 I'm just really excited that you all are here, and we're going to get a chance to think about the state of the movement. And that's an interesting concept of interesting challenge because this won't necessarily address all of your local questions right I live just outside of Philadelphia on the New Jersey side of the river. Obviously, I won't be able to sort of track, you know, hear from this like exactly what should I be doing right in my locality about our super fun site that's around the corner. But it's about a chance to kind of step back a little bit and hear from some of our movement leaders and elders and people who we respect to hear what are some of the threads that they're seeing what are some of the general pieces. So step back, a chance to not cover everything of course but to cover some themes. And, of course, I think I think of movements as rivers that that's that's really the metaphor I've been thinking about I live right next to the Delaware river where the linear not they were the native peoples to where I live, where they for a long time did hunting and gathering here. And rivers are long streams. We step in to a river and we step out of it. No part of the river is the same. And so the movement is not the same in any spot. There isn't one movement that we're all on doing the same thing. Rivers look different on their edges and different in their mainstream and the central part of it. So even though we call it the Delaware River, it means many different things. And so we'll get to hear from some of the different themes that that they'll be. So hopefully you'll find some pieces that speak to you speak to your condition, give insight to your reality and prepare you for what is is going on and going to go on in your part of the river. So I'm not going to do long introductions on the speakers that we have today. Right now on the line we've got Bill McKibbin and Mitzi Tan, and hopefully we'll have Constance who will be able to join us as well. And but we might be having some tech issues as this is the state of the movement is where we're coordinated through through the life of tech. And then, and so those three will be beginning the first half of our conversation and then in the second half. We'll get to hear from some organizers talking about some of the, some of how they're just making adjustments. So that will be shared by Ellen Gibson, coming from the UK, talking about the Green New Deal rising, and then we'll get to hear from Omar Amawi, who's working with Stop Ecop. So, I want to just again thank everyone for attending, making sure I caught everything interpretation. I haven't caught the interpretation yet do set your interpretation up you can. There's a little globe at the bottom that will just let you set your preferred language and Sandy this will last for about two hours is the length for this session. So, I want to just start with Mitzi. And I'm imagining us sitting by the river, having a little conversation. And I just want to invite you just to share a little about what are some of the themes that you're seeing in the movement these days. What are some of the things from just a couple of years ago. What are some of the things that you're seeing shifting what some of the psychology, what is the pandemic raw. What are some of the big themes. So, I'm kicking over to you Mitzi and then we'll we'll bring in Bill and hopefully Constance will be able to join us as well. I love that you envision movements as rivers or because I feel like it should be like that we should be seeing them as things that are moving constantly that are dynamic. And you've, at least in the spaces that I move in and the youth movement. I really seen how we've been learning so much, especially during the pandemic, especially for fight is your future where a lot of our product that a lot of reactions were in person in large gatherings in the beginning of the pandemic and that wasn't allowed. We were suddenly hit with this. Okay, now what, what do we do to keep going? How do we keep going? How do you make sure that the climate crisis is still talked about? Even with the COVID pandemic, but not saying that it's more important than the pandemic. You know, these questions came about and it's something that we had to adjust to not just the youth movement, I think, but really everyone. And you could really see how, during that time, the narrative and the messaging also got a little bit more mature and got it developed in the sense that we started seeing how climate justice was more about not just the environmental impacts but really social justice. Of course, for the longest time, a lot of groups, especially from the global south already had this thinking from the get go, but the global narrative that was on mainstream media, this wasn't the one that was being talked about. And with the rise of the Black Lives movement in 2020, and in all these social justice movements also rising up. I feel like the COVID pandemic also really exposed the rotten systems of our current profit-oriented system, and that made it a lot easier for climate activists to see that, oh, it's all interconnected. It really is something that we have to look into more and not just isolate ourselves in the environmental sphere. And now you're really seeing a shift in how, before, I mean, even the name Friday is for future, it implied that the climate crisis is the problem of the future. But now you're seeing the shift of an understanding that the climate crisis isn't just a problem of the future, it's already happening today, especially for people from the global south, especially for people like me from the Philippines and I just saw that someone is from the Philippines here. So you see that dynamic change and it was a really fast change and now it's, we're coming up to this question of how do we keep going now. Now that thing, we've really connected more internationally, but now that everyone's going back into the streets in a lot of countries, not in all, in a lot of countries, the pandemic is starting to get better. So what is the next step now and what is the next theory of change that will work? What's the next message that needs to work? So it's a lot of these questions that we need to suddenly adjust to, that we don't necessarily have the answers to yet. But maybe we'll find it in this training. I want us to underline some of the themes that you're marking, so you're marking a shift around, I mean the pandemic forced us off to the streets in many ways, and then you're talking about a sort of return. And then another big theme around the greater understanding within the movement of the intersectionality of these things. And what are you noticing about where energy is? Are people, what are your observations in terms of where people are in that kind of question? I have to think about that one. Where people are right now, I think it's so hard to tell because I never know if I'm in an echo chamber where, you know, what I'm seeing, maybe that's just what I'm seeing. But I see a big shift and a big push towards really naming the systems that are causing the problems of the climate crisis and not just dancing around the words and really naming capitalism and colonialism. And you've seen this great shift, even in let's say the IPCC report, the latest one mentioned that colonialism is a big factor in the vulnerability of countries to the climate crisis. So there's definitely these big shifts, but then I keep going back to that question like what is next? Where do we go from here and how do we make sure that we're still reaching new people and we're not leaving behind like the people who might not have grasped that intersectionality quite yet with the climate movement? Great. Well, let me bring in Bill. And so, Bill, walk us around your perspective in terms of what are some of the themes that you're seeing in terms of this question of state of the movement right now. First of all, Daniel, many, many thanks for asking me aboard and what fun to be with Mitzi who I haven't gotten to see in a while. And it's just really good to see your face and everybody else's too. I'll just say a few things and you cut me off when I'm going too long, Daniel. First thing is, at some level, a lot of these questions always hinge on where the science is at any given moment. We're dealing with a problem at some level of problem in physics. And that problem is really scary right now. You know, I wrote the first book about climate change way back in 1989 and the things that we thought of as threats then the things that we thought might happen towards the matter part of this century are happening right now as we sit here today. The Indus River in Pakistan has swollen to it places 100 kilometers wide in what may be the single most epic bout of flooding since Noah. China is at the end of 80 or 90 days of just unprecedented and brutal heat, day after day after day, place after place where hundreds of millions of people are living it's been too hot to really live. Just, and so all one could give a thousand more examples, all of it a way to saying that things are escalating very quickly in the physical world, which means that it's good that things are escalating quickly in the political world to I think that a lot of our work as we've built movements over the last 15 years around the world has been. Since we started from close to zero has been to shift the zeitgeist shift people's sense, large public ways of what's normal and natural and obvious. I think that that work is finally really sinking in, we're at the point where most people in the planet have begun to realize that there is this climate crisis that we have to do something about it and that we should be moving quickly. That's the case here in the US which was long at the absolute heart of climate denial. And, and so it was good news, though, not perfect news that we passed this some inflation reduction act a few weeks ago through Congress it was the first time that the US Congress has acted on climate change. In the 34 years since Jim Hansen really began the global warming era by telling Congress in 1988, what was going on. And it's the payoff to extraordinary work by extraordinary numbers of activists for a very long time. Much of that work done by people on this call over the years I mean the global divestment movement helped produce the activists for the sunrise movement you brought us the green new deal which in its reduced form became this inflation reduction act everything counts. We're in a race. The race is with the rapidly degrading physical systems on the planet, and we have two jobs in that race one is to speed up the good side to provide the resources that we can to allow the rapid transition to renewable and clean energy. And the other part of that race is to trip up the other side to to, and the other side is the fossil fuel industry and the big financial institutions and things that support them. I think a lot of the work around the world over the next few years is going to come around banks and financial institutions and asset managers. I think we're really going to have to go after the, well, the capital in capitalism. Because that's at this point what continues to kind of fund this zombie fossil fuel industry. And if they're able to keep that industries business model alive for another decade or two. It's not enough to break the planet. So that's why a lot of us are concentrating not just on politics but on finance. I also think that the