🌎New Podcast and the COP28
Hello…and welcome to…Issue #007!
Reading Time: <2 min.
TL;DR: My new podcast about landscape conservation kicks off in January 2024...but the COP28 starts this week! What's COP28? Check it out below!
“What I’m trying to say is you can’t unplug the world from the current energy system before you build the new energy system. It’s a transition: transitions don’t happen overnight, transition takes time.”
— Sultan Al Jaber, COP28 President-designate
My response: "Unfortunately, we don't have a lot of time, Sultan!"
Welcome to my corner of the world!
I’m glad you’re here!
In the last issue of Designing Nature's Half, I shared some of the milestones I've accomplished in my book's development. If you missed it, you can read it here.
Milestones Since the Last Issue
Website
Updates continue to be made to my author's website, including a one-stop shop for the three main projects I'm currently working on: the book, this blog, and a podcast.
Podcast
I'm super excited to be collaborating with an old friend, Tom Miewald, in the development of a new podcast, Designing Nature's Half: The Landscape Conservation Podcast. Tom's a Landscape Ecologist by training and a true mastermind in all things landscape conservation design (this link takes you to a peer-reviewed paper he and I, and others, published in 2018 about landscape conservation design). I'm very fortunate to have Tom co-host the pod with me, and I'm looking forward to kicking it off shortly. We start airing episodes in January, so stay tuned!
Other News: The Climate Crisis
You already know the climate crisis is one of the reasons why it's important for us to "conserve at least 30% of our lands and waters by 2030" (President Joe Biden) and that landscape conservation design gives us the best hope for achieving that goal, but did you know....:
What is the COP?
COP stands for the “Conference of the Parties,” with the word “parties” referring to the nearly 200 countries that agreed to a 1995 international treaty called the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.
What does the COP do?
The COP is often referred to as the UN Climate Change Conference. Diplomats meet every year (since 1995) to review inventories of greenhouse gas emissions submitted by each country. They assess the effectiveness of actions taken to reduce emissions, negotiate, and make decisions on the next steps the global community will take to lower emissions.
This marks the 28th time the COP has met, so this year's meeting, which starts November 30 in Dubai, United Arab Emirates (UAE), is referred to as "COP28." You can follow COP28 events here.
Drama:
Leaked briefing documents reveal plans to discuss fossil fuel deals with 15 nations. Not a good look, Sultan Al Jabar!
President Biden will not attend a world leaders’ summit on Friday and Saturday at the outset of the U.N. Climate Change Conference. No reason was given. Not a good look, Joe!
Further Reading:
An Invitation
If you think you have something to offer to the conversation and would like to be a guest on our pod, drop me a note at: info@lcdinstitute.org and put "Guest" in the subject line.
Sharing is Caring
Please consider sharing this newsletter with your social contacts so we can build a community of folks who want to turn down the boil and save our planet and its inhabitants.
Join the Designing Nature’s Half Community
Sign up below to hear about what we have up our sleeves to save the planet and learn how you can get involved.
Thanks for your interest and support!
I'll keep you posted on how the book's coming along via future issues of Designing Nature's Half: The Newsletter.
Until next time,
Dr. Amanda Sesser, the Coordinator of the Southeast Conservation Adaptation Strategy (SECAS) Partnership, discusses the need for inclusive design and decision-making processes that involve diverse stakeholders and empower communities. By bringing together various sectors of society, such as transportation, energy, and conservation, sustainable landscapes can be co-designed, created, and managed for people, planet, and prosperity. The episode emphasizes the need to balance human well-being and ecological integrity – a challenge that requires a new governance model that breaks down silos in traditional planning and decision-making. It addresses historic patterns of inequality and injustice to create a more inclusive and equitable society and highlights the concept of reciprocity and the importance of engaging indigenous and other disenfranchised people.