Part of a Whole

Abstract:

An ecosystem is diverse, with each species playing an important role. I think sometimes it’s easy for scientists to get caught up in studying one species but forget that each species is just a part of a whole.

That’s what I’ve learned this week: that I’m never alone in the struggle to push climate change action. In fact, I’ve got people in my local community, people in the CCOP program, people from around the world, the whole earth, cheering for me.

Challenge:

How can you empower someone else to act on climate change? The act of empowering someone else will bring you the hope and support of community in this climate crisis.

Full story:

So here I am at COP27 for my last day. The past week I’ve spent wandering and listening and talking, all with the words “climate change” imprinted across the front of my brain. This experience has been overwhelming, as I’ve learned an experienced so many things, yet on the other hand, sometimes I feel like all the information I’ve learned is helpless.

Tonight, people had chances to share their takeaways from the we as we rocked in a boat in the Red Sea, the blood orange moon crumbled into a crescent shape by the wispy clouds. And most everyone echoed the thoughts I’ve been feeling all week.

I came here feeling alone. Like maybe I was the only person who had these anxious thoughts about climate change among friends, the church, or other communities people were a part of. But now, I can walk out of the conference and fly back home and know that I’m never alone in this fight for climate action.

There’s every person of the CCOP program who will rejoice in my joys and victories, and cry with me in my failures.

There’s the researcher in Nigeria who is researching wetland restoration while I’m researching wildfire restoration.

There the indigenous people on Easter Island raising their voices for a loss and damage fund.

There are piles of youth that are shaking the climate clock countdown in front of political leaders and shouting, “do something!”

There’s the scientists researching permafrost and using their research to raise the urgency of the need for climate action.

There’s the people of Rwanda restoring wetland spaces in national parks that are nature based solutions for adapting to the effects of climate change.

There’s the trombone players and artists that raise their notes and their paintbrushes to demand action.

There’s the political leaders, with the climate scarves around their necks, who made it a priority to attend COP.

I could go on and on with the amazing people I met and the connections I made. I think that COP27 was just a beginning to a blossoming network that will surge forward with the force of a movement.

Hopefully this doesn’t sound cheesy, but this is the hope I have found: that the burden of caging this monster called climate change does not rest on my shoulders. And whatever the outcome of these next years, decade, and century before us, I am never alone.