”But the truth is that if I loose hope then there is no hope – if I stood here today saying that ’guys, there’s no hope’ then no one would want to take action. But there is hope: as long as we are all here and as long as we are connected and trying to make a difference then there is hope.”

/ Gloria Pancrazi, Coextinction

This autumn I was asked to lead a short panel discussion on a Houdini Sportswear event following a preview of an ongoing project called ”Coextinction”.

Coextinction is a project to document and protect the life of the Southern Resident Killer Whales off the coast of British Colombia. One of many threats to the Orcas is starvation.

The panel consisted of the CEO of Houdini Sportswear, Eva Karlsson, the Vice President of Polartec Eric Yung, adventurer and photographer Oskar Kihlborg and the activist and producer of the Coextinction project: Gloria Pancrazi.

What we saw on the event was just a short preview of the Coextinction documentary and we made promises not to post any pictures or video clips from it.

But I need to tell you about one haunting scene that made a deep impression on me:

One of the Orcas just gave birth to a calf – a much awaited and much needed addition to the pod of Southern Resident Killer Whales.

But her calf dies after just a couple of days.

The Orcas are a very intelligent and socially complex species – and it is not unheard of that when a mother looses her calf – she will carry it, gently pushing it in front of her for a short amount of time. This Orca carries her dead calf for 17 days. For more than 1 000 miles she gently pushes her dead calf in front of her.

The scene is immensely heartbreaking.

”Things are moving very slow and the thing is that there is no financial gain for anyone except the absolute front runners. We are front runners – so it is worth it for us because we gain recognition and people feel that we are the rebels of the industry or whatever. But those who are second or third and who have huge volumes – they have to find a reason to change because the financial system is working in the opposite direction so there is no real reason to change. That’s why we need to go to Brussels”

/ Eva Karlsson, Houdini

The discussion circled around the role of the activist, how to balance the scale of hope and despair and what we can do to change and how to get involved in the Coextinction project.

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The Swedish Outdoor Podcast Husky is recorded with support from Naturkompaniet.

Original photos © Coextinction

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