Today we met with Connie Mutel. We traveled to Iowa City to meet her at the University of Iowa Hydraulics Lab. While her talk was extremely scientific (unfortunately a lot of technical science language goes in one ear and out the other), I was able to follow the majority of her talk. As her talk went on, I felt myself feeling more and more upset. The quick summary of her talk would be that the earth, specifically the prairie, used to be this otherworldly, magical place and humans have essentially ruined it and have dug our own graves. We have poisoned our own planet and if something is not done right now, we will reach a point we cannot return from. I found her talk to be more upsetting and sadder than even the gestation stalls. The idea that if something big doesn’t change, we will be in real danger is terrifying. I personally doubt people will be willing to give up their big pollution emitting trucks and their methane polluting cows. I can hardly imagine an America without fossil fuels. This is especially true because there are still so many people out there who don’t believe in climate change. I even know some of these people. If they don’t even believe climate change is happening, it is unlikely they will change their lives to stop it. Knowing this makes me feel helpless. How can I tell my kids one day that their parents and their grandparents’ generations did nothing to stop climate change and left later generations to fix our mistakes? I want my kids to look back at my generation and be thankful that we decided to make a change to save our planet. Before we can focus on women’s rights, immigration or foreign policy we need to address climate change because otherwise nothing matters.

         After meeting with her I reflected on my actions and my carbon footprint during my twenty years on earth. This made me think of my parents and how they live their lives. This then brought back memories from when I lived on a Coast Guard base in California. At the time my father was the commanding officer of the base. I was in elementary school at the time and a lot of those three years feels a bit hazy and kind of a blur, but I do have some really clear memories. One of these memories is when my father implemented a solar field on the base. The base was surrounded by pasture fields and farm country. Some of the land of the base was field areas that were rented out to local farmers to take care of. My dad decided to make one of these fields a solar field. I remember the day where the solar panels were officially implemented. My family accompanied my father to the figurative ‘ribbon cutting’ ceremony where I flipped the ceremonial switch that started the solar panels. I remember people clapping, and my father being proud, but I don’t think I understood at the time what any of it meant. Knowing what I know now, I look back at that moment with so much pride. My father did many wonderful things during his time as Commanding Officer of the Coast Guard TraCen Petaluma, but I am so proud that he used his three years to make a difference that will not only leave a legacy for the base in years to come but will actually make a difference for the future of our planet. While at the time I did not grasp the impact of his decisions, I can now look back and be so proud of the things he did. In an article from a reporter from this day there is a quote from my father “We want to be a good neighbor and a good steward,” said Captain Chris Hall , Commanding Officer of TRACEN Petaluma. “This is an area that is incredibly environmentally sensitive. It’s important to our neighbors, it’s important to our Congresswoman, and to be a good steward in the Coast Guard is important to us.” The article goes on to say “The agreement helps the Coast Guard save money, have less of an impact on the environment and decreases the demand for energy on the local community power grid. The project is estimated to save TRACEN Petaluma $1.5 million in energy costs over the life of the contract.” I am so proud of my father and how he has worked to promote a better future for me and my siblings.

The article I referenced: https://coastguard.dodlive.mil/2009/10/cg-green-tracen-petaluma-goes-solar/