The value and power of genuinely enjoying the work one does creates that dash of magic that can transform any workstation into one that draws out inner joy, creativity, and unparalleled success. Workstations ranging from the boardroom and cutting-edge technologies to creative spaces like the culinary arts can all be successful with the alignment of an individual’s collaborative skill adaptations and appropriate skill transformations.

As we’re seeing with the emergence of artificial intelligence, industries, jobs, and the future professional landscape are undergoing dramatic shifts. To cope with these changes, the existing and future workforce scrambles to adapt to change and stay relevant. Individuals around the globe are quietly discovering their strengths and carving a path to professional excellence by leveraging their talents and passions. Recently, I learned of a workplace success where the easel took center stage during the uncertain times of COVID to paint a professional success story. I would like to share the story of Natalia Peraita Jimenez.

An Artist’s Journey begins during COVID

Natalia is a successful artist, curator, and designer based in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Interestingly, she had not pursued Art as a profession earlier in life. As a student, she studied Fashion Design in Spain and later took on professional roles unrelated to Art. Life moved on for Natalia; she slipped into an expatriate life with her husband and three children. Living and experiencing the cultures of different countries, she was in Hanoi, Vietnam, when the pandemic engulfed everyone’s lives. Her children were homeschooling, and life was greatly restricted. It was at that moment of uncertainty all around her that Natalia turned to painting canvases to channel her thoughts in a positive direction by embracing creativity. “Painting became my daily routine and my happy place.”

From then on, she poured her heart into the vibrant canvases she filled with her bold brushstrokes, and her career as an established artist and curator grew organically. Post-COVID, when Natalia’s children returned to school, she began engaging in community projects. The first NGO she joined was Keep Vietnam Clean, for which she planned and organized various art-related events. A notable event she curated was an Art exhibition titled ‘Through our Eyes’. Through this initiative, Natalia intended to show how environmental problems are perceived and portrayed in the individual art expressions of 30 participating local and international artists.

Since then, her professional accomplishments have grown by leaps and bounds through her successful work on her own creations and her passion for organizing and participating in events in different countries, showcasing other artists’ creations. ‘Art should be deeply embedded into every single layer of our society, and be accessible to everyone, from kids to the elderly,’ opined Natalia.

Passion for Art ignited in childhood

Natalia’s inherent passion for Art has undoubtedly carved out her path of success even at a later stage in life. Chatting with her, I learned how she discovered the world of Art way back in her childhood in her Abuela’s house in Madrid. Her grandmother is a crafter who loves to paint and uses her creative instincts to work with silver and tinwork to make beautiful creations. As a child, Natalia would often spend time with her after school, and during these times, her abuela would encourage her to create things from small items while she herself painted at her worktable. Undoubtedly, these precious formative years of her exposure to the world of art and creation, under her grandmother’s loving encouragement, planted the seeds of a genuine love for art in Natalia’s life.

Strides in the Path of Art

Today, Natalia is moving forward with confidence and passion, painting a path of joy and fulfillment around her. Her story offers valuable life lessons in growth and courage that help transform one’s dreams into reality. Natalia shares her passion for Art. “Art, for me, is a dialogue with the intangible, an exploration of what is felt rather than what is seen. Instead of offering answers, my art seeks to awaken emotions and provoke questions. I don’t aim to suggest a specific image or a defined interpretation, but rather to open a space for the viewer to have their own conversation with the artwork. The beauty of abstract art is precisely that freedom of meaning, that private and intimate connection where each person projects their own experiences, emotions, and memories onto what they see. Without labels or explanations, each canvas becomes a mirror in which the viewer can recognize themselves in unexpected ways. Because in the end, art is not only what you see, but what it makes you feel”.

The influence of our childhood images

Natalia’s story made me sit back and ponder on the strength of reflective wisdom. I thought that although childhood is fleeting, it shapes our connection to the world and our ability to consciously define who we become. These reflections encourage us to nurture the inner child, maintain curiosity, and appreciate the simple, enduring joy that stems from our earliest years.

“You have really taken weight loss very seriously, I can see. Otherwise, who could imagine a breakfast omelet loyalist like you celebrating Friday morning with a chia bowl?” It was then that I realized that, though I had started embracing healthy, fiber-rich recipes as a freshly minted entrant to the 50s club, I truly enjoyed the meal, too. It was not a painful change. Nothing against omelets. They are still my favorites, but I equally enjoy chia puddings, oatmeal, Buddha bowls, and so on.

As I sat later, reflecting on my conversation and my transformed breakfast, the power, role, and reality of transformation struck me. Starting with a simple breakfast bowl, I thought about all the transformations around me this Friday morning. I identified the ‘then and now’ features around my ‘smart kitchen space’ and my grandmother’s kitchen space decades ago. The soft, rhythmic sound of the dishwasher in action had replaced my mother and grandmother’s laughter and chatter as they tackled the pots and pans, scrubbing and washing them squeaky clean. The electric kettle whistling in the corner, getting the water ready for my morning Chai, brought back memories of my father whistling his favorite tune as he boiled water in a saucepan to prepare his morning tea. The gardener was working in our backyard, driving his mower as it swiftly trimmed the overgrown grass while he sat in the driver’s seat, all the while listening intently to his favorite Spanish songs through the tiny Bluetooth speaker plugged into his ear. He had replaced my grandfather, trimming the lawns of our ancestral home, while he walked around with great care and intention, his transistor set on the front patio, tuned to his favorite radio station, playing wonderful melodies aloud. The Deboot robot was tirelessly hovering around our living space, cleaning every nook and cranny in place of our smiling, bespectacled helper lady, Sandhya, who tucked her sari around her knees and effortlessly crouched into a crow pose, sweeping and mopping every inch of our living space in my childhood home.

