A message from our Executive Director, Martha Molfetas –
It is with great pleasure to announce that Impact Human has officially launched! Impact Human has been roughly a year in the making, and we still have a long way to go. The idea came to me after spending a long hot summer in my Floridian hometown.
After half a decade overseas, I decided it was time to come back home – to family, and to the swamps and beaches that make Florida, well – Florida. As Thomas Wolfe said, “you can’t go home again.” And he was right. In that five-year hiatus, the seasons had become Hell on Earth, thanks in large part to climate change. The normal Central Florida summer of my childhood and early 20s gave way to a steady 97°F-110°F+, everyday. My birthplace, Miami, was now going the way of Atlantis, facing daily sea level rise to the point where it no longer matters what phase the moon is in. With all these new realities there was still the good. The beaches, the Caribbean-esqu Florida Keys, the people, the uniquely ‘Florida’ cities, the Everglades – they were all still there, at least for now.
What I saw that summer fueled an awakening, a desire to broaden awareness on these challenging issues that are already affecting communities across the globe.
Throughout my work to date one thing is certain, we are all connected. What happens half a world away can and does have large scale repercussions for us all. As a Researcher focused on the affects of climate change, resources and sustainable development; the bulk of my work was directed at policy-makers, driven by data and macro-level analysis. Very rarely did this work focus on the micro-level impacts of how our changing climate, fossil fuels, or mining affect real people and communities. I saw this huge disconnect between the information out there, the communities facing new insecurities, and everyone else.
At Impact Human, we strive to bridge this information gap through concise and approachable research, visual media and interviews that broaden awareness on these new environmental insecurities.
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If you are interested in being interviewed by us for our inaugural projects, check out our Projects page for more details. We look forward to hearing from you.