- [Announcer] This is a production of WEDU, PBS Tampa, St.Petersburg, Sarasota.

- [Programer] Sustainability funding on WEDU is provided in part by the Susan Howarth Foundation, a community Foundation, Tampa Bay, and the Charles and Margery Baransik Foundation.

Additional support provided by the Clearwater Marine Aquarium and Pinella Suncoast Transit Authority.

- [Justin] Climate change.

How do you feel when you hear those words?

For many of us, the idea of climate change can make us feel overwhelmed and paralyzed.

Others may feel like climate change is far away and that we have more immediate problems to worry about.

The reality is that climate change is already here in West Central Florida.

Since the 1800s, human activities have released a surge of heat trapping gases into earth's atmosphere.

These gases act like a blanket wrapped around our planet.

This affects many parts of our lives, our health, energy bills, air quality, food supply, businesses, coastlines, waterways, and the plants and animals that make this part of Florida unique.

Scientists expect these impacts to intensify over the next few decades.

But there's something else you need to know.

There is hope, all over West Central Florida people like you are responding to climate change in innovative ways.

They're preparing for what's ahead and fighting for a better climate future.

Why?

Because Floridians are fierce.

The beauty of Florida is what drew people here and why people stay.

For thousands of years this part of the world has shown grit and nimbleness in the face of extreme heat, torrential downpours and hell bent hurricanes.

Climate change amplifies these weather phenomena as we've just seen with Hurricane Ian.

The deadliest storm to hit Florida since 1935.

But we've all weathered challenges before and we won't back down now.

Hi, I'm Justin Shaifer scientist STEM educator, and I'm on a mission to make science subjects more accessible for everyone.

Climate scientists say the most important thing we can do to fight climate change is talk about it.

So let's start the conversation.

Florida's heat is already legendary, but climate change is turning up the thermostat even further.

Our bodies have a built in cooling system, but that system works less efficiently in Florida's humidity.

In fact, heat is a top weather related killer in the United States.

While heat poses a special threat to the most vulnerable among us, it can also weaken those at the top of their game.

- [Demetris] I started playing organized sports when I was 10 years old.

That's when I first started playing football.

But I mean, I always like been outside as a kid.

What we do as offensive linemen trying to push people and try to move people against their will, it's hard.

And it's a 12 week season.

You got postseason, you got bowl game, you have camp that lasts two to three weeks.

I mean, you look at it from August through December, you're going.

It is getting hotter.

I mean, you, I mean, you can just look at the weather, you can look at the humidity and stuff like that.

I mean, sometimes, especially in Florida, it might say 95, but it might be, you know, 110 out there just with the humidity and stuff like that.

Then you, you add on a helmet, you would put on shoulder pad, you put on knee braces.

It's a full time job to make sure that my body's at optimum level to perform.

- [Steve] We're really fortunate here.

We have seven certified and licensed athletic trainers that work a football practice.

And in addition to that, we also have athletic training students.

We have a lot of eyes on the field.

They can notice somebody that's not acting like they normally do.

We have the ability to see it cut it off before it becomes a real problem or be able to administer aid there, you know, right away.

When Demetris first got to us as a freshman, he, even though he's from Florida and from the Jacksonville area, he did struggle with the heat.

We are seeing temperatures rise and you know, whether it's two degrees or three degrees, that's a big difference in an athlete.

It's a big difference in how they can perform and it's a big difference in whether we can keep them safe or not.

- [Rebecca] Our bodies are, are very resilient.

We're always striving to be in the state of homeostasis.

So if your temperature is increasing and your body feels hot, your body responds by sweating and trying to cool down.

However, there is a limit.

If you're not able to dissipate that heat or get rid of that heat from your body, your temperature starts to rise, you start to become dehydrated.

At some point, your body starts to deteriorate basically.

So if you have that really elevated core body temperature or you become very dehydrated, your body is not gonna be able to continue doing the work that you were doing.

- [Steve] The wet bulk globe temperature monitor, we're looking at humidity, we're looking at direct sunlight temperature, we're looking at wind speed and putting all those things together to give you a gauge of what the environment is like at that particular time.

We'll monitor that throughout a practice, maybe every 10 to 15 minutes and we'll keep a chart of it and if it's going up, we'll try to make some practice changes.

And those changes could include extra breaks, could include taking equipment off.

It could include if we know it before at practice, a changing of practice time.

- Young kids, babies and elderly people may be more predisposed to a heat illness just because their thermo regulatory system isn't as efficient as somebody that's a healthy exercising person.

Heat exhaustion could look like somebody is faint feeling, faint dizzy, vomiting, things like that.

And that's usually just their outside in the heat and they're not used to it and they could only take so much.

Somebody might feel nauseous, headache, et cetera.

So getting them to a cool area, if they have excess clothing, maybe removing some of their clothing and cooling them with a cold towel and making sure they stay hydrated would be the best thing to do for that.

When you have an emergency situation like exertional heat stroke because of that critical temperature and somebody's body temperature is elevated, that really becomes a dangerous situation because the longer that their body temperature stays elevated, the more likely they're they are to die from it or have long term complications.

You wanna get their body temperature down.