Transformations are the greatest allies in our lives, shaping and molding our experiences to align with the winds of change time entails. So much has changed around my breakfast table from my parents’, and so much will surely change when my grandchildren sit down for their Friday morning breakfast in times to come. The key is to understand that, as nostalgia tugs at our hearts, the open-mindedness to embrace transformations and to genuinely appreciate and enjoy their role in our lives is equally critical to creating maximum value from all that life offers us.

I am concluding my Friday morning, thinking over my cup of coffee, that transformation is the strategic, comprehensive rethinking of how, where, and when various activities in our lives are performed, integrating technology, physical space, and cultural expansion to improve our life experience. Today, it involves the strategic adoption of AI and automation, the redesign of our homes and offices to foster collaboration rather than just individual tasks, and, finally, an open-mindedness to changing operational mindsets.

The question is, are you noticing, embracing, and integrating the multitude of such tiny micro-transformations playing out around your home and office every day?

Today, one thing is clear: we are all operating in a faster, more tumultuous, and far more connected world than before. Amongst all the twists and turns that have unfolded since 2020, the grip of the pandemic on the entire globe remains the most dominant and defining period. Lives changed dramatically for millions in every corner of the world. However, through such moments of despair and anguish today, we are steadily learning about several stories of courage, resilience, and innovative thinking that have forged unparalleled victories in life. I call them the uplifting tales from the pandemic years. Today, I would like to share one such heartwarming account from Vietnam that has left me incredibly inspired.

My story begins in 2018, when I moved to Hanoi, Vietnam, with my family. I was keen to explore and learn more about the fascinating country I was living in, and it was in this context that I was introduced to a young Vietnamese tour guide, Ms. Lan. Every week, I would set out to learn more about Vietnam by exploring Hanoi’s neighborhoods on foot. Many of these avenues were explored with Lan, as I got to taste unique local cuisine, visit fascinating places, and, most interestingly, be spellbound by Lan’s captivating storytelling as we took breaks to sip Vietnamese tea or coffee in quaint cafes tucked away in charming neighborhoods across the city. I still remember how we mostly walked during these tours, and it was only at the end of the day that I would realize the great distances we had covered, all the while immersed in conversation and not realizing how time passed by.

My story today is not about the tours, though each one of them made me discover and learn so much. I will put them all together at another time. Today, I wanted to share how inspired I was with my tour guide herself. Lan was born in the village of Minh Chau on an island in North Vietnam, about 60 km from the center of Hanoi. Her grandparents and parents were corn farmers; now they are dairy farmers. Her brother also works on farms. She is the only one from her family who, with her own initiative, went to the University in Hanoi to pursue higher education. While in Hanoi, she started her own tour-guiding business to earn a living and, in the process, learned English through her interactions with international tourists who booked her tours. She built a successful business and operated tours in Hanoi, Ninh Binh, Halong Bay, and Sapa. I remember being hugely impressed by her life story back then. However, now I feel an even greater admiration after learning of her marvelous accomplishments since then.

In 2020, when the pandemic took hold of everyone’s lives, tourist activities in Hanoi completely closed. After waiting a few months, the severity of the global crisis worsened. With no job as a tourist guide, Lan decided to move back to her village in June 2020. This is where her indomitable spirit continued to pave an ingenious path. Instead of simply waiting at home, she decided to use her English skills to start her own English School for children in her village. There was no such avenue available in her village, and this was the first-ever platform created here.

At the beginning, she posted on her social media account that she planned to start English classes for children ages 5 to 10. Her post received great support from parents in her village, and in no time, she had 30 students ready to join her classes. Excited by the response, she started three batches of English lessons for first-grade, second-grade, and third-grade students. Her students loved learning with Lan. She made personalized lesson plans that included games, and she painstakingly worked on each child’s pronunciation in the homework their parents would send back via videos from their phones.

Lan’s charges are nominal, and they have provided her village children with the opportunity to simply cycle over to her home to learn. Otherwise, they had to travel almost 10 kms to reach the nearest English center, which is much more expensive. Lan also teaches the children for free whose parents are truly needy and unable to pay her fees. In fact, she rewards her students who score highly at school to motivate them to learn more. Six years down the line, now she has 185 students, aged 5–13. She conducts 8 classes, with each student attending twice a week to learn vocabulary, listening, speaking, and grammar.

Recently, I had an opportunity to receive Lan’s thoughts on her amazing life journey, and here is what she shared. “This is the best decision I have made in my life. My students love my lessons and feel sad to miss any class. That is a great achievement for me.’ Lan continues to strive for excellence and is now working hard to learn even better English, as she shared, “I need to improve my English proficiency and teaching methods, and I am now back at the University to pursue my second bachelor’s degree. I am currently studying English. I am also conducting tours to pursue my passion. I often invite any guest who would like to explore the countryside to visit and share conversations with my students.”