other thing that's emerging in the movement now in part in reaction to the change in to the degradation of physical systems is an increased attention to loss and damage to what is owed from the global north to the global south. I think that's going to be a real feature of the talks in Egypt in November, the next cop. And I think it's going to increasingly be a part of this dialogue going forward something that just can't be shoved under the rug. And we should continue to stress it over and over and over again. And I'll just finish by saying that movements are absolutely key here, and that the push from kind of activist communities around intersectionality, the leadership of youth frontline communities is essential, but that victory always lies in those who can mobilize as much of the potential as possible. That that's how we make change on the scale that we need to make it if we want to catch up with science. And so I'll just report to you all that it's been my great fun for the last year has been organizing old people like me. We're going to focus over 60 at third act. Beginning in the US but spreading around the world. And we're, we're having fun backing up the work of younger people pushing hard and and and training everyone up for, among other things, the state of nonviolent direct action that's coming as we take on the banks over the course of the next few months. So that the need for movements to keep shifting keep pushing keep changing was like guys so that we can make progress at the pace we need is what's essential. Everyone knows that we're going to run this planet when clean energy 50 years from now because the economics will make sure it's all but free. But if it takes us anything like 50 years to get there the planet we run on clean energy will be a broken planet. That won't, that won't be my worry anymore because I'll be dead, but it'll be mitzvah worry. And so our job is very quickly to figure out how to make that push that transition to happen. It's a race, we speed up our side and trip the other side if we possibly can. So I want to let mitzvah get in and respond to some of that. And I'll just say as you're talking bill you're reminding me of another bill Moyer who talked about sort of the trajectory of movement life. And he said in order for movements to win, they have to convince the public three times that convince them one that there is a problem. That to that the current conditions and the policies that created this problem have to be opposed. So that we have to resist we can't just accept the elite will figure it out for us. And third that alternative policies have to be embraced and you have to convince them that the fault solutions won't work. And then the last movements that it's not enough to just have this from or this piece or that piece but instead that actually it's a that the changes have to get it accepted into society, and each one of those is a big fight. And I think what you both are marking on is that there's a shift in in where we have been from much of this time we've been spending energy just convincing people that there's a problem. And it doesn't matter whether or not people are experiencing a problem. People have to see it as a probably have to understand it understands dynamic and that is that's a shifting dynamic here. So yeah, what else Mitzi do you see and, and Bill kind of mentioned the generational divide on this which is some of us have a fear for our personal selves and our future and some of us it's a fear for our, our children grandchildren. And that's not to say it's not happening now that's just the, the, the generational divide shifts how we're feeling it experiencing it. What are, what are observations do you have about how that's how that's going as a as a as a young person Mitzi. Well as a young person I think it's great that there are more and more older people looking to support young people. I find it so strange to phrase it like that because I've always seen the climate justice movement as not just young people because for the longest time even before you know the rise of fighter future and the youth led movements. Over there were the indigenous people's a small farmers a small fisher folk are environmental defenders who a lot of them are actually elders, and a lot of them are are able to protect the planet because they honored the cultures of their elders. So it's it's sometimes a little bit strange to me that it is youth led I do see that it has to be youth led but it's not just youth led it's a youth led intergenerational multi sectoral struggle. And that's how I like to view the climate justice movement really, because I think that is how we make sure that we don't just focus on one perspective, but several different perspectives and just as you said like now is the time when we have to start on those solutions and really creating that world that we keep saying is possible we keep saying that another world is possible we keep saying that it's coming. But what does it look like we need to start building that in people's brains and minds and really helping people understand that it is possible because I've talked to. I recently had some conversations with people who are not in the climate movement like at all they've never even seen a climate strike even in the news and I'm like what really like in my world it's just it's all that there is and then I hear someone who has never seen anything about climate change and they're like, yeah maybe there is a problem but I don't know how to fix it I don't think we can fix it so now it's just like pushing people forward to say that it is possible to change. It's just like we're stuck but we're not, we can change things and we have to. And I think that is also more exciting part for me, because I'm honestly getting so tired of talking about the problems over and over and over again, but not being asked what do you think are the solutions what do you think we need to do next and I think, as Bill was mentioned in climate finance is something that is really something that we should be focusing on something that we were working on a lot last year was targeting standard Chartered Bank to divest from the fossil fuel companies, and really seeing a rise of divestment campaigns which I think is really useful but also on the other aspect of climate finance. More and more people are starting to talk about loss and damages and reparations and the need for, you know, a mechanism that's concrete to have that transfer of climate finance and it's interesting to see how it's becoming talked about more because I think it's also showing that that conversation around that kind of solution shows that people are starting to finally realize that the climate crisis is already here. And so, when you have more concrete understandings and more complex understandings of what the problem is you also get more specific solutions I think it's really something that you have to do together. But honestly, you really have to have more of that. I guess, creative radical imagination of what the world needs to look like. And so we're not showing that we're just anti fossil fuels and I this and I that we're also pro love and so joy and pro community. And I think that is what helps someone fight for things even more it's that love, I guess for Bill mentioned earlier it's love for your children your grandchildren. For me, it's my love for my family for my friends for my community is that love for the people in the planet that pushes people forward and I think that we need to start using that to our advantage more. So what what I'm glad you want to be asked about the solutions because that's a, that's an area that I think people are really looking for right now in the movement which is what are some of the directions to push. And I think there's a tension so Sandy for examples mentioned a challenge which is just doing climate finance can look like an opportunity for banks to wash their hands of actually, we're going to be the good guys here. And one of the challenges of capitalism taking on capitalism is, it can be very adaptable. And so as any as you push on any direction, it can adapt and kind of take over that piece of things. And so I'm curious. What are some of the solutions or energy that you're finding has has more potential right now. So I want to offer this to both of you but what are some of the directions that you think offer the most amount of potential in terms of. I have limited energy, which is all of us. Here's where I should put my energy, because I hear about. I hear about cars that are going to go on electric batteries I hear about local renewable projects I hear about large scale wind power I hear about which one, what are the fights that I should be taking on right now. Because we're now in a phase that's new for the movement which is an abundant. We're being told a bunch of different solutions that might be. And how do we discern which ones are useful not useful. I'll kick that to you first Mitzi, since it's a straightforward question, and then give you a chance to add to that bill. So the question, what, what, how do we help discern what are the solutions to, to push, and what are the ones that you're pushing at this moment. You see, I don't get this question a lot. I don't know how to answer it yet. I have to think about it. I think that I think that there is a big need to focus on demanding for reparations and climate finance, especially in this lead up to company seven the UN climate summit this November so specifically in this time period. And I think the beauty about the climate movement is how it shifts so much and that if you're already doing something in the climate space you don't need to leave that. I want to put that like disclaimer there I don't think that if you're already doing something you should leave what you're doing but if you're new, and you want to, you know, bring in more people than maybe this is something that you can focus on but honestly, as you said because you don't need different options I feel like where you're already interested or what you're already looking into, you can probably help out there so if you were someone who prefers to look at banks and divestments and finances that's something that you can put your energy into if you're someone who likes to do poetry or art or things like that that's something that you can look into also and changing the narratives around climate or through those platforms. It's difficult to say like one specific thing that I think people should put energy on I personally am putting more energy into looking for adaptation and reparations and climate finance. In the lead up to company seven but I think that you know maybe after this will change or maybe next month my answer will change. I think that whenever people can I am also seeing in the chat that there's calls for health for Pakistan and solidarity for Pakistan so whenever people can. I think that's something that they should put energy into as well. Showing the needs of people right now and talking about the needs of people right now and and showing solidarity in whatever way is possible. The same question. Well, how do you help people discern the solutions. Yes, I think, I mean, I think as usual, but he's just right, especially about the kind of need for nimbleness and, you know, as different things arise. I think it's always good to ask what, you know what movements are good at and what they're not so good at. You know, there are