Usually we use a cold tub where somebody is immersed in a cold tub with ice and water up to their chest level and we try to get their temperature down as soon as possible.

I think equity is really important to discuss when it comes to heat illness because the heat stress is gonna be bigger if somebody, for example, doesn't have air conditioning at home.

So you might have somebody that works outside, goes home, doesn't have air conditioning, heat stress could have a carryover effect where if you are exposed to heat and then you don't kind of get that break and your body temperature doesn't completely come down and regulate, you might be at an increased risk for a heat illness the following day.

- [Demetris] We wanna work hard, we wanna be tough, but we, we also wanna be smart.

If we can save, you know, one more person from passing out for a heat stroke, if we can save one more person from having to get a IV when it could have been prevented.

I mean that's a win.

That's a W. - [Rebecca] I would love for there not to be anybody that dies from exertional heat stroke and have heat illness.

I think we know enough now that we could prevent it, but unfortunately people are still dying from exertional heat stroke every year.

I think it's really important to make sure that the government could take part in making sure that people are safe in the heat, helping people that might not have access to electricity and air conditioning and things of that nature.

Because all of those things are just gonna help from a health standpoint.

- [Steve] You know, living down here, it's a beautiful state.

It's especially the Tampa Bay area is just great things to do outdoors.

So I think you lose a lot of what is beautiful about Florida and Tampa Bay when you can't enjoy it and you have to be inside, unfortunately.

- [Demetris] Whatever side of the fence you on, I mean that's up to you.

But for me personally, like I'm out there in the heat 6, 7, 8 months out the year, you know, straining.

I could definitely feel the difference.

- [Justin] I'm here at the Tampa Baywatch Marine and Education Center discussing with a panel of local experts the basics of climate change.

So why don't we have you all introduce yourselves.

Let's start with Cara.

- My name is Cara Serra, I work with the Tampa Bay Regional Planning Council as a comprehensive resiliency planner.

I work in hazard mitigation planning and I'm currently working on the first regional resiliency action plan.

- My name is Dr. Daniel Gilford.

I'm a climate scientist at Climate Central, which is a nonprofit organization specializing in the communication and research of climate change.

- And my name's Peter Clark.

I'm the president and founder of Tampa Baywatch.

We organize community volunteers to restore the Tampa Bay estuary each and every day.

- I'm Paul Robinson.

I'm a emergency physician and pediatrician in Tarpin Springs, which is at the north end of Pinellas County.

And I'm representing Florida Clinicians for Climate Action, which is a statewide group of physicians and nurses who are engaged in education about how climate change is impacting people's health today.

- So what makes this Tampa Bay area so unique?

- Well, we are located on the west coast of Florida we're Florida's largest open water estuary and there's over 3 million people that live within the watershed of Tampa Bay.

And many people live within a stone throw of the bay because of the natural beauty of Tampa Bay and the Gulf of Mexico.

It truly is the economic engine that drives our region and because of that we're all very, very blessed and we do not take Tampa Bay or the Gulf of Mexico for granted.

So when we have issues like sea level rise and climate change, it really does affect a broad segment of our community.

- You wanna add to that?

- Yeah, I should say that the impacts that Tampa Bay region is facing are not sort of, they're not unique to the area.

What is unique to the area is sort of the risks that we face as people who are living in this and are facing extreme heat, sea level rise, potential for hurricanes to strike your region.

You know, these are sort of all coming together with the increase in the amount of people who live here and sort of the environment that is unique to us.

That interconnection between our risks, as I say and there's a lightning strike overhead, and our risks and the climate impacts that we're facing makes us really unique.

- I think we're also unique demographically in how we have grown and we have a large spread of people.

We have rural communities, we have urban communities and suburban communities.

And so our unique development pattern really contributes to some of that risk and vulnerability.

- I think Florida's a beautiful place to be.

When climate change impacts an area like Florida, how does that affect our economy?

- I think it makes it so that there are a lot of multiple competing issues that we have to deal with at the same time.

So we know that we need to house all of the people who are coming into the state, but we also feel like we're losing some of the land that we already have to some of the increasing climate risks as there are more flood risk areas that we would prefer not to necessarily build in or increase the density in.

We have to sort of manage those two priorities of increasing density and increasing the affordability and obtainability of the housing in our area, but also making sure that we're not building in high risk areas.

And with all of that we also have to continue to increase our ability to manage the storm water and waste water and all of the public infrastructure needed to support all of those new residents.

- I mean really that's the challenge of the future.

We have a lot of great rules and regulations in place, but how do we deal with this huge population growth because everybody wants to move to Florida.

That's our challenge.

- And if some of those improvements aren't made by say the year 2050, what are some potential consequences that we might experience in this area?

- We're continuing to see flooding on a daily basis, so we would expect that to potentially get worse.

We would potentially see property damages, damages to our vehicles and to our businesses and of course that's gonna impact and potentially influence loss of life.

- Gotcha, and speaking of life, Paul, you have some experience with dealing with those kind of things firsthand?

- Yes, I have.

I've probably treated between 60 and a hundred people for heat exhaustion and three people for heat stroke.

The most recent one was a 17 year old football player who collapsed during his second practice of the day in August.

