On Friday, February 7th, CMBC co-hosted a screening of the film Newtok: The Water is Rising (2022) in collaboration with our cross-campus partner, the Nature Space Politics (NSP) research group. Hosted at The Loft at UC San Diego, the event was a part of NSP’s “Displacement and Reparation: Climate, Labor, and Migration Justice” Symposium. Additional partners to the event included Muir College and the San Diego Environmental Film Festival.

Newtok explores how residents of the Yup’ik town of Newtok, Alaska are confronting rising sea levels and melting permafrost, which creates significant impacts on the daily lives of the community. The film follows several Newtok residents as they navigate their community’s changing climate and prepare for collective climate migration to an entirely new location. In highlighting the various perspectives of the Yup’ik community as they undergo the pressures of migration, Newtok platforms Indigenous voices and places them at the forefront of the conversation surrounding global environmental change. This intentional storytelling centered on Newtok’s Indigenous community members aligns with CMBC’s commitment to highlight Indigenous perspectives in regards to climate and conservation.

Following the screening, CMBC PIER student Joe Riley moderated an engaging panel discussion featuring Dr. Kerim Nisancioglu of the Scripps Polar Center, Dr. Cindy J. Lin, and Moriah HánJiāXiù Hayes, pictured above.

CMBC is excited about extending programming to upper campus. Many thanks the NSP leadership, including Elana Zilberg, Johnathon Vargas, Magdalena Donea, and Joe Riley, for their hard work curating the day’s program and speakers, and for opening up the evening for the film screening. CMBC is grateful for this opportunity to build and deepen connections with our community and partners outside of SIO.