people better than the people at this. Most of the people on this call and figuring out how to make solar panels 10% more efficient. If you're a great engineer who's really good at working on solar. You know what, get off the call and get back to the lab bench because that's its own really useful form of things but most of us are not engineers. So we're good at other stuff. I think probably the biggest role of movements right now is continuing to open up the vacuum. What I mean is continuing to make life really difficult for the fossil fuel industry, and all the ways that we can think confident in the fact that if we make life difficult for the fossil fuel industry, there are now enough great different interesting solutions about how to power the world that can rush in to fill that vacuum. And none of them are going to be perfect and all of them are going to come with problems and we know now about the problems around mining lithium or cobalt or the problem, you know, these are all things we've got to work on, but they're not existential problems, the way that the rapid rise in the temperature of the planet is an existential problem, the problem that if we don't solve will completely thwart the future. I think that the highest value for activists continues to be punching hard against the status quo and being reasonably confident that others who are good at science and engineering are doing the job to fill what vacuums we can create. And, you know, that's a huge enough task for all of us to take up all our time and energy. And one of the ways and we're actually getting a number of questions along these lines of what are the 25 things 35 things 100 things, what are the, what's the one thing that I should be doing. I think you answered that question, when people come with that that that kind of question because often it's about understanding we have a limited amount of energy. I have a limited amount of time. I'm a parent of a four year old, so those of you who know, you know, I got a toddler running around so what, what, what can I pull off. And so how do you respond to people who are saying, tell me tell me the thing I should be doing. Mitzi bill. How do you respond. Well, I'll go first this time that sees you have some time to. It's hard to do these things on the slide. Look, I, I, I think the thing to always remember about climate change is what an extraordinarily huge problem is the biggest physical problem that we've ever wandered into as a species. So, if you really want to impact how much the temperature is going to go up and hence how much damage is going to be done to how many people, then you're looking at interventions that by necessity are big. I think there's only two levers big enough to really make a difference. One of them is marked politics. And, you know, we've been pulling that lever hard and with some with some result. The Paris climate Accords, the, you know, bill that we got through the Congress in the US, the work that's being done in the EU around renewable mandates that kind of thing. That's really important. The other lever that's big enough to matter is the one mark money. In my country, I think we're come to understand that Wall Street is as important as Washington, as a venue for change in some ways, maybe more so because Wall Street's power remains incredibly global. Because things that happen in the world's financial markets happened quickly, not in the slow motion fashion that politics seems to operate. You know, if we could tomorrow force Chase Bank to stop lending money to the fossil fuel industry, that would be reflected on every stock market in the world in the course of half an hour, and would change the price for 1000 projects, you know, by the end of the day. So, I think those are the levers that are that are worth pulling. At least that's how I divide up my time just trying to figure out what the interventions are that are large enough that if we were successful, they would have a measurable impact on how high the temperature on planet Earth ended up getting. I think for me, if you're already asking how to help, then you're in the right direction. The next is if you're not part of a movement yet, you're not part of a collective yet or a community yet, you should find one. Find a group, join the movement, because that's how we change things. That's how we pull on these levers that Bill was mentioning it is through that collective action. It also helps you realize that you don't have to do everything on your own. I know that it is such a big problem and it feels like, which one do I do I have to do everything at the same time or like I have to do one thing really really well, but you don't, because there's the goal is to have as many people doing things together. And so if you remember it that way if you're joining the community joining a movement doing what you can there and bringing others in also then that is also how we push on these levers because then you realize that you take off that burden from your shoulder of having to do everything yourself because you realize that you're not doing this alone. It is a collective action and it's so tempting to do everything because of how big of the problem is and especially if you're dealing with climate anxiety it feels like you know you have to put all your time into this but that's the thing that you always have to remember you're part of collective you don't have to do everything on your own so you could focus on what you're already good at you could focus on what you're already interested in and trust that there are other people doing the same things for all the other parts for all the other levers. Beautiful parts of the river right there are there are many fish in this river who are all working on on similar pathways and and one of the things you may not be tracking is people on the chat have been posting some of the different work that they're up to, or trying to organize people if you're in Canada, also want to connect up do connect with Elizabeth and so forth and I just love that that's happening that that's the great instinct of organized as always organized. I'm going to ask you on this time this area that we're now at so we've kind of moved into some of the we've got to advocate for solutions. And then the question is there's a race happening. And there's a race about how quickly will we make these changes, some of which are underway some of which are, all of which are underway at some level but but whether or not they add up to enough do enough etc. I think there are many reasons to not be hopeful in the sense that there are many reasons to not feel as though enough has happened, and that it will happen quickly enough. I think there's also those of us who look to other past movements are often very amazed about how frequently it's the case that history can shift very quickly. There is an ability of systems actually shift very rapidly, even though they look clunky and slow and incapable of doing that, and then suddenly something opens there's there's a massive break a psychic break. And in some ways I think in some ways, many of us are feeling the energy before a psychic break, where we're aware this is not managed this is not sustainable. It's not sustainable to see one in seven people in Pakistan climate refugees all of a sudden in their own country. So, my question is about. What are this, the things that you lean on when you're looking for grounding. Some people might use that word hope and I'm, I'm tentative about the word hope because some of us, that isn't necessarily our driver, whether we're hopeful or not we still do the right things. We still do the things for the future. But what are the things that you, you are finding that are grounding you that helping you so when you look around the globe. You say, this progress is happening, or this progress is happening that helps you stay stay in a grounded spot over this period of time as you kind of look around so I'm not asking for your internal interior. Here's what I do and meditate I don't meditate ever, you know, whatever but but what are some of the external things that you look at that help that help you kind of navigate and get a reading for this moment. Bill. Well, I mean, you know, I think one of the things that movements do a terrible job at is celebrating their victories. You know, because everyone's always like yeah but it's not perfect we didn't win it all whatever. I mean, looked at it in a, in a larger sense. We're crushing it. I mean, you know, when, when 350 started what 15 years ago or so when we founded it, there really was no global climate movement. Now, by any measure, it's the largest movement that there's ever been on the planet. And, and it has extraordinary leadership from frontline communities from indigenous communities from young people who have figured out how to network together to do all kinds of things. The investment movement which continues to grow, you know, just daily we get announcements of new places and new things. It's by, by most measures the largest anti corporate campaign there's ever been on the planet we're at about $40 trillion in endowments because that have divested in harder and whole from fossil fuel and we began 15 years ago. Exxon was the biggest company on earth. And now it's a, you know, it's making money this year thanks to Vladimir Putin but it's a, you know, shell of its former self. And this industry is clearly on the defensive and fighting for its life. The only reason I mean, you know, I'm not, I'm not a Paulina about any of this the name of that first book that I wrote about all this 35 years ago was the end of nature so I'm not cheerful all the time about what's going on. I think the, the only reason to despair right now if you determined to despair is that it is a race and, and we have a time limit on how quickly we you know how fast we have to move. If we can't, if we can't, if we let the Arctic melt we don't have a way to freeze it back up again, you know is what I'm saying so that's scary and very real, but our job is to keep our heads down and keep producing victories, one after another. And, and, and we'll, we'll see if that's enough to deal with it a long time to get started there's a lot of momentum on the other side, but there's a lot of momentum on our side now. And it's really powerful to watch to gotten to watch that develop and to get to see. So, so I don't think there's any. And it has a good excuse for not of being fully engaged at this point. Yes, it's a brutal, they're brutal realities of climate change. And they're going to get worse over the next decade or two, just because of momentum in the system, but there's also momentum for change. And if we do everything we can do right now, then the ultimate result will not be as disastrous as it would otherwise. And that's, you know, we're talking the lives of hundreds of millions or billions of people, and that's should make it easy for all of us to figure out how to get up every day and do this work. Let's see. There's this quote in filibina that goes. Which translated means once your eyes have been opened, it is a sin to close them again. And a lot of that, a lot of my a lot something that grounds me a lot is that idea that I know what's happening. I've seen it. I've seen what it does to my community is it would be a sin to not do anything is a sin to the world to the heavens above to myself to my family I don't even know but there is a push that's coming from