And when he got to us his internal temperature was 107 and he was in a coma.

There are six major ways in which climate change is affecting the health of people.

And I want to emphasize this today, not in 10 years, not in 20, it is affecting people's health today.

Those are heat waves, air pollution, major storms and downpours, et cetera, vectors of disease.

And by that I'm predominantly talking about ticks and mosquitoes, increasing their market share, increasing their geographic area, waterborne diseases, toxic algae like bluegreen algae and red tide and mental health effects.

- Well I'm really curious about the last one actually.

How would someone's mental health be impacted by their exposure to climate change and effects?

- Well with increasing heat typically comes increasing tendency toward anger, violence, et cetera.

And people who went through Katrina just as one example, were much more likely and I saw numbers, people who were relocated and living in temporary shelters after Katrina were something like 78 times more likely to attempt suicide than comparable aged people who did not go through that experience.

So people who are displaced suffer increased anxiety, increased depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, suicidal thoughts, et cetera.

As another example and children who experienced the Cat five, hurricane Michael that hit the panhandle, their school teachers reported even months or a year later that they had to be consoled and counseled when there was only a minor rainstorm.

So these kind of experiences stay with you and they impact children very significantly.

- And then you have a lot of work experience with weather, right?

And you know, some of the future weather patterns that we might experience.

Is this phenomenon gonna stop soon or is it gonna get worse?

- Yeah, that's a really good question.

So I've done a lot of work in the climate change and climate science arena.

We've been seeing recently over the past 100 years or so, we've seen an increase of about two degrees Fahrenheit on the global average.

And here in Florida that's about the same.

So two degrees Fahrenheit doesn't really sound like a whole lot, but if you're, it's two degrees on your body temperature, that's a whole fever right there.

And we on this planet are running a fever.

That fever means that there's more times where we are sort of experiencing these very intense periods of heat in the United States and in particularly in Florida.

And that can lead to some of the heat stress events that was just discussed.

- And so sea level rise is interesting because we are in a really interesting area as it pertains to our elevation.

Right.

So let's say we fast forward a couple of decades given the current trends of sea level rise.

Where should we expect things to be?

- Well, we talked about already the Tampa Bay areas, having sunny day flooding events where on a simple high tide the neighborhoods can get backed up with tidal water coming in the bay or the Gulf.

That's only gonna increase as we have a higher tide on our coastal beaches.

That is one of the big economic engines that help drive the Tampa Bay area.

We would be concerned with additional erosion along those beaches as well.

And as a marine biologist, we look at things like seagrass beds and oyster communities.

Will they be able to migrate, Will the salt marsh mangroves be able to move uphill as sea level rises in the future as well?

Because it is critical that we maintain those communities in the bay if we want to be able to maintain those water quality benefits that we all enjoy.

- Right.

And Daniel, do you have any additional insights?

- Yeah, so the type of changes that we're seeing in the Tampa Bay area or something like seven inches over the last 70 years, and we would expect that trend to continue or even accelerate going into the next few decades.

By 2050 we could be seeing changes on the order of a foot and that's a pretty significant change in sea levels.

We founded a study of Hurricane Sandy in 2019 that only four inches of sea level rise from human caused climate change caused about $8 billion worth of damage during Hurricane Sandy.

And so 12 inches of water here in the Tampa Bay region is significant.

Of course we're very low lying and those changes are relatively locked in.

The ocean takes a long time to respond to the way we sort of push it around as we increase the amount of emissions of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere that increases the temperature of the atmosphere but also the ocean.

The ocean kind of takes a little while to catch up to the atmosphere that's sort of pushing it ahead.

And that means that what we are experiencing over the next 20 years is kind of baked into what we've already done.

But we still have decisions to make going forward, I should say through 2050.

We can expect about the same level of sea level rise that we experienced over the last 30 years sort of continuing to the next 20.

But going beyond that, it really is up to our decisions if we choose to reduce our emissions really drastically, we could see less than three feet of sea level by the end of the century or we could see quite a bit more than that if we choose not to reduce our emissions.

So the choice is really with us.

- In my city in Tarpin Springs, we have sunny day flooding frequently and it impacts in the past week impacts some of the thoroughfare streets that lead from downtown in the city but also lead to the beaches.

And so getting to the beaches or getting to the main part of the tourist part of town was not possible.

That impacts the economy very strongly.

So what we're doing, what at least our plan is in the engineering plan is to raise the shoreline along that bayou but also put in a living shoreline in addition to that, with hard structures, with oyster shells plus spartina, which is cord grass plus mangroves.

- All right.

So if everyone could imagine a Tampa Bay area in the future that solved a lot of these problems with infrastructure and maybe some of the climate adaptation and mitigation measures that we're taking, what would that look like?

- I can take a punch at that.

I guess it would have affordable housing that's attainable for everyone.

It would have really efficient multimodal transportation systems and it would have growth patterns that are really complimentary to our natural systems.

It would have businesses that can bounce back from any storm or natural event or even cyber attack and it would have equitable outcomes from disaster recovery and disaster preparedness for all of our residents.

- I think I could build on that a little bit.

We need to become a new, a carbon neutral society.

I think more and more we're starting to recognize that this is a real problem.

