By Eric Fine, 2015 TRI Fellow in Argentina

What inspires people who have environmental beliefs to take action?  For me, it was coming to work in the Patagonian Andes starting in 2005.  While guiding mountaineering expeditions in the United States, I had gone to different glaciers each year. In South America, I came back to the same glaciers year after year.  Within my first three summers on the glaciers in Argentina, I started to notice them receding.  Local guides told me that the changes in conditions rendered several classic routes no longer safe enough to climb with clients.

After fifteen years in outdoor education, watching Patagonia’s glaciers recede inspired me to explore solutions to climate change.  Despite there being many possible solutions, I found a lack of implementation…