that. And then on the other side of that it's what Bill mentioned when I feel like, you know, yeah it's a sin I can't do anything though what am I what is this what is this what what am I going to do. So, I realize that I, it goes back I've been saying this over and over but we're not alone in this there is someone and literally every country there's more than one person every country fighting for the same thing that we are. And when you see it that way it feels impossible to lose because what is stopping us right it's, it's, it's, I hate greenwashing of course like any other climate activists but I feel like it's a sign that they're afraid. Because now they're lying to us because there was a time when they outright we just said all the stuff right but now they're like, oh, we got to pretend we got to make sure that we're look like we're doing great things but now I think that's a sign that they're starting to be afraid. I think they're, they're, you know, trying to hold on to anything that they can hold on to trying to stay in power but they're slowly losing that grip but we just need to keep on pulling them and pushing the system towards the right direction. There's this beautiful quote you're reminding me of Mitzi from a social quicker sociologist who said wherever there is hypocrisy, there's hope. And he noted the systems when they are lying to you it's because there's a value they know they need to be stretching towards. So, thank you for for bringing these pieces in and and build you're reminding us for movement to then claim victory to that that actually greenwashing is a step towards. So, as a kind of heading towards a closing, I just want to ask if there are particular things that you're as you kind of walk around the globe that you see that you find inspiring. So, examples of tactics or examples of particular movement energy. I'll give you a chance to talk about your own right right before we close but but of other spots around the globe and and both of you have an ability to your tracking a lot of different movements spaces. Some of us, we only pay attention to Philly or our particular place but you both are particularly good at tracking so what are some of the things that are in movement work that's inspiring you. You first bill and then Mitzi. There's a million beautiful things happening. So let's just wander around the globe in Australia where they finally elected a government that's taking climate change seriously after extraordinarily hard work by activists. Now people are moving on to really take on Australia's biggest issue which is it's the biggest exporter of coal in the world. Even, you know, friends down there are starting this move beyond coal campaign that will be really aggressive and going after those exports. Look at Europe right now. You know, our beloved and wonderful old friends, Atlanta, Ramonco has emerged as really a spokesman to help the world understand how tightly fossil fuels linked to autocracy and fascism. It's true in the US with the Koch brothers it's true in Saudi Arabia with the king of Saudi Arabia but man is it true right now in in Europe where Vladimir Putin is using his winnings from oil and gas to to invade another country. So it's her work, which is really ramifying, you know, the EU is now voted to move up the timetable on which they're going before renewable energy and Putin's tactics are in at least the medium term going to backfire. The fact that he's run up the price of oil and gas so high around the world is pushing this shift towards new energy sources even faster today's UK tabloids have Boris Johnson of all people explaining to Brits that offshore wind is nine times cheaper than fossil and natural gas, which is, which will be a huge boost in Africa people are doing amazing work a and standing up to dirty projects like the East Africa crude oil pipeline, and such a shout out to the people who are doing that in collaboration with actually Europeans that, you know, who are standing up to like French oil company total that's a huge part of it, but they're also spreading out renewable energy across the continent fast. And in North America, there's was extraordinary work around this inflation reduction act and now there's a big effort to try and stop the dirty side deals that came with it. Big rallies on September 8 in DC for anyone who's in the neighborhood to try and stop pipeline projects around Appalachia, LNG projects along the Gulf Coast and so on. This list could go on for a very long time. And one of the things that makes it really powerful is that it's happening, even in the face of difficult conditions. Look, too much of the world is now and no goes on for activists too many places. It's gotten harder and harder and we really have to stand behind our colleagues in places that are just ismally difficult. Everybody knows that China is a hard place to be doing activism, but that's true of India now too. It's definitely true of Bolsonaro's Brazil. It's true of too many places around the world that have become very, very hard for activists to operate. And we salute the extraordinary bravery of all the people who keep going including Mitzi in the Philippines, which is not an easy place either. Some of us with long historical memories were a little sad to see the return of Marcos's wall people to power in the Philippines but there you go. But we have so much collaboration so much solidarity that we're going to try and overcome some of that. I'll just add by way of finishing that for people who are going to the cop in Egypt in November. And the things we're going to need to do there because it's been it'll be one of the, you know, it'll be a cop in a country with a lot of political prisoners is stand up for some of those people and advocacy around making sure that that cop doesn't become a way to Greenwash human rights abuses will be really important. Thanks Bill. Mitzi some of the pieces around the, as you kind of scan the environment that inspire you. I feel like Bill had a comprehensive global perspective, and funnily enough, although I do get to see the different, like different country movements are all the youth movement, and all very similar tactics but I will say that recently I've been spending a lot of times as a society so people who don't see themselves as climate activists or so see themselves as the climate movement. One particular thing that's that stood out to me is actually from a bunch of elders who just experienced a bunch of climate impacts in an island and they said that the world is getting old and getting confused and getting sick because of all the tests like the fossil fuel companies and all these rules and stuff. It's time to make the world young again. And it's interesting that they said this, especially because they were the elders of the community. And I didn't expect that from them and and having seen that perspective. I think is really important to see the different approaches to climate and approaches to how we talk about the climate crisis so that we can communicate it properly to more people I've seen how small farmers, they take care of the soil, and they don't see it as part of climate activism, it's because it's their lives, it's their lives, it's their culture. And you can see how they talk about the soil and the earth in a different way also and I think that's such an interesting energy to see because then they approach it as if they kind of translated it in my head. They have this practice of communal tilling of land where they come all come together and they till the land together and they, they, they, I know these terms and flip, you know, they pick the produce together. And I think that's the way of seeing how we should be doing things as the climate movement also we're like there's some groups that are doing that are picking the eggplants and there's some groups that are watering the tomatoes at the same time and you know it's, I think there's so much for us to learn from these practices that we've kind of isolated from us who are in the city us who are in the zoom calls we're like oh yeah you know they're farming cool for doing activism. But there's so much to learn from those practices that we could bring into activism that we can integrate into activism those perspectives those ideas and I think learning and listening and opening ourselves to all the diversity really off the possibilities in the movement is something that could be really important. Great. Thank you both. I do want to give you a chance just to pitch anything that you're you're excited about that you're working on right now. Because I do love that people are people are all doing that on the chat as well people also sharing some of the pieces that they're up to. I'm trying to get as many of the comments that I've seen on the chat into the questions as well. There was a question about zero waste movement. In case you wanted to take that bill but also. I just wanted to tell everyone that yes we are recording me so you'll get a chance to watch afterwards if you're so interested, at least the English is recorded. But I just want to give you a chance to like close up anything that you wanted to pitch that you're working on right now and then we'll transition we'll get to hear from Omar and Ellen and I'll set that up after that but bill Mitzi anything that you want to just share with us as kind of final words encouragement. Well I'm just, you know I'm doing a lot of work around getting older people engaged because I do not think it's okay for people I hate when people say well it's up to the next generation to deal with these problems. Next generation is doing a great job but they lack structural power. So it's good that we're getting old people engaged to and doing it in the right spirit. But, you know, I'm, I'm doesn't bother me at all when people go on and on on their. You know, okay boomer stuff I understand why people are like that and stuff but I always just say, you know, I'm fight me if you want but at least our generation produced the best music of all time. You know, we'll take your goat rodeo Daniel and raise you Marvin Gaye and Nina Simone. And so it's been really fun to have the kind of heroes from that era, Carol King and that middler and Patty Smith and others joining in this third act work we're doing and doing it in just the I hope what's just the right spirit. We've had these big demonstrations outside banks recently and lots and lots of you know high school kids people from Fridays for the future and stuff engaged, and they're you know, faster than we are so they're at the front of the March but the last one there was a big crowd of old people like me wandering down the, you know, following them down the street and we had a big banner that said fossils against fossil fuels. So, you know, do it in the right spirit. And, and, and if you're doing it in the right spirit, it'll make it that much easier to really do some serious damage to the bad guys, which is an important part of the work we have still to do. Thanks, kind of work for you, Mitzi. Something I don't have excited is the right term but since Phil mentioned it earlier. For those who don't know our current president is the son of our dictator from 50 years ago, and I could go on and on about why this son is also bad for the environment and environmental defenders and activists but we will be releasing solidarity actions that we can participate in this coming month this coming September. Oh, it's already