We all need to take a certain amount of personal responsibility to help reduce our carbon footprint and to work with companies and industry to reduce theirs as well.

But as we look around Tampa Bay, we need to continue to restore those habitats that are so important for the bay, for the long term protection of our resources and realize that it's not here just for us.

We need to consider the future generations and be able to hand off to them something that they can build upon and grow upon and enjoy as much as we have during our lifetime.

- I think one of the main things that, you know, I would see the future of the Tampa Bay region looking like that is sort of better in addressing climate change is just like a community and conversation.

Just start talking about it.

Go to your community members, go to your local coffee shop or your faith-based community, talk with the people that you're in conversation with everyday.

Climate change is here to stay.

We are already being impacted by the effects of it.

We will continue to be impacted.

It'll have negative health outcomes or negative economic impacts.

So we need to be talking about this.

I'm so excited at the part of the planning because it really says that we've had those conversations at that level, but we also in our communities need to be having these conversations as well.

- Absolutely.

- Well thank you all so much for weighing in with your super interesting insights in this and thank you all for being here and for your efforts in the fight against climate change.

- Thank you.

- Fishing is big business in Florida, the rich diversity of Florida waters make Florida the fishing capital of the world.

But anglers are increasingly troubled by what they're seeing on the water, including longtime fishing guides, people who know these waterways better than anyone else.

- [Scott] When I was six years old, we were living in St. Pete on the beach Treasure island.

Along the shore there, there was an Australian pine tree in the water.

So I ran inside, I got my father's fishing pole and I told my mom, there's some fish out there striking.

And she gave me a hotdog to put on the line.

Fish were striking and I waited and I threw and I caught a snook on a hotdog.

And I always liked fishing.

There was people that made statements to me, Do you think you can make a living fishing in shore?

And I said, Well, I would sure like to try.

Well I just renewed my license at 45 years.

- I think when people think about Florida, they think about fishing something that we have 4 million people who come to fish to Florida and Florida's considered the center of recreational fishing in the world.

- We have tens of thousands of people with boats in our two counties.

And Sarasota Bay is a central part of what people like to do to recreate on weekends and a healthy base important to our economy.

I got interested in doing this by watching Jacques Cousteau specials in the carpet of my grandparents house in Pennsylvania.

I didn't come from a family of marine biologists and no one lived in Florida.

No one even went to college.

But I just found it to be a fascinating field and it's a really great interesting career path.

- [Susan] So my research focuses on movement, ecology and reproductive resilience.

So this is understanding the productivity of population so that we can better understand what level of fishing they can sustain.

We do a lot of acoustic tracking of marine fish and what that is is you have an acoustic tag.

They give off an acoustic signal.

We have receivers that are deployed that pick up that signal when a fish swims within range.

So we can tell based on our underwater recordings the level of aggregation sound at that site.

So we can look at spawning seasonality.

We go out in the field a lot, but we're never gonna spend as many days in the field as fishermen do.

So when we set up a research project, we often collaborate with fishermen.

- Fish are changing, they really are changing their habitat.

They all depend on that estuary, the sea grass.

You have to have the environment, they have the crabs, they have the shrimp.

It's all about the groceries.

And you can't displace fish.

You can't say to a fish, okay, do a development here.

And they used to spawn.

And say well you're gonna have to spawn over here.

It doesn't work that way.

Those fish are used to spawning there.

Once you displace them, you have problems.

- The clearer the water is the, you know, the deeper seagrass beds can grow and seagrass are kinda like a canary in a coal mine.

It's telling us that things aren't going very well in the state of Florida right now.

Over the last decade we've lost about 180 square miles of seagrass meadows across the state.

It's really kinda like a perfect storm of more people, more wastewater, more storm water.

And our infrastructure just wasn't up to the task.

- In 2016, a sinkhole at the new well stack caused more than 200 million gallons of contaminated water.

- 340,000 Gallons of raw sewage.

- Massive piles of hazardous waste.

- To spill into the Floridian aquifer.

- Now attention will be placed on the bay.

- The concern obviously is algae blooms, which could rob oxygen out of the water once the algae dies.

- An area already struggling with red tide.

- [Scott] On a small scale red tide actually is part of the system.

It is beneficial.

Where it came into play is you and I and the unnatural nutrients and with all the what goes into the water and we create an algae bloom, which the red tide feeds off of.

We're fishing this pass area and we were talking about the aquifer earlier.

If you look back here, you'll see it.

It breaks off and where it affects my fishing, there's no way I could fish here physically.

You throw it in there and it gets tangled and you can't fish.

So that's one reason why with this algae blooms that we have are affecting our fishing.

That's it right there.

Very dense.

Nutrients, sunlight and it grows.

You know, educating people that you're gonna have to pay a little bit to keep your water clean.

- [Sarah] It's a bit of a catch 22 when you get a red tide in Tampa Bay.

It's not pleasant, it's not desirable, but it does bring my tide to the attention of maybe people that normally wouldn't experience it because they're not on the water to see it themselves.

Not only does it impact the fish, it impacts the fishing industry, it impacts the tourism industry.

And this is what we love about our state is that natural connection that people have to the water.

- I'm very concerned that most people, your average American is not very tied to the natural system.

