the holy grail of poetry friday x climate action

 

Greetings, Poetry Friday folk!  It's Climate Action Friday @my juicy little universe today, and I will spare you the rehearsal of bad news, since I'm sure you know perfectly well what we're up against, and too much rehashing of doom is bad for our psyches.  Instead I'll share 3 hunks of good news and then reveal that Holy Grail I mentioned.

1) It is itself good news that most of us can no longer get through a day without being reminded of the monumental existential challenge we are facing.  We can't begin to address it as a species unless we're aware of it, and by golly, whether through personal experience or increased media coverage, WE ARE AWARE.  Here's a fascinating podcast episode that tracks the role of your friendly local TV weathercaster in educating Americans about climate change.

2) Since 1995, leaders from around the world have met annually to hash out how to collectively tackle climate change. This fall marks the 26th gathering of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework on Climate Change. Or because that’s a mouthful, COP26 for short. Get up to speed on this chance for the world's nations to take real action here, and then read the Conference Declaration of MockCOP26, a virtual youth conference held in December 2020.

From: Mock COP26 Delegates
To: The Heads of State of all countries, Secretary General of the UN

Re: Our treaty for urgent climate action this side of COP26

Dear Leaders,

We are writing to inform you that we, the young people of 140 countries, ran our own inclusive online climate conference, Mock COP26, which we concluded today. In light of the Covid-19 pandemic, many of you presumably thought it was a lesser priority to take climate action through the UNFCCC COP this year, and hence the UN postponed it. We remind you that we are still in a climate emergency as well as an ecological crisis and every moment of inaction makes things worse for our generation. We felt strongly that you should not further delay action, so we decided to run our own youth-led COP this year. We are tired of empty climate promises and are purely motivated by a desire to see real action.
 

With just three months of planning, we delivered a full two-week global conference, from 19 November to 01 December 2020, comprising 330 delegates, ages 11 to 30, representing 140 countries. We set out to improve upon the structures of the real COP to reflect the mandate of young people to build inclusive, equitable and fair systems. We made the following improvements...

 

3) Faith leaders around the country and the world are gathering together to join the call for education and action on climate change. From the Pope to GreenFaith to Interfaith Power & Light, people of all faiths are recognizing that they have a particular responsibility to model stewardship of this planet's resources for the love of all people. You can join a UN/UUA webinar relating to COP26 at this link.

Part 2: "Preparing for the COP: Your Actions and the UN Climate Summit"  Thursday, October 28, 2021, 7:00 PM - 9:00 PM EDT

Join for this engaging climate action session in the style of Model UN. Continuing to examine the impact of the recent report from the IPCC, we'll explore more about countries' commitments and priorities for climate action, how Unitarian Universalist can plug in, and what to watch out for during COP26.

 And now...introducing the Holy Grail of Poetry Friday X Climate Action!!!

This new podcast, which began in September and is produced by Grace Lynch, describes itself this way: 

"As She Rises is a new podcast that connects the power to poetry with the work of local activists to create an intimate portrait of climate change. We're taking you all around the United States and regional poets will give us a snapshot of the changes they've witnessed in their community and we'll hear from those out on the front lines of preserving their homes."

And as the title implies the focus is on the impacts of climate change on women. See more on that here. Each episode has notes offering you opportunities to take action--always click on SEE MORE at the bottom of the show notes! Here's a poem from one of the poets featured in the podcast so far, Joan Naviyuk Kane.

 

This poem is also part of The Poetry Foundation's feature on Poetry and the Environment, found here.  Our host today is Jama at Jama's Alphabet Soup, where you can feast on all the goodies our community has to offer.