Eleventh International Conference on Climate Change: Impacts & Responses

Abstract

In March of 2017, I left school at Whitman with a degree in Environmental-Sociology along with a Fire Science degree from the local community college. As my friends anxiously sat for their final exams, I found myself over a thousand miles away marching towards a growing wildfire with nothing but a tool in my hand. By graduation, I was already two months into a summer of chasing the wildfire epidemic across the country with my hotshot crew; a group of highly trained wildland firefighters employed by the U.S. Forest Service. This was to be the beginning of an exploration of natural disasters on a global scale supported by a Thomas J. Watson Fellowship. Little did I know at the time, but I was embarking on a journey that would ultimately change the course of my life. My Watson year took me to five countries to explore the concept of community from a natural disaster context. During each stop, I aimed to immerse myself in communities that have been struck by disaster, are in the midst of recovery, or are living in the presence of a natural hazard with unknown and uncertain consequences. During the year, I studied the written record and the visual consequences of disasters, read management plans, and attended courses and conferences, I most importantly took the time to listen to the voices of the hundreds of men and women I met along the way.