And I think about how this disconnect I think has allowed us to have very detrimental effects on our natural resources without your average person being aware of it.

I am a hundred percent sure that we put our mind to finding a way to put the health of our earth first and engage the world community in that, that we can.

- This community is, is already investing a lot of money.

Our local governments around here have committed to spending almost a billion dollars, about 900 million over the next five to 10 years to deal with wastewater and storm water issues and habitat restoration and water quality.

'Cause they realize how important it is this bay is worth more than a billion dollars.

- So we like to bring people out here to let 'em know this is what the water quality can be like in parts of Sarasota Bay.

If we do more of the right thing, maintaining our water quality, getting a kind of resilient shoreline.

You got beautiful water clarity.

We've got grass beds that are growing deep enough that manatees can actually like feed on 'em and not be exposed to the air.

Yeah, this is what we're trying to do.

We're trying to make as much of the bay look like this as possible.

- Being able to educate people in how to manage it, especially our fisheries and realize that this is what we have.

You can't just take, take, take, you gotta give to preserve what we have.

- [Justin] We're here now with a panel of local change makers in the community with their boots on the ground addressing these issues in their own ways.

So I'm really excited for the panelists to introduce themselves and tell me a little bit more about what they do.

So let's start on this side.

- My name is Getulio Gonzalez Mulattieri.

I'm a community organizer and a student.

I'm the lead of the Clean Buses for Healthy Ninos campaign, which is essentially we're trying to transition all bus leads in the state of Florida to electric and you know, community organizing is, is just about getting the community involved in their local politics.

So that's how I play my role against climate change.

- Awesome.

Awesome.

- My name's Jo Huxster.

I am an assistant professor of environmental studies at Eckard College and I study public understanding of climate change and I teach classes on climate change communication and environmental communication.

So I work with students to help them take action on climate.

- Awesome, Awesome.

- My name is Mallory Dimmitt and I'm the CEO of the Florida Wildlife Corridor Foundation and I lead a nonprofit organization that heads a collaborative campaign to protect this region wide focus for the Florida Wildlife Quarter.

- I'm region wide Trautwein, I'm associate pastor at Trinity Presbyterian Church in Clearwater, Florida.

We are what's known as a PCOSA Earth care congregation.

So we're very involved in trying to make a difference in the climate and in the environment and we just recently installed a 391 panel solar system on our sanctuary and fellowship hall roofs.

- Fantastic.

So climate change is all around us.

Why is it so difficult though for climate change to be something that people take action towards?

- Yeah, so the climate change overall is terrifying, right?

If you really understand and really dig into it, it's really scary and it's a huge issue that takes a really long time to unfold and it's becoming more and more obvious.

But we've known about climate change.

I mean really we understood about carbon dioxide causing increased temperatures in the atmosphere in the 1800s.

So it's a long slow issue.

So the fact that it's really scary is something that when something is so scary and so big, we are psychologically sort of predisposed to back away from it and not want to think about it 'cause we don't feel like we can solve it.

When it's long and slow we don't really assess long slow risks very well.

So a lot of the things about climate change make it something that we, that psychologically we just don't perceive as risky.

- Historically, when we think about climate change, a lot of the communication around those efforts is doom and gloom scenarios and we're like, you know, wagging our fingers at people.

So, you know, how are we, how are you helping students prepare to communicate about climate change in perhaps a different way?

- Yeah.

So one of the things that I think is so important about effective climate change communication is giving people an idea of what a healthy future could look like.

Because we tend to shy away from either futures that we can't imagine or futures that seem all about sacrifice.

And a lot of the messaging around climate change has been, you're gonna have to give up this, you're gonna have to give up that no more flying, no more eating meat.

And what we haven't had is a lot of positive messages about what a cleaner, healthier, more just future will look like.

And so we need more of those stories in order for people to feel like, oh, that's something I want to move towards rather than just be scared of.

- Gotcha.

Gotcha.

Mallory, it sounds like you've done some amazing work as well, kind of having your boots on the ground.

I'd love to hear more about how that contextualize in all of this.

- Yeah, well our organization uses that same hope-based messaging to try to reach people about the many benefits of protecting a wildlife corridor.

So we're really messaging about the need to keep the wildlife corridor connected for all the benefits and that it reinforces that we are all connected.

What happens in the headwaters and in the center part of the state affects our coast and we can't just be thinking about coastal areas.

You know, we've gotta be thinking about the sort of larger network.

So we do a lot of expeditions to help get the message out about the fact that there is this wildlife corridor, that it does still exist and the opportunity is still there to protect it.

So I participated in five different expeditions across the state, totaling over 2000 miles now, and we just did our first ever youth expedition with three teen trekkers about a year ago.

And they're describing their home waters in their backyard and why it needs to be protected to be that sort of voice for their peers, which is so, so wonderful.

And so everywhere we go we look at just, you know, why people should care about protecting our wildlife habitat and what they can do in their own backyard.

- So Kathy, I'm really interested in, you had solar roofs installed in your church and you're a leader for people of faith.

Why is that?

- Why?

Because we we're a church that's very involved in social justice issues and we see care of the creation as both a social justice issue for the environment, but also for people because people are very much affected by the environment.

