Happy Solstice from the BoCo Climate Justice Hive!

The planets and stars are still steady in their courses and the promise of long deep darkness followed by the slow return of light continues to hold true. What an amazing world we call home!

May you find time to be with the dark, turn off the electric lights, light a candle or sit under the stars, and listen for what dreamseeds want to be planted for the year to come. Here’s to the more beautiful world our hearts know is possible!*

There have been and will continue to be so many wonderful local efforts on behalf of the earth and earth’s inhabitants (see community calendar here). And this month, Boulder was host to activists, advocates, and leaders from around the world as the University of Colorado hosted the UN Human Rights Global Climate Summit: Right Here Right Now.

A bunch of us from the BoCo Climate Justice Hive were able to attend and were inspired and energized by the voices and messages shared. Over 4300 people attended in-person and virtually from 99 different countries. The panelists and keynotes centered people from the Global South, Indigenous, youth, and women speakers. The climate crisis is a human rights issue and when viewed from that lens, new root causes and new solutions are visible.

Please check out coverage of the event here. And recordings can be found here (password: RHRN media). All the talks and panels are powerful. Enjoy!

Staff picks:

Lodi Siefer, Hive Co-Director: Day 3’s Traditional Knowledge and Climate Solutions. Robin Wall Kimmerer, author of Braiding Sweetgrass (I highly recommend this incredible book), was among the panelists here speaking of how Indigenous wisdom and techniques will not work without also implementing Indigenous values. These values of respect, asking permission and listening to the answer, reciprocity, and relationship invite a shift of being from an extractive, entitled, taking culture to one of belonging and interrelatedness. May it be so!

Mark Steele, Creative Director: I agree with Lodi about the Traditional Knowledge session. But another really great segment was in Understanding Climate Change as a Matter of Human Rights when Kera Sherwood-O’Regan from New Zealand addressed the intersection of human rights and climate change with a great table analogy explaining how we need to be looking at climate change by examining the root causes—or the legs or supports—that prop it up rather than just the top surface. WATCH https://vimeo.com/773564933 and jump ahead to 1:52

Clementine Clyker, Pollinator: Day 1’s Keynote with Sheila Watt-Cloutier. It was wonderful and so eye-opening to hear from the perspective of an Inuit woman dealing with Arctic ice loss. She addressed the impacts facing Inuit peoples as a result of climate change and emphasized the importance–and current lack–of the human face in media regarding climate change.  WATCH