Maya Gwynn
With KVCR Public Media, I'm Maya Gwynn with Black Perspectives IE. A show where we learn about the amazing things members of the Black community are doing in the Inland Empire. My guest today is Dr. Dawn Wright, Chief Scientist of Environmental Systems Research Institute, ESRI. Thank you so much for being here.
Dr. Dawn Wright
Thank you, Maya. I'm delighted to be here.
Maya Gwynn
Of course. And another thing I wanted to mention is that you were also made history in 2022 as the first black person to dive the Challenger Deep, which is the deepest point of the Earth, which is incredible.
Dr. Dawn Wright
She was a lot of fun.
Maya Gwynn
Yeah. And we'll get back to that. I wanted to start at the beginning. You've broken so many barriers with both scientists and explorer. What first drew you to the ocean and geography? And what has kept you on this path, despite challenges given that nature and Environmental Sciences haven't always felt accessible to the black community, I would say.
Dr. Dawn Wright
Yeah. I just followed who I was, and I'm thinking right now of Jane Goodall. For a lot of us, it's a time of- of gratitude for what she meant to us. And my mother adored Jane Goodall. They were around the same age, and my mother raised me, and she always just raised me to follow whatever I wanted to do, whatever passion. She and I were very different in terms of our backgrounds. She grew up in segregated Baltimore. She raised me in Hawaii, very integrated, although we were the only black family on- I think we were the first black family to move on to Maui in the 1960s. But at the same time, I grew up in this environment of acceptance and inclusion and physically black people, we were mistaken for Samoans and Tongans. And so, after some initial racism in Hawaii, I was able to blend in and totally absorb the Hawaiian culture and to fall in love with the ocean, and to decide that the ocean was what I wanted to- to study, or where I wanted to be for my career.
Maya Gwynn
ESRI, where you're a Chief Scientist at, is recognized as the global leader in GIS technology. For those unfamiliar, can you explain the mission of ESRI and also explain what GIS is, and why it's so powerful?
Dr. Dawn Wright
Well, ESRI has been building this technology called Geographic Information Systems since 1969, really. The company was founded in 1969 by Jack and Laura Dangermond, who are Redlands natives, which is why we are based in Redlands. We are a Silicon Valley type company that is not in Silicon Valley. And the technology that we make is really the underpinning for our lives. It really provides you the map of your life in terms of where everything is, why that particular thing is there, what's going to happen over time, given certain conditions. We call them layers of information, the weather, the topography, the soils, the traffic patterns, the buildings. We build the technology that helps you to understand that. So, GIS is basically a map with a very powerful brain behind- it's a smart map. We have all types of resources. We have massively open online courses. In fact, I host one that's about climate action, and we have teams that work with public safety. We have a very large team that works with Cal Fire and using our technology. So it's a very amazing company from that standpoint.
Maya Gwynn
Wow, and it's right here in Redlands.
Dr. Dawn Wright
Yes, right here in Redlands! Yeah.
Maya Gwynn
Back to Challenger Deep. In 2022 you became the first black person to dive the Challenger Deep, which is one of the most unexplored places on Earth. In your book, Mapping the Deep, you share your journey and describe the ocean, which I love, as both the scientific and spiritual space. How has this experience shaped your view on humanity's connection to the ocean, and what do you hope readers take away from your book?
Dr. Dawn Wright
The origin for the- for the trip, the organization that took me, Caladan Oceanic, is actually a customer of ESRI. Caladan Oceanic is the brainchild, the vision of one man, Victor Vescovo, who's one of our iconic explorers. A few years ago, he came up with this idea of going to the five deepest places in the world's ocean. In the Pacific is Challenger Deep, that's the deepest place on the planet. And Challenger Deep is within the Mariana Trench. The next thing I know, I'm getting an email from him, would I like to go? Victor and I, we went to a maximum depth of 10,919 meters, that's nearly seven miles. Just as we were hitting the bottom, the very first thing that we saw was a beer bottle, and that is the symbol, that is the cautionary tale right there in terms of humanity's relationship with the planet. That hit us squarely in the face. How is it possible that we go to one position, one place on the ocean floor that no other human being has been to, and yet we see a beer bottle there that someone had thrown overboard in the deepest, darkest, most remote place on this planet. We are still having an influence, and it's a bad influence, with trash. Our relationship with the planet has got to pivot back to respect and to thinking of it as our home. You're not going to trash, hopefully, you're not going to trash your home, your neighborhood. But at the same time, we saw life, you know, down at Challenger Deep, the hydrostatic pressure is 16,000 pounds per square inch. So, that's all of that weight on every square inch of your body, or in our case, the submersible, which was able to withstand that. But we saw little anemones and little amphipods and little, small creatures that live in that environment a little further up on the slopes of the trench, at around 7000 meters, we saw fish. As far as we know, fish exist only down to about 8000 meters, and there's no Megalodon, or there's no cracking, or there are no big, complex creatures at these great ocean depths because they can't stand the pressure. But, the little creatures that live there, that is their home, that's their ecosystem, that's their environment. And we were there, and at the same time as seeing that beer bottle, it was also a precious, beautiful experience to be down there with them and to know that this is part of our planet. We are insignificant as small, little creatures at this great depth, but at the same time, we are all here together. We all matter. So, there were those two messages that basically hit me in terms of humanity's relationship with the planet.
Maya Gwynn
Definitely, we're going to move to our rapid-fire portion. If your work had a theme song, what would it be?
Dr. Dawn Wright
There's a Foo Fighters song goes, "Done, done, on to the next one. Done, done, on to the next one." I think that's my theme song. That's nonstop.
Maya Gwynn
Yeah, if you had to teach a master class or give a TED talk on a random skill you have besides science or the ocean, what would it be?
Dr. Dawn Wright
It would be on Lego building.
Maya Gwynn
Oh wow, I love that. And what's your favorite IE restaurant, or like a landmark that reminds you of the Inland Empire.
Dr. Dawn Wright
For me, it's Parliament Chocolate in Redlands.
Maya Gwynn
Okay. And how can people keep up with you and support your work?
Dr. Dawn Wright
Anyone can go to mappingthedeep.com and they're all of the resources from the book, all of the videos. There's even a Lego stop-motion animation. But there are links to organizations where you can help the ocean, and it's all at mappingthedeep.com.
Maya Gwynn
Awesome. Thank you so much for being here, Dr. Dawn. This was such a great conversation.
Dr. Dawn Wright
Oh, thank you. Really enjoyed it.
Maya Gwynn
Of course. Doctor Dawn Wright is Chief Scientist of the Environmental Systems Research Institute, ESRI. Find this segment and others at KVCRnews.org/bpie. Support for the segment comes from The Black Equity Fund at IECF, advancing racial equity and supporting long term investments in black led organizations in Riverside and San Bernardino counties. Join us again next week for Black Perspectives IE. For KVCR Public Media, I'm Maya Gwynn. Thank you.
Click below to hear the full 25 min interview with Dr. Dawn Wright.
