Michaela Stith

What’s the work that you do?

I am the author of Welp: Climate Change and Arctic Identities, a travel memoir about environmental justice in the circumpolar North. At the Polar Institute in Washington, D.C., I organize events about Arctic and Antarctic policy, coordinate two blog columns, manage the scholarly publication Polar Perspectives, and direct “The Arctic in 25 Years” Youth Symposium. My best work centers Indigenous and Black people in thought leadership about Arctic research and policy.

What keeps you going?

Alaska is my lifelong home. I always imagined my future children and theirs would have ice to slide on, healthy streams to fish from, and old forests to walk in. But the Arctic Ocean may see its first ice-free summers in 25 years, and the Anthropocene is already transforming northern environments. The conviction among Arctic peoples that their home can be more thriving and equitable for future generations is what keeps me going.

What’s your message to the world?

Climate change is a cultural problem embedded in our relationship with the environment. This means all climate change mitigation and adaptation should focus on human rights and self-determination. Ultimately, a standard of whiteness in science and policy created climate change—and other systemic problems like mass incarceration—in the first place.