In her own words: Southwest Florida graduate student talks climate change, her future life

Ella Guedouar is graduate student at Florida Gulf Coast University who plans to get a doctorate in environmental studies within the next several years.

A Rhode Island native (her father is from Tunisia and her mother is from Boston), Guedouar is a star student at FGCU and spent this past summer studying baseline conditions for a massive bridge that is being built in Peru.

The study, her thesis, is looking at that part of the Amazon before and after the major roadway opens. She said the impacts will be comparable to the sprawling development that has impacted South Florida's ecology.

Her generation is tasked to fix or help remedy problems they didn't create, but she says young people are ready for the challenges yet nervous about the potential realities.

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Guedouar enrolled in an early starter program at FGCU at the age of 16; and now, at 20, she's teaching biology lab to students who are largely older than she is.

"When she told me she'd be teaching a class I thought it was so funny because when she was in kindergarten she would go to the morning pre-school and read to the kids," said her mother, Maura Guedouar. "She would keep them engaged, and she wasn't even supposed to be reading yet."

Ella Guedouar led a $40,000 expedition to Peru

Guedouar led a $40,000 expedition to Peru this past summer, when she and other FGCU students and professors set up camera traps to document the number and types of animals that use that part of the Amazon.

The following is a compilation of quotes from Guedouar that were recorded during three interviews with the USA Today Network for a climate change project focused on the East Coast.

For this part of the series, we wanted to feature people 25 and under to capture the thoughts and feelings of a generation that will see major shifts in weather patterns and even food supply in the coming decades.

Guedouar recently started teaching her first biology lab class and is researching doctorate programs in Africa, where she plans to move after obtaining her graduate degree in environmental science.

We caught up with her before her first presentation.

Speaking of climate change

Climate change is a little depressing to be honest because it's always been around and it's something that I've always been reminded about constantly and it's always talked about. Whether it's science or media or class, it's always brought up. The fact that it's kind of controversial is also discouraging because we really haven't accepted it yet but we're also expected to solve it. So it's the extra challenge of getting everyone on the same page. 

I see the media use a lot of scare tactics, to say 'hey, we're about to hit this point that it's irreversible and we're dooming ourselves' and maybe people my age or my kids won't be able to see a future for their kids. So it's kind of scary because I don't know what to expect and I don't know that anyone does. 

I know people who are doing climate research and I know there are solutions being offered but even if we come up with solutions it might take a long time to implement because of the controversy around climate change. So I think it could realistically be a combination of technology and also changes we can make as individuals and companies. Everything has to change in order to get on a track we can recover the planet. I hope in the future everyone can accept it so it doesn't come to a standstill.

The other side will pick and choose information that they've learned and yes, it's true that the planet does go through natural cycles of warming and cooling but right now we're supposed to slow the rate of warming when we're actually increasing our rate of temperature rise. That shouldn't be the case. And people are citing science incorrectly to try to support a side when the science isn't supposed to have a side. It's supposed to push us forward. 

The heat waves that are going on around the world, that's in part because of what we've done to the planet but some people think it's normal.

I think it's a little bit of guilt because I don't see a lot of young people denying climate change. 

The best thing that I can do right now is try and get other people on the same page and educate other people about climate change to the degree of which it exists and what the future's going to look like. 

The bottom third of Florida is expected to be underwater in the next 50 to 100 years. That's scary. A lot of people won't be around then but their kids will be .

We've got to prepare for worst case. I'm not going to be in Florida because this part of it won't be here anymore. I plan to do my (doctorate) in Africa, doing some conservation work there. As to where I live, it's where the research takes me. So I have no clue where I'll be. 

Personal reflections

America in general will be fine for a little while. It's a first-world country, but where my family is from they're experiencing droughts so they don't have enough food and that's because of climate change effects but we don't see that because we can supplement the shortcomings caused by climate change because we have money in America. We don't have to worry about anybody else.

I'm 20, this is hard to have on your plate. Along with racism and homophobia. It's a lot to deal with. 

I'm a vegetarian. A lot of our crops goes to feed animals. I think we can buy ourselves some time if we cut out meat, but everybody loves their steak and hot dogs. But it's such a delicate system that if we lose 25% of crops, people are going to starve. 

As of right now, I’m not planning on having kids. It's a little doom-and-gloom in the future. To be honest, climate change plays a role in it, but I envision committing a lot of my life to studying wildlife and climate change. So I don't see myself as having time for kids. Also, that is not a nice future to put a baby in, so it's probably a little bit of both. 

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On believing in science

It does kind of feel like we're fighting (the flat versus round Earth) battle all over again. We'll come out on the other side with us being right because we have to be because one day it's going to hit us in the head. But (climate change denial) is just slowing us down. 

It's got to be a dramatic shift if somebody tells you that your whole perception of the planet is wrong. It would probably be a lot to come to terms with. 

I just wish people would listen to the kids. We grew up with information. We grew up with science. we grew up with facts. we're just trying to save the planet, and they should take us seriously. my whole life has been in academia, so I kind of know what I'm talking about. 

Connect with this reporter: @ChadEugene on Twitter. 

This article originally appeared on Fort Myers News-Press: FGCU grad student: 'I just wished people would listen to the kids'