September 1, this September, because this is also the 50th year of since the martial law in the Philippines. And so there will be actions around that during the global climate strike in the Philippines also. And it's exciting because we're going to be doing a political fashion show so fashion against fascism because we have to get really creative to make sure that we can still keep our activism in whatever way we can. So I love it. But that's what we'll be doing. I'll put the social media and stuff in the chat later. But I think that just really shows how we need to connect more in the world now more than ever and we really need to show solidarity with another and really be flexible and nimble and creative in the ways we're doing our activism and see that there are different ways and see how we can collaborate. I recently talked to a bunch of policymakers and it's such a different world, but it's so interesting to see their perspectives also and how we can collaborate with that. And I think now is the time to really keep connecting to keep collaborating to keep showing solidarity with another and becoming more and more in touch with each other because I think that's what the people in power really afraid of when we become friends with each other, you know, because then suddenly oh, they're friends of each other they care about each other more now. So now that that's that's what will get them scared so that's what we need to keep doing. Well, thank you both of you for participating in this. As I had mentioned we'd hope constant would join us but unfortunately the tech stuff didn't allow. So thank you both of you for participating for sharing your wisdom your experience and the work that you're doing. So please do Mitzi put your contact information for groups are working with Bill if you want to do that to just about third act. You can message everyone on the chat. And we're going to transition. So we've been hearing about some of the big threads, so walking the globe as it were and obviously we can't cover everything because there's so many things happening and every part of the globe right now. But I do want to, we're going to turn it over to Omar, I'm going to ask you to go first, and then Ellen, and each, each of them will be sharing kind of, if you think of it like a case study, I find case study such an academic term but the story of organizing, and we're all adjusting to the state of the movement as as things are shifting. And so Omar is actually following that flow around working on banking through a campaign on stopping e-cop. And then afterwards, Ellen so I think I want to ask if you're listening, think here, both about like what someone is doing but also how are they navigating this flow of the river. And what are some questions you might have for them about how are they navigating the pandemic or how are they organizing under these conditions. And so feel free to again to put comments and questions they've been doing in the chat. And I'll do my best to kind of keep surfacing those up. But for now I'm just going to hand it over to you Omar to introduce you your work that you've been doing on e-cop, which has been a very important campaign. And, and then we'll give an opportunity for people to, I'll jump in with some questions to follow up. Sound good. Thanks for inviting me. I mean, it's always a pleasure to be a missed good people like Bill and you and others who've been part of this movement for a while and really part of the inspiration why some of the young ones like us are taking up the mantle and doing this work. So for the benefit of everyone, my name is Omar Elmawi. I am speaking to you today from Nairobi in Kenya in Africa. And for the next few minutes, I think in around 15 to 18 minutes, I'll be talking to you about this amazing idea that Total Energy China National offshore oil company in the government of Uganda in Tanzania decided to do in the heart of Africa, which is building the world's longest heated crude oil pipeline at about 1443 kilometer, just over 900 miles, spanning from Uganda all the way to you to Tanzania. I prepared a small presentation that I would like to project, because I'm not the most interesting person to see all through for the next 15 minutes. So at least you have something to look at, as I speak to you. I'm going to ask you, Daniel just know to just give me a thumbs up if you can see my screen. Awesome. All right, so first things first. This is a project that is looking at exploiting oil in Africa. And maybe I should have started by saying that one, so that to give people context about Africa. We have a population of about 600 more than 600 million people that still are energy poor and therefore don't have access to electricity. We also are the continent that has contributed the least to historical emissions and the climate catastrophe that we're seeing today. And we are facing most of the brand that is coming from climate change, partly because we are not resilient, we're not able to adapt and we're also not able to mitigate because of many, many reasons including poverty. And therefore, we're seeing now, because there is sort of a push, and this is in my own opinion, but there's a push in terms of what you're seeing in mostly in Europe and the other welfare nations, where we're seeing activism and people really pushing against fossil fuel projects. And these companies are now looking at other places that they can still continue with their business, and therefore continue to make their shareholders happy. And for them, Africa is the next frontier. It is the place that they want to be to continue with this business, at least in the next few years or decades, until we can really, you know, get them out of this project, out of this fossil fuel business. So Uganda is now there for one of the countries that was unfortunate enough to discover oil. And while there might be people who are celebrating when this was discovered, a lot were not happy. So Uganda discovered about 1.7 billion barrels of oil at a place called the Albertan Grubbin in western Uganda. So it's quite a very rich biodiversity area that really is home to some of the most pristine of environment and species that are really key for not only Uganda but for the entirety of Africa. But in discovering of oil, what did they do? The first thing that they wanted to do was to exploit it. And because we don't have the knowledge, the know-how and the resources to do this within Africa, they invited foreign companies to come in and sort of tender or ask to do this project. And therefore they gave these two oil fields, one called Telengah and the other called Kintrisha, to two companies. One is Total Energy and the other one is China National offshore oil company to exploit the oil. And then they also, because you know, while they're touting this project as a project that is going to alleviate energy poverty within Africa, but then they still gave another tender to these companies to build a pipeline, which is not to get oil within the whole of these two countries, but to get it to the port in Tanzania because Uganda is a landlocked country, get it in oil tankers and then take it to international markets. So in short, Uganda is becoming a petrol station for Europe and other wealthier nations so that we can fill in the energy and fossil fuel needs that they have. And while they're still leaving a very small number of the oil to be refined domestically, but this is very, it's almost uncertain that it's going to happen because one, the final investment decision has not been reached. And two, I think these companies are only interested in exporting the oil. And then finally, and then finally, the other point that I wanted to make is the fact that there are also many different alternatives or things that are going to be affected if this oil is going to be exploited. So one, this oil is going to be located, one of the oil fields is in the Madison Falls Park, which is a rich biodiversity area. It's the second biggest, most visited park in Uganda. And just to give context, tourism is quite a big income earner for Uganda. It employs up to 600,000 people and a big chunk of these people are within Uganda. Part of the oil fields or the oil wells that are going to be dug are going to be within the Albert and Lake Albert, which is an important asset for fishermen, many, many fishermen. This project and the pipeline itself is going to be displacing up to 100,000 people that is directly because so that the pipeline can go through and also will be displacing other economic interests like agriculture and other issues. There is definitely the issue around the pipeline running about a third of the pipeline is going to be located within the Lake Victoria Basin. I'm not saying the Lake Victoria itself but the basin which sort of feeds the lake. And therefore what this means is if any oil spill happens around this area, then it's going to be a huge headache for people who depend on Lake Victoria as a freshwater source for both drinking and food production. About 40 million people depend on Lake Victoria for both drinking water and food production. And fair enough that this oil, it's a little bit waxy in nature as opposed to what you use to the relevant oil, and therefore what this means is that it is going to be to solidify below the ambient temperatures, and I think the ambient temperatures is anything under 50 degrees Celsius. So while there is an argument that if there's any oil spill, it won't travel far and wide, but there are also the elements that come with the oil that might be poisonous, and still therefore be traveling far and wide. And therefore this is not necessarily a mitigation factor that should be considered by having this project run within or in parallel with such a significant lake that is really being depended on. Sadly, I know Bill was talking about the political prisoners that have been arrested in Egypt and that that should be something that we speak about during the court processes. The human harassment, you know, an intimidation of human rights defenders has been really, really problematic for especially activists in Uganda and Tanzania. And for them we've had situations where people have been arrested, people organizations have been threatened to be deregistered, people having to respond and report to police every now and then because of trivial charges. I was reading that one charge sheets and I was even laughing, not that it's a laughable thing because it's someone who's facing a lot of problems, but the person who's being charged by speaking up against a government project or sort of being an impediment or a headache to a government project. And I mean for some of us are having it easy because for me I'm based in Nairobi in Kenya, and therefore I have the, at least the power and the opportunity to speak as aggressively as possible, because there's really not much that these two governments can do to me unless I decide for one reason or another to visit. You can't go to Tanzania anytime soon. But if I don't, then I can really say anything and chances are not too much can happen to me. But it doesn't mean that therefore the campaign is in a good place because we still need, and for me, movements campaigns have to be anchored within the community within those directly affected people that live closer to these regions. Without their voices, it really becomes harder and harder to make sure that you can say the campaign is supported by the