And if we as a faith community don't step up and try to make a difference and use the pulpit that we have to reach out not just to people of faith, but other people in the community.

So we're in a location that a lot of people pass our church all the time.

So we see that installation as a way to promote to the community the installation of solar.

- And so this is a pillar of the community and the community members see this.

What effect do you feel like that has on them?

- Well we see it both in our local community on publicizing solar, but also because our presbytery helped us get the panels they are as well as us are gonna use it to promote these within the churches, trying to get more congregations to go solar and promoting that it's not just about saving money, which is always a good thing for a church, but also that it's about the environment.

- I would just like to build off that.

I think it, you know, faith-based organizations is like the perfect place to foment change in that way.

I mean think of what you can do.

You can on that land you could probably put in a solar farm that impacts an entire community.

You know, so there's plenty of solutions out there for people want to think creatively.

- Yeah.

- And Getulio, it sounds like you're working on a related project.

- Yeah, actually we collaborate with plenty of faith-based organizations basically, you know, meeting people where they're at, right?

If people are focused on, you know, kitchen table issues, economic issues, that's what we lure them in with.

And then we, I don't like using the word educate, but we create awareness around the resources that there's available to the community.

For example, in West Tampa, energy burden is a very big issue.

So we collaborated with a non-profit organization at that church to, you know, let them know that there are subsidies for weatherization programs and things of that nature.

It's difficult, you know, in predominantly black and brown communities to talk about climate change because to a lot of the people that I work with or you know, in the communities that I work in, it's something that they don't really think about on the day to day.

As I said earlier, it's about, you know, the kitchen table issues.

If you can relate climate change to that, then they start caring.

For example, energy burden or air quality and how it affects their children in academics, if you talk to them about sea level rise, oh that's the some giant in the hilltop.

But if you're saying, you know, energy burden is affecting your electricity bill and you might end up evicted and if you end up evicted, your neighborhood's gonna end up gentrified, then they start like, okay, yeah.

You know, and as someone who's lived in West Tampa on an off for about 15 years, I've seen the identity of an entire community change over the years.

So when you talk about that, then it becomes tangible.

Okay, climate change is contributing to all these things in a sort of a domino effect or pattern and you start caring.

- And Mallory, I know we talked a little bit about expeditions and how they're a great device to immerse people in what the problem might be or who the problem, who solving the problem might help.

Is there anything else that you do to augment some of those experiences?

- Sure.

Because the wildlife corridor has so many different factions who care about it, it's a very large area across 18 million acres of the state of Florida and it's multifaceted.

You can also really tailor to different audiences, right?

So we talk a lot about the importance of agriculture in Florida, that is the working lands that are the connections in between the existing conservation lands and keeping agriculture in agriculture which might some people might not think of as a, you know, a mainline conservation strategy.

But it is critically important for the future of the wildlife corridor.

And when we talk to elected officials, we're also talking about, you know, the economic impact of our wild places and the tourism and you know, just our lifestyle and health benefits from them and putting that into economic figures that help really quantify those benefits.

And then look at the return on investment for protecting these lands for future generations.

- Yeah, it sounds like something that speaks to a completely different demographic.

You know, you present in terms of ROI, people are like, oh.

- That's right.

- See what you're saying now.

Yeah.

So I'm interested, you know, you all are local change makers at the forefront of addressing these problems and I'm really interested in your level of optimism about where we're going with things and why it is what it is.

So whoever wants to take the first.

- Okay, I'll go ahead.

No, I'm definitely feeling optimistic about it.

I mean, you know, you see what's happening at the federal level with the IRA and this, you know, it's not as much as we need or would like, but it's definitely historic, the amount of investment in renewables.

So yeah, I definitely have hope for the future is just, you know, making sure that these tactics and these programs are sustainable and you know, chip away at it, right?

That's how change happens.

It doesn't happen overnight.

- So Getulio and I are really lucky in that we work with students and kids and they will give you that hope because they are so excited to do the work.

And I do see a lot of eco anxiety and depression and even eco grief amongst my students, but they wanna work through that and make the change happen.

So we all work through that together and then we try to move on to those next steps.

How can we make the world a better place together?

And that's, I mean, that makes me so optimistic that and working, you know, with people like you all and the fact that this program is even happening, all of those things make me feel like we're gonna work for a better future.

- Really quickly, how would we define eco anxiety and eco grief?

- So eco anxiety is anxiety about the environment and specifically anxiety about the future because of environmental damage.

And then eco grief is sort of a step further sort of mourning for either the things that are already broken or gone or mourning for the things that we know are going to be going.

A lot of my students have a lot of grief about coral reefs for example, because, you know, we're in a, a school that has a marine science program and a lot of them have a lot of grief about a future that they feel like they're being robbed of and that is really hard to work through and we all have to do it together.

I actually take a whole day in my climate change communication class to go sit on the beach and talk through what we're scared of and what we're mourning and how we're going to pull through stronger on the other side.

And it's really common in Gen Z and younger people now.

- Yeah.

You have that advantage of working with younger people who do have that excitement.

And the challenge is keeping it there.

