Undoubtedly you’ve heard the shocking results of the US Presidential election by now. The responses have ranged from fear to anger to sadness, from the US and across the world. It has made me reassess what I value most. My family, my friends, and our wild places. What I’ve concluded is that many of the environmental issues that I care about will not be solved by this new administration, nor likely by the past president or even the other candidate. And it makes me believe even more in the work we are doing at the grassroots level to protect places we love.
If I’ve learned anything in the last 10 years of this work, it is that all conservation is local. Real solutions start from the bottom up. The president never solved water quality issues at a local beach or figured out a way for communities to brace themselves against sea-level rise. Yes, it can be useful to have the support of a large national government, but, when it comes down to it, it is the communities, the NGOs, the responsible businesses, and local governments that get the job done. The #NatureTrumpsWalls is not about opposing the President-elect, it is about giving the local Irish community in County Clare a say about the future of their coastline. Effective conservation has always been driven by locals, and our job at Save The Waves is to partner with locals in supporting their vision for their coastlines.
Our work is now needed more than ever. And it needs all of us together.
-Nik Strong-Cvetich, STW Executive Director