Author: joshyman

My name is Josh Hyman, and I am a Junior studying Environmental Science. When it comes to my future, I have rather broad interests. I have known for years that I want my career to address Climate Change, but the more I learn the more I realize that this has not narrowed my options. Climate Change impacts and is impacted by almost all human action, meaning I still have to choose what part I want to play. Coming into the OBX Field Site program I expressed these broad interests, but with one qualification: I wanted to be at the nexus of research and implementation. To me there is an imbalance between the scientific research and implementation concerning climate change. I am rather uninformed about the diverse processes required to implement research and so there may be legitimate reasons for an imbalance or not one at all. With this information and described interest, I was paired with George Bonner, the director of the North Carolina Renewable Ocean Energy Program. Aligning with my broad description, my internship began with a broad request: understand the relationship between the blue economy and ocean energy in North Carolina so that opportunities may be identified. The geographic, environmental, social, and economic understanding required to accomplish this broad goal is expansive. Without direction I was lost reading papers, executive summaries, bills, and GIS tutorials. These resources taught me a lot about the coast of North Carolina, the people and businesses that exist here, and the policy that impacts renewable coastal energy. But no matter how much I learned, I didn’t seem to have a story to tell. All this information felt valuable for me and the end goal, but I could not find a narrative to bring it all together. All of a sudden, I had the research and time to find more information if needed, but I could not translate it into recommended action. I found myself where I wanted to be, but unable to take the step from knowledge to action. While I learned a lot of this internship, the largest lesson was about scope and relying on others. I had stayed too broad and relied upon my perspective and experience. When looking for my narrative, I realized that I had stayed too general and tried to do it all myself. I had thought I could truly understand the situation enough to identify what sectors had opportunities and what those opportunities are. If that process could be accomplishable by an individual with no experience in a few months, it would have been done years ago. The way that change is discussed in retrospect is on a large timescale of accomplishments and barriers. The successes and failures can be understood with so much context that it seems like a better result was so clearly within reach. In reality, the human systems I had been blaming for being behind the research where constantly working towards change in the ways and realms possible. My internship provided me with a necessary infusion of reality that is rare in education.