Everything is interconnected. As a Shinnecock Indian, I was raised to know this. We are a small fishing tribe situated on the southeastern tip of Long Island near the town of Southampton in New York.
Vse je povezano med seboj. Kot Shinecock Indijanka sem odrasla s tem znanjem. Smo majhno ribiško pleme, ki se nahaja na jugovzhodni konici Long Islanda, blizu mesta Southampton v New Yorku.
When I was a little girl, my grandfather took me to sit outside in the sun on a hot summer day. There were no clouds in the sky. And after a while I began to perspire. And he pointed up to the sky, and he said, "Look, do you see that? That's part of you up there. That's your water that helps to make the cloud that becomes the rain that feeds the plants that feeds the animals."
Ko sem bila majhna, me je dedek peljal sedet ven na sonce na vroč poletni dan. Nebo je bilo brez oblačka. Čez nekaj časa sem se začela potiti. In pokazal je proti nebu ter rekel: "Poglej, vidiš to? Tam zgoraj je del tebe. To je tvoja voda, ki pomaga ustvariti oblak, ki postane dež, ki hrani rastline, ki hranijo živali."
In my continued exploration of subjects in nature that have the ability to illustrate the interconnection of all life, I started storm chasing in 2008 after my daughter said, "Mom, you should do that."
V svojem nadaljnem raziskovanju naravnih pojavov, ki so sposobni ilustrirati medsebojno povezanost vsega življenja, sem leta 2008 začela loviti nevihte, ko je moja hči rekla: "Mami, ti bi to morala početi."
And so three days later, driving very fast, I found myself stalking a single type of giant cloud called the super cell, capable of producing grapefruit-size hail and spectacular tornadoes, although only two percent actually do. These clouds can grow so big, up to 50 miles wide and reach up to 65,000 feet into the atmosphere. They can grow so big, blocking all daylight, making it very dark and ominous standing under them.
In tako sem se tri dni zelo hitre vožnje kasneje, znašla na zasledovanju velikanskega oblaka, ki se mu reče super celica, ki lahko naredi točo, veliko kot grenivka in spektakularne tornade, čeprav se to zgodi v samo dveh odstotkih. Ti oblaki lahko zelo zrastejo - do 80 kilometrov v širino, v atmosferi pa dosežejo višino tudi do 19 800 metrov. Lahko so tako veliki, da prestrežejo vso sončno svetlobo in je zelo temno in zlovešče, ko stojiš pod njimi.
Storm chasing is a very tactile experience. There's a warm, moist wind blowing at your back and the smell of the earth, the wheat, the grass, the charged particles. And then there are the colors in the clouds of hail forming, the greens and the turquoise blues. I've learned to respect the lightning. My hair used to be straight.
Lovljenje neviht je zelo čutna izkušnja. Topel, vlažen veter ti piha v hrbet ... ... vonj zemlje, pšenice in trave, nabiti delci ... In nato so tu barve v oblakih, ko nastaja toča: zeleni in turkizno modri odtenki. Naučila sem se spoštovati strele. Moji lasje so bili včasih ravni.
(Laughter)
(Smeh)
I'm just kidding.
Samo šalim se.
(Laughter)
(Smeh)
What really excites me about these storms is their movement, the way they swirl and spin and undulate, with their lava lamp-like mammatus clouds. They become lovely monsters.
Kar me res navduši pri teh nevihtah, je njihovo gibanje - način, kako se zvijajo in vrtijo in valovijo, s svojimi lava-svetilkam podobnimi mammatus oblaki. Postanejo ljubke pošasti.
When I'm photographing them, I cannot help but remember my grandfather's lesson. As I stand under them, I see not just a cloud, but understand that what I have the privilege to witness is the same forces, the same process in a small-scale version that helped to create our galaxy, our solar system, our sun and even this very planet.
Ko jih fotografiram, ne morem, da se ne bi spomnila lekcije mojega dedka. Ko stojim pod njimi, ne vidim samo oblaka, ampak razumem, da imam čast opazovati enake sile, enak proces v manjši različici, ki je pomagal ustvariti našo galaksijo, naš sončni sistem, naše sonce in celo naš planet.
All my relations. Thank you.
Vsi smo povezani. Hvala.
(Applause)
(Aplavz)