions? When I was studying oceanography in the late seventies, I learned about what was then called global warming. And I was speaking about climate change and global warming in as early as 1980 on the radio. So this has been an issue that I've been very familiar with for many years. And more recently, I've been inspired by my, my Cornell University professor, Doctor Marianne Krasny. And she has, through letting me do the climate change fellowship that she was teaching, as well as some other courses that were to do with climate change and network climate actions, She has inspired me to do as much outreach and community engagement as I can with the knowledge that I have. And so, in addition to that, I'm also inspired by Vice President Al Gore, I was able to be trained in by him in one of his Climate Reality Leadership Training sessions. So I am also a Climate Reality Leader And I basically, every moment of my waking day, I'm usually talking about climate crisis, climate solutions and also Project Drawdown. So that is what has inspired me to care about climate change and climate solutions.