Reflecting on Lan’s inspiring journey, I am convinced we need not fear the NAVI world if we have an open mind, courage, and an invincible, stand-alone spirit.

‘Out of adversity comes opportunity.” — Benjamin Franklin.

“AI is going everywhere, doing everything, all at once.”

On November 20, 2025, the Wall Street Journal’s front page had the above quote from NVIDIA Chief Executive Jensen Huang.

Artificial Intelligence is the focus of the business world today, as NVIDIA reported a 62% sales surge from a year ago, with its October 2025 quarter revenue hitting a record USD 57.0 billion.

As 2025 draws to a close, the presence of AI in our daily lives is undeniable. Right down to the most un-tech-savvy person, AI’s reach is real. As we prepare for year-end, let us look back at some path-breaking grassroots-level AI use cases around the globe today.

AI aids Geospatial Community Initiatives in Africa.

Today, AI is already empowering daily life in communities. A story from Africa describes several rural regions that remain isolated from the world due to the lack of bridges, resulting in exclusion from healthcare, market access, and education for their children. It is now recognized that a considerable number of rural waterways, which cut off entire villages during the rainy season, have not yet been mapped by governments or businesses. A non-profit, Bridges to Prosperity, turned to AI to fill the data gap.

In early 2025, the non-profit stated that its AI tools had helped document over seventy-five million miles of unmapped waterways and thereby guide governmental plans across East Africa. It built Fika Map, an AI tool that identifies locations where bridges could be constructed and estimates overall construction costs.

Another initiative is the creation of an AI model, WaterNet, that maps the world’s waterways. Satellite data used to detect elevation and vegetation patterns was analyzed by the AI model to identify the approximate location of rivers.

Bridges to Prosperity is using these programs with governments in Rwanda, Ethiopia, Uganda, and Zambia to help plan bridge construction and improve infrastructure across the countries.

In Swahili, “Fika” means “to arrive.”

The AI age has indeed arrived!!

AI Benefits Women at the grassroots in Asia.

Artificial Intelligence is helping protect vulnerable women and accelerate their training opportunities in Southeast Asia. Now the UN System is leveraging the latest digital tools to bring gender equality closer to reality.

Inhabitants of the more remote islands of the Philippine archipelago have often not been able to fully benefit from training opportunities offered by the United Nations and its partners, owing to access challenges from urban areas. Armed with AI support, the International Labor Organization has been helping business owners, particularly women entrepreneurs, in such regions through AI chatbots.

On Siargao Island, an AI chatbot is providing women selling coconut products with technical advice and helping women entrepreneurs create effective Facebook digital marketing posts. With generative AI, these Filipina women can swiftly create compelling content, driving greater online engagement, and accelerating sales. ILO and its partners plan to scale up AI-enabled coaching to reach at least 15,000 small and medium-sized businesses across the Philippines over the next three years.

In Thailand, the AI-powered SoSafe platform has been empowering women with helpful advice on social issues, including unintended pregnancies, sexual harassment, and domestic violence. The impact has been considerable, as SoSafe is now accessible to 600,000 users and has strengthened communication between affected women and support services.

AI-driven Biodiversity Protection in Latin America

AI-driven initiatives in the Amazon rainforest focus on responsibly tracking biodiversity and helping shape sustainable community livelihoods and reforestation. These initiatives leverage satellite imagery, acoustic monitoring, and machine learning, often integrating the work of local and Indigenous communities with technological tools.

For example, PrevisIA (developed by the Brazilian non-profit Imazon and Microsoft) is an AI platform that forecasts future deforestation hotspots, enabling local governments and NGOs to take preventive action. Another initiative is Amazon Mining Watch, which uses AI to map the impact of gold mining across all nine Amazonian countries. This tool, which tracks the rapid expansion of legal and illegal mining in the world’s largest rainforest, uses detailed analysis of historical and recent satellite imagery. Project Guacamaya, a collaboration between Microsoft AI and the Humboldt Institute, uses AI to process data from hidden cameras and acoustic recorders (bioacoustics) to assess biodiversity loss.

Mirroring local AI into lasting global impact

When AI is customized and effectively connected to local realities, it creates long-term solutions with global relevance. Today, we are witnessing steady growth in the ‘Citizen science’ approach, which empowers communities to assimilate data, conduct research, and create lasting solutions.

The road ahead will witness many more such Grassroots AI initiatives for empowering communities through data and citizen science across the globe.

Today as I sat down for a delicious lunch of Garlic Naan and Butter Paneer in an upmarket restaurant in Dallas, a beautiful flashback made me smile and I just had to write about it.

Every alternate Friday morning, the smiling Vietnamese lady riding her red scooter was a welcome feature at our front door, during our three years expatriate life in Hanoi, Vietnam. Ms. Huyen came with a big blue bag from which she would take out a packet neatly labelled with my name, Ms. Ritu’, handwritten on it. The packet had a freshly made slab of 500 gms of paneer (cottage cheese). Paneer is a fresh acid-set cheese, usually made from cow milk and commonly used in Indian households.

What is so special about this?

Only this, that Vietnamese cuisine has negligible dairy products. Paneer is not the regular feature in a Vietnamese kitchen. Yet there was Ms. Huyen supplying her homemade Paneer.

