Sheila Babauta Explained

Sheila Therese Jack Babauta (born)[1] is a Northern Mariana Islands politician and is a member of the Northern Mariana Islands House of Representatives, representing District 4 for the Democratic Party. [2] [3] [4]

Early life

Babauta was born and grew up on the island of Saipan, on the edge of the Mariana Trench. The island measures by . In 2005 she travelled to the Washington, D.C., on a scholarship from the Close Up Foundation.[5]

Career

Babauta was elected to the Northern Mariana Islands House of Representatives, representing District 4 for the Democratic Party, in 2019. She was re-elected for a term to 2023, in the 2020 general election.

In November 2021, she described her plans to attend the 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP 26) in Glasgow, Scotland, although the journey would be "no easy feat. Crossing the Pacific Ocean, the entire North American continent, and the Atlantic Ocean, brings me a long way from our warm island home". She said that "my brothers and sisters across the Pacific hold the keys to solve the problem of militarization, climate change, and climate colonialism. We are not passive victims. We hold solutions that are grounded in our millennia of living as kin to the land and ocean."[6] At the conference she introduced former United States President Barack Obama when he addressed the conference, saying that he was a "son of the Asia Pacific" who "recognizes that communities impacted by climate change must have a seat at the table to ensure accountability and action from all parties who contribute major carbon emissions".[7]

Babauta is chair of the Friends of the Mariana Trench Marine National Monument, a body which works to protect the Marianas Trench Marine National Monument centred on the Mariana Trench.[8] [9]

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Sheila Babauta . Friends of the Mariana Trench . 3 January 2022.
  2. Web site: Sheila Jack Babauta . Ballotpedia . 3 January 2022 . en.
  3. Web site: Representing an Island's Future: Sheila Babauta . Obama Foundation . 3 January 2022 . en.
  4. Web site: Sheila Therese Jack Babauta . CAWP Data . Rutgers University: Center for American Women and Politics . 3 January 2022.
  5. Web site: Sheila Babauta: Student, 2005 . Alumni Spotlight . Close Up Foundation . 3 January 2022.
  6. News: Babauta . Sheila . Why I am going to Glasgow, Scotland . 3 January 2022 . Marianas Variety News & Views . 5 November 2021 . en.
  7. News: Maurin . Iva . Babauta introduces Obama at COP26 . 3 January 2022 . Saipan Tribune . 9 November 2021.
  8. Web site: Meet our team . Friends of the Mariana Trench . 3 January 2022.
  9. Web site: Mariana Trench Marine National Monument . www.fws.gov . U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service . 3 January 2022.