It is sobering to be in the company of well-versed, experienced climate warriors because they express clearly how inter-coneected our systems are, and how they are degrading the planet at a shocking pace that we are, at last, recognising on a wider scale.
We’ve been helping people to reconnect to nature, and value nature, for two decades, so we really appreciate the impressive impact that organisations like Friends of the Earth (FoE) have on people. Ligthbulb moments happen. People change their outlooks and behaviours. They learn, make connections, and find new ways to leverage their own passion into actions to change the world for the better. But the fight is complex, international, and David/Goliath-like in its multiple struggles.
We were delighted to share Feast Upon The Earth at FoE’s 50th anniversary event in April. The timescape is a big picture story and a useful tool to shift persepectives: A journey through time that shows us humanity’s vanishingly small place in geological time, paired with our massive impact on Earth,. We noticed the wonder of a child and the overwhem of a woman in her 70s, which is typical of the effect that Feast Upon The Earth has on visitors.
It was rousing to hear people talking about needing “system change, not climate change”, to connect dots between extractivism, war, and climate change. I wanted to stand up and cheer when John Barry (Queen’s University) said things like “Growth is not serving us… why is it easier to imagine the end of the world than the end of capitalism?” That we spend more money on war than education. That our whole civilisation is built on fossil fuels.
Hope is not generated through optimism…it’s through agency and action. …We need nothing short of a revolution!
Action and activism is powerful, on the rise, and more critical as each day passes. Echoing Greta Thunberg, John Barry declared “Hope is not generated through optimism…it’s through agency and action…We need nothing short of a revolution!”
Resources from the event are available via FoE. These include links to presentations, photos, videos, and X profiles to speakers Anita Vollmer (ESRI Dublin), Anne Ryan (Feasta), Mary Murphy (Maynooth University), John Barry (Queen’s University), information on the featured film ‘The Illusion of Abundance’, and much more.
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