relevant people who are most threatened and affected. And therefore, in doing so, the reprisals from the government from the security forces has in some ways affected other voices that might want to come in and to speak up against the project to be deterred to do so because they are worried about the reprisals that will happen. But also in other ways, it has made us, you know, become fast, very resilient, and two, we've managed to get a lot of support from not just international media, but also, you know, special rapporteurs, special UN voice including aspects like diplomats and international diplomats really coming in to support us. And in many ways now, I think in Uganda, when they're still challenging, it's not as bad as when we started doing the work. And then finally, there's the aspect that affects now all of us, which is climate risks. This project itself, it's going to be exporting about 200,000 pairs of oil a day, which means that if that oil is going to be banned or consumed, it will be generating about 34 million tons of carbon dioxide. And what this means, therefore, is that it's going to be more than six or around that time, what Uganda is currently emitting, and more than double what both Uganda and Tanzania are currently emitting and therefore this means that it's going to be a huge, huge, huge problem. And there is the argument that's being made that, you know, it's inconsequential, the carbon footprint that's going to be coming out is inconsequential, looking at the wealthy nations. But for me, the argument has been one, this project, the biggest shareholders of the project, both the oil fields and the pipeline is total in China National Offshore Oil Company. China National Offshore Oil Company in total on 70% of the pipeline, they own more than 50% of both the oil fields. And therefore, to me, the question is then, you know, with all of these impacts we're talking about, what then is the government of Uganda and Tanzania gaining by pushing on with this project. One, all the oil is going out of the country, it's not going to be consumed locally. Two, if they're going to be any employment opportunities, they're going to be very minimal and most of them are going to be going to expatriates coming from other countries. And lastly, you know, they've even passed laws. And this is one of the most worrying things in Africa. I don't know, maybe some also in some ways the global south, where you're seeing these companies really liking to come to our countries because one, they are bigger and richer and powerful than our countries, and therefore they can bully them around and do whatever they need. They make them pass laws, if the laws are not favorable to them, pass laws that make sure that they are favorable to them. In the ECOP example, they passed a law called the African Cuddle Pipeline Special Provisions Law that one gives a tax holiday for 10 years, that these people will be getting the oil and they won't be paying a cent of the oil that's passing through the pipeline because they have a 10 year tax holiday. Secondly, they've given tax exemptions, they're not going to be paying any value added tax for all the imports that are coming to the country. And in the ECOP website, which is the official website for the for the project, they are bragging how they will be importing more than 500,000 tons of equipment into the country. And to me, I mean this is not something to brag about because it's an opportunity lost to be getting taxes for what would have helped Uganda and Tanzania. I'm not making a case for this project, but I'm meaning even if you were to do something harmful, at least figure out a way that will get something out of it. Oh, you're heading right there. I was going to just encourage you, John Connolly was asking about bring us into the financial instruments because of who's funding ECOP. So take us there. And because there's been able, there's been pressure that's been working on this and that's part of the thing that makes us so such an interesting case study is how to deal with this neocolonial extraction and still win using financial target. So anyway, bring us there. Yeah. Yeah, definitely. So this is just something to try and make you see all the people who are involved and then after this I'll go to the financiers specifically. But just quickly, I was talking about the oil fields, which is the Telangra and Kingfisher oil fields, which are majorly owned by Total and Sinok, and then the ECOP pipeline. There is 70% owned by Total and Sinok and then 15% by the government of Uganda and another 15% by the government of Tanzania. In terms of those involved in the financing of ECOP, we have three, what we call the financial lead advisors of the project, which is standard banks of Africa, Sumimoto Mitsui Bank of Japan and the Industrial Commercial Bank of China. Why the finance aspect of the ECOP is important is because it's a $5 billion project. They will need about 60% of it to come from loan. That's about $3 billion that's supposed to be coming from debt from financiers. And therefore what this means is we have been able to target banks as an advocacy aspect to be able to try and push them not to be involved and our strategy has been to identify banks that might have been big at financing either Total or China National offshore oil company, or we know have been big at financing fossil fuels. And we did a list of about 35 banks and sent letters, emails, risk assessments and analysis as to why they should not be involved in this project. And we told them that they have a certain time period to let us know if they're going to be involved in the project or not. And that we on our website we dedicated a specific corner that we put them out and we list all of these. And we say, we've reached out to them we say what they say the public statement on ECOP. If they say they won't be investing, then we make a lot of noise on social media and it's a success. If they say they will be investing. We also make sure that people know so that they cannot continue with their greenwashing campaigns. To be able to do that. It's really been important for us to make sure that we gather evidence that's required and in some ways has been really really difficult, because some of the documents to debt are not accessible to the community and to the public. We've also utilized other strategies like legal strategies in terms of going to court, the East African Court of Justice, and also in international courts like the French courts where we were suing Total and what we call the duty of vigilance slow. And we've been able to do a lot of public campaigning where we took activists from Africa from Uganda and Tanzania to Europe and to other places to meet, you know, representatives of these banks to meet even the pop to make sure that they know that we are against this project. And then another aspect around advocacy that we've done has been around targeting because this is a risky project that will definitely need insurance to be able to proceed with it. And what we did is we did a list of about, about 18 insurers that we know have been big at financing total project at underwriting total projects, or underwriting big possible projects. And we've been able to convince about 12 of the 18 to confirm that they won't be involved in equal. And on the banks of the 35 that we've approached up to now 20 have confirmed to us. That they will not be taking part in the project financing of the eco project so all these have been, have been amazing successes but our biggest headache right now is the three financial advisors standard bank, I CBC and sumimoto Mitsui bank, who are not only lead arrangers, but also will be quite likely that they will be providing financing for this project so that's the banks that we're looking at next, and we're going to be doing more in terms of targeting them and getting them to really make a statement around I think the next few slides are just showing some of the areas that you could look at the bank checklist, let us that was signed by more than 260 people, we regularly write op-eds, even Bill McKibbin has written at least twice. We've done email actions on our stop eco website, more than 10,000 emails have been sent in to some of these banks that we're targeting. And, and all of this have been great we've even gone to these banks and projected like the JP Morgan, projecting lights, asking them to stop, stop eco so all these have been amazing activities amazing my son that we've had. But because of time, please allow me to stop here. And then hopefully we should have an opportunity to have a question and answer opportunity back to you. Two things. Yeah, thank you Omar. Two things have already come up that I've tracked one is a question from Jacqueline about when you talk about who, who's the we, how many are you involved in this effort. And then as well I'll ask that question and I'll ask the others. No definitely so for we here. I'm also not even sure because it keeps growing bigger and bigger every day. But what I would say on that is that the campaign is started it's a both a community and global campaign that definitely starts from Uganda and increasingly grew something really big. So for instance, we have more than 260 people who've regularly signed our petitions in our letters. We've had more than one million people signed a petition that we were targeting total on. So it's, it's a whole many number of people. And it's, it's really the beauty about campaigns and movements right because it's not an organization, it's not like you have a list of stuff and people that someone can target. It's everyone and every person who's interested in working within a different faction of the campaign gets involved. And, and therefore really, you know, like, it keeps moving and it keeps getting the, the, the successes that you need. And also you are able to identify and see the different strengths that each partner each person coming to the campaign has, and really, you know, utilizing them to the extent of their success. If someone is good on financial advocacy, then that's what you involve them with. If someone is good with litigation, then they have no business in terms of, you know, doing financial advocacy. The only business is how many cases can we file to keep delaying or stop this project if someone is good with, you know, community engagement and training that's what we engage them with. And, you know, utilizing all of these many, many factions, so that it's really, really big. And for me, you know, if, if someone can tell how many you are, it's easy for them to start strategizing how they can stop you. And therefore for us, you know, depending to who we speak to, we can say we're a million, or we can say we're 260. One question that I got asked was, can you give an example of one of the successes you talked about at the end, you were able to win some victories against some financial institutions. Can you give us one example of what that looks like. So, let's talk about the both the bounce and the insurers, for instance. So as I said, this project is, they will need at least $3 billion for the pipeline itself to as long as to come in to be able to do it. And therefore, because in Africa, it's the project has a lot of backing from the government. We know that it's very unlikely that we can be able to stop it from Uganda and Tanzania. They will get all the licenses they need, even if we go to court, we will have our day in court, but