Where as when you work with older people, it's a little harder to get that energy and enthusiasm because they've kind of reached that point, Well I don't care because you know, I'm not gonna be around to worry about it.

It's like, do you have grandchildren?

Do you have great-grandchildren?

You know, trying to get that same level of energy and enthusiasm to where they're ready to make the changes.

They're ready to work, they're get ready to get out there and talk to people and try to make a difference.

Because I think a lot of people are saying, we're quickly reaching that point of no return.

- So if you had someone maybe with their head hung low looking down thinking there's no way I can make a difference, what is something you would say to them?

- Just go out there and do it.

Get involved.

I started as a campaign volunteer for electoral politics.

Here I am, I'm an organizer and you know, I'm proud of the work that I'm doing that I've done so far.

So don't think that you're powerless.

You know, something that I always tell people from the communities that I work in is like, they're not the government, you're the government.

You hire them to work for you and represent you.

So that's always my message, you get involved.

- I love that we're always telling people to get outside and just enjoy these places but also take somebody with them or tell somebody else about it, right?

So that they'll share in that enjoyment.

But I think there are also some really specific things that people can do that are pretty easy relatively.

One is you can support Florida agriculture when you eat.

And so you know, buying local, we have a fresh from Florida label and that's something that everyone can do anywhere in the state.

And then I also encourage people to try and plant natives.

And so you know, take out your lawn if you can and replace it with native species, you know, our birds and and other small wildlife in your own backyard.

- I think it's easy for people to feel overwhelmed because they see it as such a big picture problem.

And if you just encourage people that if enough people care and do just a little bit talk, talk to everybody, do little things.

If you talk about using cloth napkins instead of paper napkins or washable dishes instead of paper, then other people think, Oh yeah, I could do that.

That's not that big a deal.

So if we just look at the little things, it's not so overwhelming to people.

- What I like about your answer is that it's not changed to the cloth napkins.

It's tell everybody change to the cloth napkins too.

'Cause you are doing the one thing is not as awesome as everybody you know doing it cause you talked about it.

- Yeah.

- So you all have a multifaceted approach to addressing the climate issues that we face today.

And I'm walking away from this inspired with some actionable next steps, some things that I need to be doing too.

So thank you all for sharing your perspective on all this.

- Thank you.

- [Kathi] Thank you.

- Future generations will inherit the climate crisis and many young people are striving for a more climate resilient future with passion and resolve.

This generation is paving the way for hope and innovation.

- Climate is truly a medium that we exist in.

It impacts everything, right?

I don't think resilience can be bought or built.

People being priced out of the places they live, affordable, luxury apartments being built everywhere.

It breaks up those communities that have kept each other going through all the hardships.

The more I see that go away, it undermines resilience.

- I live in Florida, this is the sunshine state.

Renewable energy and solar should not be a partisan issue.

Within the next 50 years what's right now is not going to be a reality.

The mega itself is this is something that can happen now, this is not something that requires five or 10 years of research.

- We learn about a lot of problems, not necessarily a lot of solutions.

The motto is to connect fragmented spaces to the grander ecology no matter what that space is.

Even if it's a window sill or if you've got 50 acres, there's always kind of something that can be done.

- [Joey] Cleo Institutes we find spaces where communities aren't heard from and then we talk to people.

It's just reaching out to all the tangential issues that climate change impacts and to have a stake in all of it.

There's a huge issue now.

It's not just affording rent, it's affording rent and flood insurance and people being able to move if the place they live ends up being underwater.

There's a stark difference between what happens to the haves and the have nots.

We kind of took on this partnership and decided to grow alongside of the city.

People are well aware of problems that they face.

They know when it's too hot.

They know when their energy bills get too high.

So we wanted to find people who live in the neighborhood who were willing to work with us.

That's kind of what this work demands is that like you become a part of the community in a way.

Right now we're in Sulfur Springs, Tampa.

Traditionally places like this tend to be overlooked.

- Our biggest problem in this neighborhood is the flooding that we experience.

When it comes down to climate change, the houses sink, the whole yard will flood out during the rains.

- [Joey] So what happens when we see a storm like we did a week or so ago, to people who are so reliant on automobiles but don't have any, especially in a place that floods and doesn't have any real public transportation.

- Well you better hope you're signed up with the city and that they are able to get out to you to get you or you have to depend on other family members who also need to get someplace where they're safe.

- [Joey] As far as people's actual capability to make these changes.

It really comes from gathering.

And so conversations like these are the first step in doing something about these issues with landlords and flooding and all that stuff we've been talking about.

We're asking the city to basically have a very clear and concise way to share information about evacuations during emergencies.

Just take the initial steps in preparing for growing food here locally in a more robust way and weatherization of homes to further prepare for worsening climatic events.

- We can't do it by ourself.

It takes the entire community working together to make the change.

You can't have people to give up.

- [Joey] I can't take on the issues of China's climate or pollution issues.

I can't take on India's.

I can take on a couple city blocks.

It's just best for me to talk to my neighbors about what we can do, about where we live and then encourage other people to do the same.

- [Orion] Today we are out here about halfway between downtown Sarasota and downtown Bradenton.

Well come on in.

All of this went in just about a year ago or so.

Then some of the more support species as we call them, are really taken off as we can see out here.