Some years ago, she had met an Indian expatriate woman in whose house she used to help in cleaning chores. She observed Paneer being made in that house and through conversations learnt of its popularity amongst Indian households. Since Indian grocery items were not widely available in the city, the lady she worked for used to make it at home. Huyen understood that in India paneer was easily available in every neighborhood store.

This is where the entrepreneur in Huyen woke up. She thought she had her motorbike; she could get clients from her Indian employer’s friend circle, and she had her two hands and a hard-working mindset.

That’s it!!

Her WhatsApp profile changed into a lovely colored pencil sketch of a plate piled with paneer cubes drawn by her granddaughter.

‘Huyen’s Paneer’ was born!

Each such home grown business initiative has such a delightful story to tell the world. Every word of these stories is powerful, path-breaking and unimaginably inspiring.

The ability to seize an opportunity and pave one’s own way.

As I watch today’s world being taken over by AI at every turn of the road, my old-fashioned mind continues to celebrate the ‘human’ intelligence and its infinite possibilities!!

#Entrepreneurship #Opportunity #Humanintelligence

Last week I was strolling through a leafy neighborhood in Mckinney, Texas, when a roadside structure caught my eye. A neatly arranged array of weather instruments stood on the road divider, quietly doing its job, oblivious to the evening traffic passing by on its either sides. The whirring metallic cups of the anemometer literally danced to the tune of the stiff sunset breeze. I fondly remembered the umpteen number of times I had taught my Geography students each of these instruments. Often students find these lessons technical, and I remember racking my brain to understand how to make these instrument lessons interesting.

My suggestion to many of my students has been to transport their textbook lessons into their daily life mode! For instance, if I could take my students for this evening walk with me and go on a quest to discover their geography lesson components around us, then certainly the geographer’s world will become alive and real.

The road divider structure, is actually a road weather station. Such neighborhood weather stations steadily monitor weather conditions along roads to provide essential data for an array of daily life components like traffic management and driver safety by measuring factors like precipitation, temperature, road surface conditions, and visibility. In today’s world of satellite coverage and cutting-edge technologies for monitoring weather, the importance of such neighborhood grassroot data sources remain a critical component.

I remember reading an article for Directions Magazine in December 2000, penned by Dr. R. Golledge called, “Geography in Everyday Life.” I believe it continues to be one of the most widely read articles of the magazine.

Indeed, the geographer’s learning platform can be as near as our own backyards.

A simple observation from the kitchen patio brings in lessons on Global Warming and Climate Change right in front of our eyes. It’s the weekly Wednesday appearance of our Mexican gardener Jose, diligently mowing the lawn and clearing weeds away. Every year he would disappear from November onwards as the winter months set in to our North Texas home. The lawns became a stiff brown hue, and the trees would lose all leaves. Outdoor photoshoots for the next Instagram post for those with birthdays in the winter month would lose its charm as the outdoor background became barren and dull.

The story around Thanksgiving in 2024 was completely different. The grass remained green, and many trees remained standing with their outstretched branches filled with leaves and the lawn mowing continued in full swing.

To put it simply.

Jose never stopped his Wednesday rounds.

The year has turned over and here he is doing the weekly rounds, and we are already into our second month in 2025.

A Geographer’s core quest is to investigate locations and delve into all aspects of finding the exact coordinates, understand their physical and human characteristics and record the findings in maps which have progressed and developed through the times, reaching a phenomenal dimension in today’s ‘AI Wired World’.

However advanced and hi-tech may be the geographer’s domain today, the basic geo-quest makes everyone a geographer in myriad ways in their daily lives. Ranging from my 9-year-old daughter tracking the Amazon delivery route on the delivery map to check when her much awaited squish mellow is arriving at our doorstep, to my husband checking the weather App to ensure he has the right amount of winterwear as he heads off for that important business meeting in New York. Then I noticed my High School Senior daughter (who is a business study enthusiast) including a wonderful world map outlining the source origin of a particular cosmetic range for a research project on dermatology she was presenting to a panel the other day.

The power of the ‘place’ dominates even more strongly today in our super- interconnected and intra-connected world!

So, have you discovered the geographer in yourself, yet?

· 5000 soldiers have been sent to the Valencia region of Spain on top of the 2500 soldiers already there by November 3, 2024.

· An amphibious Spanish Navy ship with operating theaters is set to arrive at the port of Valencia, joining 400 military vehicles, 30 helicopters and dozens of drones.

Above figures from news reports highlight a very big miliary deployment in this Spanish region. In the current times of turmoil with several episodes of unrest all around the globe such stories of military action can be found in many media narratives.

The only difference in the above bullet pointed figures is that all these soldiers, military vehicles in Valencia, are now deployed for a post climate-crisis rescue operation. In Spain it has been recognized as probably the biggest military deployment in peacetime.

Devastating flashfloods causing mass destruction

On October 29th, 2024, thousands of residents of Eastern Spain were caught unaware as in a matter of minutes, flash floods caused by heavy downpours brutally swept away almost everything in their path. Spain’s national weather service announced alarming levels of rainfall. For example, in the hard-hit locality of Chiva, it rained more in eight hours than it had in the preceding 20 months, resulting in an ‘extraordinary deluge’.

