Eyes-Opened and Exhausted

Waiting for my flight out of London back to the USA, I am reflecting on my nearly two weeks at the United Nations COP26 in Glasgow, Scotland. It was overwhelming, eye-opening, difficult, and inspiring all the same time. Meeting and engaging with incredible people from around the world who work really hard to fight for justice, human rights, ecological integrity, and for their communities to have a livable future was invigorating. Also, I learned the largest delegation at COP26 was the fossil fuel industry with over 500 representatives. And the world leaders are deliberately leaving human rights language out of the final negotiations. And the final negotiations are still not bold enough to make significant change. This stuff is tough and quite infuriating. Along with major sleep deprivation, crummy diet, too much caffeine, miles and miles of walking everywhere on concrete, and the dis-ease of COVID-19 made it challenging. I also taught two days of my regular Wild Rose Education classes at 10pm UK time to for folks in Colorado at 3pm Mountain time. It’s been quite the experience.

AND I’m so incredibly grateful for the opportunity to be an NGO observer delegate along with an incredibly amazing group of mostly women from across America who are doing the essential work of public engagement and climate education through a fierce lens of justice equity and inclusion. It is the tough dedicated tenacious people like us who are changing the world every day in so many ways big and small.

 
Climate change work is difficult absolutely necessary and critical. I just keep remembering that the most important work happens at home in our families, in our neighborhoods, and our towns. I am now headed home inspired and fired up… to continue to do the work (with expanded perspective) that needs to happen in the places I know and love.