'Cause it already's looking pretty dense.

I am the founder of the Florida Rewilding Collective, which is a native and ecological landscaping company.

What I do for clients with the business is pretty much what we see behind us.

I'll meet with them and observe the site for as long as possible and then narrow that down into a finite design.

Food forests are a really great idea here in our area when they're going to create a lot of habitat, much more than your average lawn.

They're going to help the health of our watershed by preventing nutrients from going out into those freshwater creeks and streams and then eventually going out into our bays and estuary.

So has a a part to play in the prevention of red tide and other kinds of algae blooms.

It's going to actually literally provide food for you of course.

And then there's also those benefits on a global scale helping to lock up some of that carbon.

So this one's pretty exciting.

See we got a nice rack of bananas coming in right here.

We got a lot of wildflower attracting plants.

About another hour or so when the sun starts to come on it, this thing will be like absolutely alive.

We're basically just walking on sweet potatoes out here.

There's a mango tree coming down this way.

Sugar cane and more papayas.

This is all an edible ground cover.

It's called longevity spinach.

It's been awesome seeing this transformation and we'll continue to keep building it up out back here.

Yeah, a big part of me kind of really falling in love with this area in southwest Florida in particular was gaining sense of place around here.

The estuaries here are just quite literally unlike anywhere else on earth.

The first time I ever went paddling there, I was like, this has been here for six years and I've never been paddling here.

Being inside the forest itself gives that kind of overhead enc closed effect.

That feeling of reverence.

- [Antonia] Being on the water is my happy place.

Feeling that reflection of the sunlight bouncing off the surrounding water, lighting up your face can only be felt when you're in that moment present.

I was born and raised on a sailboat, so I learned from a very young age, solar panels are really important and we sailed into Sarasota, Florida and I started driving and I realized parking lots or driveway is an untapped surface area for solar.

Gizmo power created the mobile electricity generating appliance or mega.

The creation of the mega initially started as a school project for new college and I worked with my father into creating different versions of this prototype.

We currently have four fully functioning systems.

We are finalists for the American made solar prize, which is funded by the Department of Energy.

Hopefully with the funding we can start bringing mobile electricity generating appliances to the masses.

This is where my father taught me how to weld.

As you can see, it's been a very productive place.

In the future, we won't be needing to manufacture everything out of our garage anymore.

We can manufacture more than one mega per month or two.

Solar and renewable energy should not be only affordable by the affluent population.

Our system is more affordable because it's modular and mobile and in appliance.

Most of state of Florida is powered by fossil fuels.

You need to start going towards renewable energy.

What we're doing right now is not sustainable.

My advice to young adults is to understand that it's not going to happen overnight, but the, at the end of the day, you wanna make sure that you are proud of what you're doing and that you are living a life that you think is making a difference in your personal world and of the people around you.

- [Joey] It is very important that people balance the faith that they put in government systems with what they do for themselves.

My hope is in like very small communities, finding a way to adapt and persevere that are not at the forefront of these officials minds.

- [Orion] I am really motivated to try to make a difference wherever I live or wherever I am.

So every time we get to plant a food forest, we're changing the world.

It sounds grandiose to say you're changing the world, but sometimes that's what creating global change is.

It's just a lot of really small things that kind of add up over time.

- [Justin] There's no silver bullet that will solve climate change, but there are plenty of steps we can take to decrease greenhouse gas emissions.

These steps also save us money, improve our health, create more jobs, make our cities more equitable, and preserve the natural beauty that makes Florida so special.

Our individual actions matter.

Our personal choices contribute to about 40% of national emissions.

Reducing your carbon footprint can be as simple as replacing incandescent light bulbs with LED ones.

Weatherizing your home.

Choosing energy efficient appliances and using renewable energy sources are all ways to help.

Cutting down on food waste and adding more plants to your diet are two of the most impactful steps you can take.

Buying food grown locally shrinks carbon costs and supports Florida farmers.

Carpooling, taking public transportation, using a fuel efficient electric or hybrid vehicle, biking and flying less.

These too are ways you can contribute to a greener future.

Florida's forests, wetlands, mangroves, and sea grasses are all carbon storing powerhouses.

Protecting and restoring these ecosystems benefits our climate, our waterways, air, and our wildlife.

If you don't know where to start, think about what matters to you.

Maybe it's improving air quality for your family.

Restoring fish in Tampa and Sarasota Bays, or preventing sunny day flooding in your street.

Find other people who share your goals and talk to your city and county representatives.

Together we can build the future of the Florida we want to see.

We can't undo the greenhouse gas emissions of the past, but each of us has the power to make choices about how we live now.

These choices will shape the climate of future generations.

We can choose to live well and wisely for the sake of people we know and love for strangers will never meet.

And for the part of this planet that we call home.

To view this program again and for additional resources, please visit wedu.org/sustain.

I'm Justin Shaifer and thank you for joining us.

- [Programmer] Sustainability funding on WEDU is provided in part by the Susan Howarth Foundation at Community Foundation Tampa Bay, and the Charles and Margery Sharaishi Foundation.

Additional support provided by the Clearwater Marine Aquarium and Pinella Suncoast Transit Authority.