The residents, left with no time to react, were puzzled and ran helter-skelter with countless of them cruelly trapped in their own vehicles, homes and businesses. So many lives were lost, and thousands of livelihoods are now shattered. Till date, more than 200 bodies have recovered mostly from the eastern Valencia region. Search continues for an unknown number of missing.

Cause of the flashfloods

Climate scientists and meteorologists have explained that the immediate cause of the flooding was from a cut-off lower-pressure storm system that migrated from an unusually wavy and stalled jet stream. This storm system had unfortunately parked over the region and poured in this colossal amount of rain. In Spain these systems are called DANAs, the Spanish acronym for the system. This DANA concentrated over the Magro and Turia river basins and, in the Poyo riverbed, producing walls of water that overflowed riverbanks, catching people unaware as they went on with their daily lives, with many coming home from work on October 29th, 2024 evening.

In the blink of an eye, the muddy water submerged roads, railways and swirled into houses and businesses in villages on the southern outskirts of Valencia city. Drivers had to take shelter on car roofs, while residents tried to take refuge on higher ground.

Global warming possibly enhanced the entire effect as warmer air holds and then dumps more rain. Weather records had been highlighting the unusually high temperature of the Mediterranean Sea with its warmest surface temperature on record in mid-August 2024, at 28.47 degrees Celsius (83.25 degrees Fahrenheit).

Incalculable economic losses

Enormous amounts of economic losses are being recognized in the wake of Spain’s devastating floods over the last one week. Massive swaths of roads, railroads, infrastructure and business areas getting buried by the flooding disaster will now require a staggering amount of funds to rebuild these critical infrastructure damages. The Spanish Ministry of Transport released €24.8 million on Friday, November 1, 2024, to cover the first emergency repairs to roads and rail infrastructure damaged by the severe flooding. However, looking at the severity of the damage this is just the beginning. The total cost is expected to be a staggering amount.

The need of the hour

I do not recollect watching news reports of such closely spaced climate disasters and that too at such enormous levels in my childhood days and I am only in my forties age bracket. Simply this recollection alarms me as I realize here, we are looking at the swift assault to the climate fabric from a four-decade span perspective.

This topic does not remain qualified only for the ‘experts’ and the ‘authority’ anymore. A grassroot level involvement is required. Strategies for awareness, mitigation, protection and relief need to enter the living room and dining table discussions now. That too fast before time really runs out on the climate-crisis front!

US News and World Report ranked Asheville as #16 in their list for the best place to live and #4 for the best place to retire in the U.S.

The above and many more such nationwide retirement rankings made Asheville in North Carolina a safe, pleasant and stable place to live and retire in. It has steadily attracted retirees whose population increased manifold during the pandemic years and has consistently ranked among the top places to retire in the U.S. across various publications, experiencing a “silver tsunami.”

Retirement Planning and the Climate Connection

Retirement planning is a critical element in an individual’s life journey. Apart from financial concerns there are several behavioral factors influencing retirement decisions as well amongst which a favorable, safe and stable climatic condition holds a great weightage in molding retirement decisions. No one would consciously want to choose a climatically hazardous retirement destination, especially in the silver years.

Looking at Asheville’s key retirement-attraction quotient not only does one recognize its rich culture and signature southern hospitality, but also its mild climate with four distinct seasons along with its gorgeous location sitting at 2,000 feet of elevation and offering stunning mountain views and easy access to the Blue Ridge Parkway.

Asheville was viewed as a climate haven

Researchers have tracked as well as predicted that a key factor initiating residence relocation in the U.S. in recent years is being propelled by climate change induced weather anomalies. For example a study from the First Street Foundation, found that more than 3.2 million Americans have already migrated out of areas with increased flood risk. Additionally, 7.5 million people in U.S. are predicted to leave current and emerging climate abandonment areas over the next 30 years.

In this context Asheville, in North Carolina, had grown into an attractive relocation hub over the past few years. News reports have confirmed many in-migrants to the city had chosen it as it was viewed this as a safe haven from wildfires in the California surrounds in the west and hurricanes that were hitting more coastal areas. This area certainly ranked highly in safety against natural disasters.

Climate Change alters the Asheville Script

The favorable climatic script of Asheville was altered drastically in the month of September 2024. The city witnessed the devastating Hurricane Helene unleashing its horror trail over its unfortunate chosen path of destruction. This hurricane had formed in the Gulf of Mexico above record-hot sea surface temperatures leading to the formation of a line of slow-moving system, stretching from Atlanta through the southern Appalachian region.

Asheville faced death and widespread destruction because of the hurricane. The city reported around 72 deaths, the most in the state. Hundreds of residents went missing or were stranded in the wake of the hurricane. As Asheville sits at the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains, it literally turned into a “catch basin” for rain gushing down 4,000 feet of elevation. The city further became critically vulnerable to the catastrophic flooding as it is situated at the intersection of two major rivers.

Colossal rainfall

It has been estimated by meteorologists that the Hurricane Helene released greater than 40 trillion gallons of rain — a colossal amount of water — onto the region. That rainfall would have been much less intense if humans hadn’t warmed the climate, according to international scientists. By some estimates, Hurricane Helene delivered USD 250 billion in damages to the southeastern United States, concentrated in Florida, Georgia, and North Carolina.

