🌎…, and so it begins!
Hello…and welcome to…Issue #001!
Reading Time: 2 mins.
TL;DR: The climate crisis has inspired me to write a book.
Robert Campellone, Grand Canyon National Park, North Rim
“Because, underneath all of this is the real truth we have been avoiding: climate change isn’t an “issue” to add to the list of things to worry about, next to health care and taxes. It is a civilizational wake-up call. A powerful message—spoken in the language of fires, floods, droughts, and extinctions—telling us that we need an entirely new economic model and a new way of sharing this planet. Telling us that we need to evolve. ” — Naomi Klein, Author, Activist, Filmmaker
Welcome to my corner of the world!
I’m glad you’re here!
Why a Book?!?!
Family members and friends ask me why I’m writing a book. Some ask, “Aren’t you retired?”. I am, of course, but I’ve never lived my life expecting to be done with activism once I retired. That’s how I’m wired, and I don't apologize for it. I'll share a bit about myself in the next issue of Catalyst, but for now, it seems the Home Planet has turned some galactical corner, and I can't, in good conscience, sit around and do nothing about it. I speak of the climate crisis, of course, but also our planet's biodiversity loss.
Global Boiling
In August, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and other global temperature tracking centers reported July was Earth’s hottest month since 1880 (when data started to be collected), and based on paleoclimate records, likely the hottest month in 100,000 years (Axios). Yowzah!
And if that’s not troubling enough, the World Meteorological Organization issued a recent report stating: “Global temperatures are likely to surge to record levels in the next five years” (WMO). Double-Yowzah!
Reports like that drive me to pound away at the keyboard and write the book.
My Mission
Let me be clear: the book’s mission is NOT to share the bad news others have already shared. It’s to offer a POTENTIAL way out of the climate-boiling pot we find ourselves in. I say “potential” because, honestly, the little hairs on my neck and many climate professionals, too, are saying it may be too late to reverse course. I hope for the sake of humanity and Mother Earth, they’re wrong.
So, I write. And I stay positive. And I hope someone is listening because if boiling is the problem, and conserving the Home Planet is the solution to bringing the temperature down, halting biodiversity loss, and saving peoplekind…well, hell…I have a way to get us there! More on that later, but first, a little bit about me and my qualifications for writing a book that addresses climate boiling and biodiversity loss in the next issue of Catalyst.
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, save our planet, and its inhabitants.
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Thanks for your interest and support!
I'll keep you posted on how my projects are coming along via future issues of Designing Nature's Half: The Blog.
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.