the courts are not as stronger and able to stop some of these projects. So some, sometimes the only option we had was to make sure that they do not get the financial close that they need to be able to start construction this project. This oil was discovered in 2006. They're yet to extract a single barrel up to now we're in 2022 16 years later. So what this means is we've been able to delay the oil for around 16 years and some for us. I am. I know maybe the success we will really have at the end is when we get to a point where oil is, you know, increasingly now it's less profitable than renewable. And I think it's only Ukraine and Russia invasion that has made oil boom to go a little bit higher up now and people are looking at oil as more profitable. But the more we delay it, the more it means renewables are getting cheaper, the more it means the local, the bigger population understands the impact that it talks about. And the more it means that we have another opportunity to keep stopping stopping it and keep moving around so that has been a success in terms of getting up to 20 banks to commit to us that they won't be giving financing for this project. And the good thing is, you know, these banks are not just saying we're not giving financing for this project but they're saying the reason why we're not giving financing for this project is because it is not not only within our risk appetite, but also it's not within their climate commitments and what their goals that they're having, and therefore it becomes quite clear that this project is really really problematic from the climate perspective. But for me what I would say is really the biggest success for this project would be in terms of how it's been able to bring on board, not just people in Uganda and Tanzania, but people from all over the continent and all over the world, who are as worried and as disturbed by this project than even people who are living in Uganda and Tanzania. And for me it's a success that people don't just look at projects in a vacuum that it's only on my backyard, it's only on my country, it's only on my community that affects me and therefore I will do something about that. But it should be something about the whole world being a small village, and therefore any fossil fuel projects anywhere should be a problem to everyone everywhere. So for me I should be worried about a project in the US, as I'm worried about a project next to my estate where I'm staying. That's beautiful Omar, thank you. And a number of people have been saying that they want to get connected with this particular project this particular effort, which I love. Frank, for example, is with a group whose name I love called fossil free football, and, and talking about the African Cup that total is one of the sponsors, and there's a number of other people who are also commenting someone from Mary Ann maybe, and also a crystal ball in Kenya working on the same field. And so, can you are you comfortable sharing your information so people can be in touch if they want to learn more about how to be involved in this effort this particular effort thank you. So yeah so please do get in touch with Omar, and he'll help post that so that everyone can see his contact information as well. Thank you Omar any last comments, or things you want to offer people before we move over to Ellen. I think I've said everything I wanted to say but really really thankful to be part of this and hoping to hear more of you wanting to be involved, not just in the campaign but even if you want me to support your campaign in your movement. Feel free to reach out to me as well around that and I'll be more than happy to support. Excellent. Thank you so much Omar. And so we're going to turn over to Ellen in a second and so we're moving from sort of campaign that's trying to stop the this neocolonial extraction in the heart of Africa. And pivoting to a campaign in the UK. So Ellen is my 350 colleague who's been working on a campaign called green new deal rising. And they can talk to themselves about their campaign and their efforts but I want to just frame one of the questions that I really brought to Ellen was, tell us about how you're organizing in this moment. And I have in my mind, both the, the, all the global dynamics, and also how, how are you organizing post pandemic or, or whatever phase of pandemic I don't know what we call it, but whatever phase of the pandemic we're in. How are you organizing in these times. And because that's I think one of the other pieces on my mind. As we talk about organizing approaches. So, Alan, bring us into what green new deal rising is doing what the efforts are and some of the insights that you're having as an organizer just how you're seeing things. Thanks Daniel. Thanks Omar and Bill and Mitzi as well. I love getting to hear from other people, lots of other places around the world and like steel bits of inspiration from them to use in my context and connect with other campaigns it's really great. Yeah, I am and I'm based in the UK. And I'm involved with a movement called green deal rising, which is a movement of young people, sort of broadly divided, broadly defined as millennials and Gen Z people that are fighting for a green deal in the UK. And I think that this movement's about a year old, sort of launched about a year ago, and it was really was a response to some of the trends that we've been seeing in the, in the climate movement and also more broadly in the UK and our political and economic circumstances that we find ourselves in. So I'm just going to talk a little bit about that context and then talk about like how we've responded to that. So, the context in the UK more broadly right now I think like many of you may have a bit of an understanding that we're like living through quite a period of instability in the UK like instability that I think feels feels rare for like us that are based in the global north was experiencing much higher inflation than we've ever experienced before we currently don't really have a functional government. And the government that we did have before it collapsed was, I mean, nothing short of horrendous really doing absolutely nothing to address the climate crisis if anything worsening it. And, you know, we, we are experiencing part of a global trend of energy, the cost of energy rising so high and so rapidly that is just absolutely punishing people in the UK we are extremely reliant on on fossil fuel energy in the UK, despite, you know, a lot of progress being made and a lot of victories in trying to turn that vote around but the war in Russia and the Ukraine and price gouging and profiteering by oil and gas companies is pushing the price of the economy incredibly high in the UK. We're looking ahead at a winter where more than half of people will emerge from the other side in fuel poverty in the UK and that's in one of the richest countries in the world. So, I think that's an important piece of context to give. In the meantime, we're living through a time of huge movement energy and I don't just mean the climate movement I mean, we're seeing trade unions, building their strength for, again, for the first time in decades after decades of sort of retreat strikes everywhere across all sectors, we're seeing civil disobedience campaigns emerging with, you know, millions of people saying that they're not going to pay their energy bills this winter. It's incredible and organic upsurges of anger and fear, and also hope from from people across the UK, who are starting to connect the dots in a really direct way between our terrible government, the climate crisis which we also have been seeing very visibly in the UK with like unprecedented heatwaves this summer. And the fossil fuel industry profiteering fossil fuel companies who are pushing people into poverty and pushing people into poverty that previously may have been quite insulated from that experience. And that is like the context from operating in. And I think that it's a really interesting time to be in the climate movement, because we are seeing these sort of dot connection happening in the, in the public sphere. And there's a lot of reasons to hope that the result of that is going to be a movement, which is really centered on justice and is both concretely about improving people's lives, improving people's livelihoods in the here and transitioning our economy rapidly away from the fossil fuel nightmare that it is now towards something which actually sustains life sustains people to speak to this question about the pandemic and I think the impact that that that's had on this like sort of post pandemic atmosphere that we find ourselves in the UK. I think like, perhaps this was an experience that I think was repeated across the world before the pandemic in like 2018 2019 we were seeing a huge, you know, what looked to be spontaneous uprising of climate action both in the school strikes movement in the emergence of groups like Extinction Rebellion, just absolutely massive and skyrocketing, you know, focus on climate change and to learn about the climate crisis from people and record numbers of people getting involved getting stuck into action and the pandemic, I think was a real challenge to that. It stopped us being able to mobilize in the streets. Let's use to hear about this earlier. It made it really hard to organize. And I think what we've seen in this post pandemic sort of era is that this desire to channel that huge upsurge of energy that we saw into the sort of concrete demands and campaigns that we need to be fighting on to actually win things that we need to win. So we've seen that in the development of incredible campaigns fighting the expansion of oil and gas in the UK. Things like trying to trying to combat new oil fields being opened with some success. Also in groups like Green New Deal Rising who are focused on the solutions that we actually need to this crisis solutions that are about ultimately our government actually taking the action needed at the speed and scale that this crisis demands, and doing that in a way which is fair, which is just, and which improves people's lives. As I said, at the beginning Green New Deal Rising sort of sprung into existence about a year ago, and very clearly wanted to take the sort of youth energy that emerged from the climate strikes and channel it into something explicitly political, which is very ambitious with a clear direction of travel for the movement. We are very clear minded that the government as it currently stands in the UK will not and cannot take the action needed on the climate crisis because they are fundamentally opposed to every measure that we would actually need to see to be able to do that. And bearing that in mind, our analysis is that we are firmly targeted towards the next government who may come in in the next, well, with the political instability in the UK right now it could be in six months it could be a year it could be two years. But we are propelling ourselves towards the next election and want to push climate to the top of the agenda going into that election and for whoever the next government in that comes in after that we really have no hope for the current government. And what that is leading us to do now is to be very focused on building the movement that we need to enable that sort of mass power in and through the next election. So, yeah Green New Deal Rising is a national movement of young people. And we've really been trying