Shifting Perspectives Today

As ordinary citizens we are nowadays waking up to climate surprises at an increasingly fast pace. Locations which were considered safe and stable are being tossed around and becoming climate ravaged overnight. While some places are more at risk of climate-related disasters than others, the idea of climate havens is now itself a big question.

The issue of likelihood is now coming into view on a greater scale now. Just because it is less likely for a specific disaster to happen in one location, does not rule out the possibility that it is not going to happen there.

Let us look at Asheville as an example. While the city is far from the coast, North Carolina as a state was vulnerable flood events linked to tropical storms and hurricanes because of its relative proximity to the warm Gulf of Mexico, and its coastline on the warming Atlantic Ocean. So, this potential is now definitely a factor which must be kept in mind.

As global warming continues at an accelerated pace, now oceans absorb more of the extra heat that’s trapped on Earth by planet-warming pollution, resulting in storms now forming over warmer ocean water much more than before. Hotter oceans act as fuel for hurricanes and help them get stronger. All these factors are shaping hurricanes which can lead to more devastating floods even after these storms travel far inland.

The recent experience in Asheville also brought out another point that places with historically mild climates — like Asheville don’t have the infrastructure for extreme weather events when they happen, making the impacts more treacherous.

The impact of the hurricane on the city of Asheville has been another huge wake up call, outlining how vast and far-reaching climate impacts are today.

Acceptance, awareness building, and holistic preparedness is the more suitable mantra today as there’s no outrunning climate change!!

The Pacific nation — Vanuatu’s contribution is almost nothing (0.0016% of GHG emissions) to the climate crisis.

Yet it faces existential threat to the entire future of its nation!

Over 3,000 kilometers northeast of Australia lies a fragile string of 83 remote islands, an archipelago that makes up the country of Vanuatu.

· According to the UN University World Risk Index, Vanuatu ranks among the world’s most climate vulnerable countries.

• According to a World Bank report, Vanuatu is recognized as one of the most vulnerable countries in the world to climate change impacts, ranked 132nd out of 182 countries in the 2020 ND-GAIN Index.
• Natural disasters in Vanuatu cost on average an estimated 6% of GDP annually.
• Six villages on four of Vanuatu’s islands have been relocated because rising sea levels have made water supplies too salty for drinking.

· Its most valuable commodity is tuna, but the fish are increasingly moving away from Vanuatu’s territorial waters as the oceans warm.

Life in the Frontline of Climate Change

Let us explore how this Pacific nation is facing extreme weather threats and look at their ongoing coping mechanisms. In this context I had the privilege of participating in a truly insightful conversation with a young and enthusiastic Climate Adaptation Expert — Shinjini Mehta — on her first-hand experience of living and working in this delicate ecosystem.

‘Climate change becomes very real when you live in a country like Vanuatu as I personally experienced the impacts of climate change, like more frequent and stronger cyclones, flooding, and storm surges. You move away from theory and get firsthand knowledge and understanding on how to live and protect oneself through these more frequent and intense disasters. You know the risks at ground level’ shared Shinjini as we began our conversation.

Shinjini had worked with local communities in Port Vila and Luganville during her stay in Vanuatu. She described in detail the key challenges faced due to the onslaught of devastating cyclones and other worsening climate related disasters.

Housing and Shelter Constraints

Large parts of the archipelago dwellers live in quite simple homes which are not cyclone proof. Most people in the outer islands are poor and do not have structurally strong shelters to withstand Category 5 cyclones.

‘There is a definite deficit in infrastructure for cyclone and disaster preparedness’ reminisced Mehta. Storm protection for the Ni-Vanuatu (the Indigenous population) relies strongly on evacuation buildings provided by social infrastructures like strongly built churches or schools. While these structures are stronger, they are not designed to match earthquake and cyclone standards and cause disruption to education and religious services when these structures are used longer term for disaster relief needs.

Shortage in grassroot governance manpower

Shinjini shared a sizeable shortage in workforce at the grassroot governance level makes it difficult to get swiftly activated response and recovery efforts in the aftermath of climate related natural disasters.

She explained that in the nineties the country faced a fiscal crisis which led to major public sector reform. This has resulted in significant gaps in governance at the grassroot level, especially in the remote regions of the archipelago nation. These gaps are filled by “kustom” law — a traditional form of governance dictated by chiefs, and recognized in Vanuatu’s constitution, and extension workers like village health workers, who are provided minor compensations.

Accessibility drawbacks

The country is challenged by communication and logistical difficulties due to the complex geography of several scattered islands. Shinjini narrated instances of her experience of travelling for work to remote islands, which can only be reached with small planes and small boats which often require waiting for the right weather conditions. ‘The geography of the country having several dispersed islands making service delivery very challenging. Geographical separations between the islands creates logistical challenges- especially for the outer islands. ’ pointed out Mehta.

Quick succession of extreme weather events

When Shinjini went to work in Vanuatu, Category 5 cyclone Harold had ravaged the country. She was working on a recovery project to rebuild some of the schools and on two projects to develop emergency evacuation buildings in the two big urban centers ‘I noticed the recovery work is always in a deficit. It is a constant game of building/ rebuilding, losing and then rebuilding again which has an overall negative impact on the country’s economy. The focus has now firmly shifted to building back better to avoid future losses’ she shared. She explained that the complete storm recovery is not over before once again devastating cyclones arrive. The situation is being made worse by Climate Change. For example, there were two back-to-back Cyclones barely separated by a few days in early 2023.

