DIVE LOG AUSTRALASIA FEB 2025 ISSUE 410

Introducing Dr Yolanda Waters do we talk about climate change in a way that makes a difference? Q: How did you get into the PhD program? A few months after I became an instructor came COVID. Everything shut down and I had no work. But I kept looking for answers and I found a researcher (Dr Angela Dean) who was working on something similar, so we talked, and she basically said “cool, want to do a PhD”? I honestly didn’t have anything else to do, so she helped me refine my questions into a PhD proposal. My research question was, “Does the Great Barrier Reef inspire climate action?” We know the reef is a powerful icon. However, it doesn’t necessarily motivate everyone to act. My research focused on whether we can design messages and experiences in a way that makes people more likely to take actions like reduce their energy use or have conversations about climate change. The key finding was that if we want the reef to inspire action, we need to also provide people with clear steps about what they

Dr. Yolanda Waters (Ph. D. UQ) is a Marine Scientist, storyteller, Founder and CEO of Divers for Climate. yolanda@diversforclimate.com

I met the vibrant Dr Yolanda at a dive social night hosted by Adreno on the Gold Coast. My Hooked on Tallebudgera Creek Cleanup Crew were invited to join an event by Divers for Climate (which Yolanda founded), an organization which has an aim “to normalise climate conversations and motivate climate action throughout the global diving community”. The room was packed and conversations about protecting our favourite dive sites were buzzing. Yolanda showed the “Divers for Climate” documentary which showed 20+ divers from across Australia sharing their climate stories. I asked Yolanda how her journey started. She shared: It’s funny, I never pictured myself in a position like this. Growing up, I was quite scared of the ocean. When I was 13, my dad, who used to be a diving instructor pushed me to learn. It was amazing but I didn’t fall in love right away. It wasn’t until I finished university and I was feeling a bit lost career-wise when my stepmother said she knew some people in Cairns looking for Dive Master trainees. So, I went to work on the tourism boats and had the time of my life. I got to see the Great Barrier Reef every day and met wonderful people – that’s what made me fall in love with the ocean. Working on the boats I got lots of questions about coral bleaching and climate change and I found it quite confronting. I didn’t know what to say other than “uh, the reef we’re going to looks great” and “don’t touch the corals”. I knew there had to be a better way to answer these questions. But I wasn’t the only one struggling with answers. When I did my instructor’s course, I remember specifically asking, “How do we talk about climate change”? The response was “it’s a bit tricky - climate change is not really something we talk about. It’s easier to focus on where we can have direct impact, like cleaning up debris”. That answer took me down this rabbit hole of wondering – well, how

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DIVE LOG Australasia #410 - February ‘25

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