The speaker visited the Guna people in Panama, whose islands are sinking from sea-level rise and flooding. Twenty islands have already submerged, and seasonal floods that lasted days now last a month. The Guna need to relocate to the mainland, and the speaker asks how to help on their terms.
So I think the most interesting climate realization I had here in Panama, meeting the Kuna people. Their islands are disappearing. Their homes are getting ready to go underwater. They're already having a problem. They inhabit 40 of the 365-ish islands. 20 or so of them are already underwater. They weren't inhabited by humans, but they were inhabited by animals, and those animals had to disperse. They're going to have to at some point in time. Normally, Their islands would flood in one or two, three days in a year around the December period of time. Now their homes are flooding for the entire month of December, and that's been like the last three or four years. And it's getting longer, and they need to leave and come to the mainland because their homes are going to be underwater. And that's moving an entire people to a new territory, and we have to. It's not. We have to. They have to. But I say we have to because it's all of humanity. We have to come together. It's not us and them, because at some point in time, it's— we're going to be the them. So we all need to come together and whatever it is they need to help them move. But it's all, you know, they just need to tell us what they need. It's not for us to— they know. Believe me, they know. How can I facilitate that? That is what I want to know. How can I help facilitate the kuna coming to higher ground? But beyond that, we need to take care of the planet. We really honestly do. I don't give a shit how much money you're making off of this planet at all. Because it's about this. It's not about that.