‘They are coming sooner, becoming more intense and happening more frequently’ she highlighted.

The resilience of the Ni-Vanuatu people

Alongside the real-life challenges faced by this Pacific nation — Shinjini emphasized on her admiration for the life attitude of the people of Vanuatu. ‘People are not scared of cyclones and disasters here. They know they must live with it and so have developed strong coping strategies, and a resilient mind set,’ she said.

She praised the action-oriented approach of the island dwellers. They have developed an extreme- weather event readiness in getting down to action as soon as they receive intimation of an approaching extreme weather event. As soon as the early warning is issued people stop office work and go home and start preparing for the storm. For example, they secure their homes by cutting tree branches, tying down the roofs, stocking up on food and water supplies etc.

Early warnings are issued by the Vanuatu Meteorology and Geo-Hazards Department (VMGD) within the Ministry of Climate Change, which also includes Climate Change, Energy, and Environment. In addition to these formal channels, most people monitor the oncoming cyclones using the Web App Windy which provides real time cyclone location, trajectory and speed. The country has well set emergency clusters determining which government groups will activate depending on the status of an approaching cyclone as informed by the NDMO from the Vanuatu Climate Change Ministry.

Coping mechanism through generations

During our conversation Shinjini brought my attention to the fact that Vanuatu as a country has always been in forefront of natural disasters owing to its geographical location. So, people through generations here have always faced these weather hazards. The earliest recorded inhabitants lived in caves and dug their produce underground to save it from cyclones. ‘They had their indigenous techniques to survive in these harsh conditions with elevated disaster risks’ highlighted Shinjini.

With the passage of time, the original inhabitants received explorers from afar and learnt to build homes and shelters for themselves. She also observed resilient remnants from the 2nd World War-U-shapedQuonset structures which can withstand cyclones as they can withstand uplift pressures due to their unique shape. In urban centers, buildings are now made of steel reinforced concrete block walls built over concrete footings and concrete slab floors. Some have roofing of Natangura tree leaves, which are still used widely for roofing in rural communities. The sturdier residential buildings also use wrap around cyclone proof shutters which provide additional protection by sealing off the verandah and house during a cyclone.

However today these extreme weather events have become truly devastating and as mentioned above in remarkably close frequencies. The lack of properly constructed shelters, especially in the heavily populated urban centers and remote areas, is a challenge.

Unique construction challenges

‘Vanuatu’s unique geographical exposure makes the building design a layered initiative’ discussed Shinjini while delving on critical post storm reconstruction challenges.

Designing buildings in Vanuatu requires the prerequisite of keeping in mind protection from several hazards– cyclones, storm surges, landslides, floods, tsunamis, earthquakes, and volcanic activity. It is a multi-layered and complex development process due to the differing resiliency and adaptation measures required for the unique hazard types.

Another challenge is the difficulty in identifying a safe site for evacuation shelter construction based on a comprehensive multi-hazard risk analysis. Shinjini recounted an emergency evacuation shelters project she was working in the city of Luganville where her team had a challenge in finalizing the sites as some of the sites identified by the local government were found to be vulnerable to tsunami flooding risks when the team conducted the detailed multi-hazard risk analysis. She explained — ‘for example, the multi-hazard climate and disaster risk analysis revealed that the access routes to two of the proposed sites would be compromised during a tsunami, so they had to be descoped.’ So, finding the ideal available land is the greatest challenge and requires complex multi-layered analyses to build in the required levels of resiliency. The permeates all phases of the project including planning, design, and construction, but also looks into strengthening institutional arrangements for response and community recovery.

Implementing even small projects in Vanuatu is complex indeed owing to its unique exposure to multiple hazards, now accelerated by the effects of climate change.

Concluding Remarks

My conversation with Shinjini gave me a wonderful understanding of ground level life and challenges in Vanuatu. Undoubtedly, today this Pacific nation suffers both rapid and slow onset impacts of Climate Change, resulting in economic and non-economic loss and damage.

Tropical cyclones are increasing in number and intensity, resulting in heavy rainfall further causing increased soil erosion and flooding. The country is witnessing accelerating damage to its cultural sites, fracture of its local customs, language, and communities, and colossal causes of mass displacement looming up.

Also Watch: What a 9-year-old in Vanuatu can tell us about climate change | UNICEF

I would like to conclude by pointing out two initiatives I learnt about which are lending a mitigating hand within the present climatic threats.

The first is the creation of the Vanuatu Climate Futures Portal, which was unveiled at the end of 2023. It includes information aimed at providing critical information which may be used for adaptation, planning and support decision making for agricultural, infrastructure, fisheries, tourism, and water industries. This interactive website is a leap forward for the nation’s climate change adaptation. High-quality information ensures that the nation has the adaptive capacity needed to protect its communities and productive sectors.

The second inspiring development relates to the fascinating network of women climate warriors from Vanuatu. In this Pacific nation, thousands of enterprising and action-oriented women have formed the Women Wetem Weta (WWW) network in Vanuatu. This network facilitates effective sharing of disaster preparedness information and warnings and coordinates to distribute fresh food. It is proven to be a truly efficient and effective aid.

