An Update: Sustaining All
Life and United to End Racism
Sustaining All Life and United to End Racism (SAL and UER) have a full schedule this fall.
The 2018 and 2019 reports from the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change—the science arm of the United Nations) have emphasized the need for immediate action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and to capture and store them by rapidly restoring our ecosystem. SAL and UER are increasing their activity and creating ever-clearer publications about what can be done and the role Re-evaluation Counseling can play in addressing the climate emergency.
THE UNITED NATIONS CLIMATE ACTION SUMMIT
SAL and UER are bringing a large delegation (more than a hundred people from the East Coast of the United States) to the September 20 to 27 United Nations Climate Action Summit in New York (USA). [The summit will have finished by the time this Present Time is printed.] Barbara Love, Teresa Enrico, and Diane Shisk will be leading the delegation. Azi Khalili, Randy Karr, and Diane Shisk are organizing it. The organizing began in May, and we have built important relationships and made good allies.
An interesting discussion has begun on this question: Can our going-public projects, like SAL, endorse actions not led by us that we have been organizing toward; or groups whose goals are aligned with ours, who oppose oppression and violence, and with whom we have good working relationships? We are discharging about the broader implications for RC and hope that many people will discharge and share their thinking.
Art is playing a bigger and bigger role in our work. We’ve spent a lot of time on the visual presentation of our materials and the SAL website, and they are eye-catching. We’ll be holding several “art builds” in New York City and Philadelphia (USA) to make signs for the Climate Strike March and for our events.
At the United Nations Climate Action Summit, SAL and UER will hold scheduled workshops and forums as well as unplanned “pop-up events” (mini-workshops, forums, and caucuses in conjunction with demonstrations, like the School Strike for Climate, that we’ll be participating in and supporting).
We will offer the following workshops for the first time:
- Building United, Resilient Movements to End the Climate Emergency
- Mental Health and Climate Justice
- Supporting Young People of Color in the Climate Movement
- Backing Women and Girls to Lead in Sustainable Agriculture
- Expressing Climate Grief
- U.S. Back in Paris: Ending U.S. Greed and Isolationism
- Supporting Indigenous Leadership
- Pakikinigang Magkapwa: Sharing Our Stories to Build, Unite, and Sustain Our Communities toward Climate Resiliency and Justice
- Climate Emergency: Capitalism’s Failure
- Migration Is a Climate Issue
We will offer a first-time event for families—Making a Climate for Families—that will take place in Central Park on a Saturday afternoon. It will bring in families and young people with art, music, storytelling, listening circles, and more.
We will present the following workshops we have led in the past (some of them multiple times in different venues):
- Eliminating the Effects of Racism on Our Work to Sustain All Life
- Sustaining Indigenous Life
- Bringing Labor and Climate Justice Movements Together for a Sustainable Future
- Young People at the Forefront of the Climate Movement
- War and Climate Change
- Sustaining Ourselves as Activists and Organizers
- Parents Take Action for Climate Justice
- Jews and Climate Justice: Building a United Front
- Women and Climate Justice
And we’ve scheduled the following forums at which people from key constituencies will speak about their experiences:
- The Impact of Climate Change on Frontline Communities
- The Impact of Climate Change on Puerto Rico
- Voices of Hope and Courage
- Young People Leading on Climate Change
- The Impact of Climate Change on New York
In preparation, we’ve created a flyer for each event and twenty-one handouts. You can see and download the flyers and handouts at <www.rc.org/newyorksummit> or at <www.sustainingalllife.org/nycs2019>. Some of our events will be livestreamed on the Sustaining All Life Facebook page. We have also posted a public version of our short draft program for climate change: Climate Change: What Can We Do?
COP25 IN SANTIAGO, CHILE
We are bringing a delegation of thirty people (primarily Latinoamericanos/as, with some Spanish-speaking allies from the United States and England) to COP25 [the twenty-fifth session of the Conference of the Parties—an international United Nations climate conference] in Santiago, Chile. The conference will be held from December 2 to 13 of this year. Iliria Unzueta and Diane Shisk will lead the delegation. Ellen Tait, Dulce Cisneros, and Diane Shisk are organizing it. We’ll present some of the workshops listed above as well as workshops on the following:
- Catholics and Climate Justice
- The Climate Emergency and Our Health
- Violence, War, and Climate Change
For more information, go to <www.rc.org/cop25>. A Spanish webpage and Facebook page should be ready by the time this article is printed.
At both the United Nations Summit and COP25, our delegations will also conduct listening projects, distribute our materials, and talk with interested people.
Seattle, Washington, USA