In the aftermath of devastating cyclones, WWW members have surveyed damaged regions and provided fresh food to thousands of people on neighboring islands. They know when storms are coming, they have emergency bags packed, and know when and where to evacuate and how to prepare their homes and gardens. In calm times, the admirable women work on their gardens, and on making new products and participating in local markets as part of building long term resilience to disasters.

Vanuatu is today leading the call for international climate justice!

This delicate archipelago’s success and victories at the community level certainly lie in the holistic and strategic planning, implementation, monitoring and initiating action plans to keep everyone safe. It was so inspiring to learn of the courageous and resilient outlook the Vanuatu people possess.

Such action-oriented resilient stance at the community level coupled with strategic interventions and initiatives will certainly continue to drive the overall protection and safety of the people of Vanuatu through all its challenges!

Sparkling white sand beaches have always been a fascinating alternative for the usual golden beach settings. I just visited Miramar Beach in Destin Florida and marveled at the stretches of soft, white sands lining the turquoise blue ocean waters.

Invariably the geographer lens in me awakens and I just can’t help investigating the area with my Geo-mind!!

The Appalachian Connection

Interestingly this beach boasts of one of the most homogenous composition beaches in the world. The glittering white color owes its origin to its intrinsic composition of tiny quartz particles. When the Ice Age ended, and the world temperatures started warming up, large volumes of water started to move towards the ocean. One such river — the Apalachicola River arising from the Appalachians, started eroding the majestic mountains and transporting the eroded materials to the ocean front.

The river water carried these quartz particles comprising the rocks that form the Appalachian Mountains and deposited them in the Gulf of Mexico, just 125 miles to the east of Destin, Florida. As the sea level began to rise, these quartz sands eventually formed a new shoreline, boasting a sparkling white sand beach.

The Famous Emerald Coast

The beaches along this region comprise of quartz enriched sand which are also generally mixed with finely ground seashells. These quartz particles reflect sunlight in a unique manner compared to normal sand, which helps create the emerald color of the ocean water. Owing to these unique qualities, Destin’s beaches are known as some of the finest in the world.

Monitoring the Geospatial Characteristics of the Florida Coast

Coastal ecosystems are always critical for any region’s natural and social prosperity and protection. Effective monitoring and management of the coastal areas is very important and undoubtedly geospatial data, and its analytical elements provide a comprehensive management blueprint.

USGS offers such a study with its Geospatial Characteristics GeoPDF of Florida’s Coastal and Offshore Environments. This is a holistic repository of geospatial data describing the political boundaries and natural resources of Florida. This interactive map provides spatial information on bathymetry, sand resources, and locations of important habitats for marine invertebrates, fish, reptiles, birds, and marine mammals.

Such maps are useful for coastal resource managers and other stakeholders interested in marine habitats. This comprehensive geo-tool provides a one-stop assembly of data that can be tailored to fit the needs of many natural resource managers.

This map was initially developed to assist the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation, and Enforcement (BOEMRE) and coastal resources managers with planning beach restoration projects. Data sources included the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, BOEMRE, Florida Department of Environmental Protection, Florida Geographic Data Library, Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, Florida Natural Areas Inventory, and the State of Florida, Bureau of Archeological Research.

Climate Change Threats

Coastal areas are increasingly becoming the frontline in the impacts of global warming arising from climate change. Destin too is vulnerable to such threats and here are some of its key threats.

• As warming oceans and melting glaciers and ice sheets are raising global sea levels, more than 1,000 people in Destin live on exposed land below 7 ft. (The selected sea level scenario).
• The selected sea level scenario points to a 39% risk of at least one flood over 7 ft taking place between today and 2050 in the Destin area.
• The Emerald Coast is home to nesting sea turtles from May 1 to October 31. Florida beaches are one of the most important hatcheries for loggerhead sea turtles in the world. As sea turtles use both marine and terrestrial habitats during their life cycles, a rise in the sea level will impact sea turtles nesting on beaches.
• Sea turtles’ memories are “imprinted” with a magnetic map of the sandy beach where they hatch and enables them the unique ability to return to that same site decades later to repeat their ancient nesting ritual. With melting polar ice caps and rising sea levels, the existence of these beaches is threatened.
• An increase in nesting beach temperatures will also have an impact on sea turtles. With increasing nest temperatures, scientists predict that there will be more female than male hatchlings, creating a significant threat to genetic diversity.
• Only about one in 1,000 sea turtle hatchlings live to adulthood. They face myriad natural threats, including predators on land and in the ocean, disruptions to nests and failure to make it to the water after hatching. In 2023 along one stretch of Florida’s Gulf Coast where 75 nests had been counted, most were wiped out by the surge from Hurricane Idalia in August, the same year.

Nature shapes a thriving tourist economy

The sparkling white marvel created by nature’s erosive action through the years has paved the way for a thriving tourist economy to flourish in Destin, Florida.

I noticed how tourism has lent a generous hand in the region’s economic character, leading to its peace and prosperity. In fact, the largest industries here are Accommodation & Food Services .

The City of Destin GIS division was established in 2003 and the division is active in using the mapping tools for the city’s sustainable management efforts. City mapping projects include addressing, storm water mapping, community development mapping support and all other general mapping needs.

Effective coastal management measures and sound planning strategies utilizing geospatial planning tools are helping Destin continue being a powerful center of thriving tourist economy, despite the climate change threats it faces.