to find ways for anyone, any young person based anywhere in the UK to get involved in this campaign. We think it's super important to us winning that we have people absolutely everywhere engaged and part of this movement. But that's a bit of a challenge right because we know that it's a challenge to find ways especially in a country like the UK where we have a very centralized government based in London. And if you're not living in London sometimes I think it can feel hard to find ways to get involved in sort of political climate action that we're talking about. So we've tried to come up with new ways of doing that. We've created a sort of volunteer team structure that anyone anywhere can get involved in. The vast majority of the work of the movement is being done by volunteers organized remotely in teams that meet on our meeting online and meetings like this one that are working together and coming together for meetings and actions when we need to. So we have teams that make videos, we have teams that do outreach, we have teams that do our design work and really it's been about creating ways for anyone with whatever skills and interests and passion and experience coming into the movement to be able to contribute and find their place. I think that's been a super. It's been a great experience to be part of as someone that's been around in the climate movement for a while but I think it's also allowed us to harness the energy of new people of people that have never been involved in any form of activism before. That are totally new, able to come into this movement and find their place and find their people. So, I think that that has been the way that we have tried to respond to this political moment. We're, we're, we're aiming to grow big, and we're aiming to grow big very quickly. But we also know that we can't win a Green New Deal unless we are doing unless we're building a diverse base of organizers and inclusive culture right from the start. So we have things like monthly welcome calls that anyone can join and get directly channeled into the work in the movement. We also have long term programs like the one I coordinate which is a training and coaching program for young people from marginalized backgrounds who are totally new to the movement and helping them find their place. So I think what we've tried to do is recognize both the place that the movement was in and the unique or not unique but rare political circumstances we find ourselves in in the UK that I think demand and approach that doesn't just speak about the climate crisis as an isolated crisis but something that's fundamentally tied up in people's day to day experiences of the world in the cost of living crisis in the way they pay their energy bills in the way their housing is crap and our government is useless. So that is the way we've been responding. I'll leave it at that. And if anyone's interested to find out more, you can, yeah, just, I guess just like Google Green New Deal Rising, follow them on social media, check out their resources and anyone that's a young person in the UK that wants to find a way to get involved like now's the time. It's, it's an amazing movement to be part of. It's amazing political home to find. And I would really encourage you to get stuck in. Three questions that people had just to track one was about, do you have a view on D growth or post growth economics. Are your people running for office. Is that part of the strategy. And, and then how can older people help. So speak to these are all related to sort of, where do you fit where do you see your strategy or approach. Okay. I don't know what order to take those in. I, the question about growth and post growth. I think that we definitely, you know, the, I think there's, there has sometimes been a, criticism of the Green New Deal is an idea that it's, it's saying that we can continue to infinitely grow on a finite planet and to me that's not what it's about. The Green New Deal isn't about growth. It's about redistribution. It's about saying that we have the resources that we need in a country like the UK. We have more than the resources that we need. They're just very badly distributed right now of very small minority of people hold the vast majority of wealth and power in our society. And the solutions to the climate crisis come from redistributing that, not just to, you know, within the UK, but also globally we need to acknowledge the way that the UK has as a colonial power created the climate crisis that we're in and has a responsibility to undo some of those effects for countries that are poorer and don't have those resources available to them. So, for me, it's not really a question about growth. It's all about redistribution. The second question was, I can't remember, are your people running for office? That is a super interesting question. And right now, that isn't something that we're thinking about for the coming next election cycle that is definitely something for the future to be thinking about. So what we're doing instead is finding candidates that we know are planning to run in the next election and that we think are champions of the Green New Deal, are champions of climate action, and channeling our energy into supporting those people. So we are on the lookout for the people that we think need to be in parliament, pushing the kinds of action that we need pushing the Green New Deal, and we are channeling our movement energy into supporting those people. It's like the weather priorities at the moment on that, but you know, I think it would be great to see a more massive, diverse cohort of young people standing up for and running for, you know, political power in the UK, we need to take power back from the current generation of idiots that are controlling our government. So that seems like a good idea to me. And the final question of how, how older people can help. I think there's a few things that I would say to that like, there's some like very direct ways that older people can support Green New Deal rising as a movement. The first of those is to donate to support younger climate activists to be able to get involved in the movement. So like, one of the challenges that we face a lot is that young people struggle to be able to pay to get themselves to our events. And we want to be able to have a fund to support those people that are struggling. So things like donations are super useful, but that's not the only way. There is a piece of legislation currently on the table in Parliament, which is called the Green New Deal bill, which is sort of a first stab at the types of things that we need to see our government doing. And we need people of all ages and backgrounds to be involved in pushing our MPs, our members of Parliament to sign on to that bill and support it. Look up the Green New Deal bill, right to your MP, get together with other people in your local area and start, start pushing your MP to become a supporter of that bill. That is super useful way that anyone at any work age can get involved in work. And the final thing I would point to is like, think about the structures that you are involved in in your everyday life, like, so that could be your workplace, your trade union branch, your, you know, group other groups that you're involved in, faith group, whatever, take your politics, take your passion for climate action for the Green Deal into that space. How can your union branch support the Green New Deal? How can your faith group support the Green New Deal? That, you know, power of working together, which I think every single speaker on this webinar so far has spoken to, is where we need to be focusing our energy. So find those places where you already have influence, where you already have connections and start building power there. I think that was all the questions that you just asked me. Yeah. Well done, Ellen. Any last things? Will you post your information for the Green New Deal Rising? There's a number of people from the UK who are, who got into a deeper conversation about some of the specifics that might be interested in kicking it a little bit further. Thank you, Ellen, for jumping in and presenting. Thank you to all the presenters. And I think we're heading into closing. And I wanted to just tell a story that one of my colleagues encouraged me to share as a way of kind of closing for the state of the movement, the state of the movement. So, this is a story about me canoeing. So I'm canoeing with me, my daughter. She's three years old at the time, and my, my friend Andrea, my sister. And the three of us are canoeing along the Delaware River, and we're suddenly, it's a beautiful sunny day. We get to this island. And all of a sudden the storm clouds come, and the waves get pretty choppy. So we decide to like try to head on very quickly into getting back to home. And as we get onto the water, it just it kicks up fantastically and suddenly we're dealing with very high waves. And at this stage, we're not far off from the land, but we're not where we want to be. And I'm a strong canoeer I've never tipped before. And this time we tipped, we fell in. So we're all in the water immediately I grabbed my daughter she begins screaming it's cold water. Immediately she begins screaming and I grab her and hold her as tight as I can right next to me. So we grab it and so we've got a hold of the canoe. Andrea falls in and thankfully we all have our life vests. But in that moment. I'm grabbing my daughter in one hand paddle and another hand I don't know how I've grabbed the canoe with another and I'm starting to swim towards shore. And here's the metaphor I think in many ways for this moment. I'm swimming towards towards shore, and I'm not clear for making enough progress. And I begin to get more and more anxious. I'm doing my best to calm my daughter down. I, I've been singing songs her while I'm pat, while I'm swimming. But inside of myself, I'm wondering what is this, what's coming. And there's a moment where I, we're just not making nearly the progress I thought we were the ways we're pushing us away from shore. And so I turned to Andrea Pada, and I look at her and we've known each other for years and I can see she has the exact same fear in her eyes. Will we make it will we not. And then I see the same reaction that that I have inside of me which is it doesn't matter we just keep swimming. That's what we do. So she and I, we just keep swimming closer and closer inch by inch, I'm realizing in my head doing math like it might take us hours, just from like this and wondering how long can I go. And I think in many ways that feels like these moments we just keep swimming. And then at some moment I just rise I need to readjust I moved Avery from one my daughter from one side of my arm to the other. I moved the paddle over to a different hand I just I take a breath. And then I realized I can walk. I can touch the bottom. And I, all the things change in that moment. And I realize, Oh, this this thing, actually, I can walk Andre couldn't yet she's a little shorter than I am. And then we begin walking into the shore. And I think that's part of the metaphor to have movement life, which is, it may seem impossible at a moment, and then some things may break that we didn't expect. In fact, every, I've been involved in many movement wins campaign wins, and almost every when I've ever seen every movement I've ever seen had a moment where something happened that they didn't expect that broken their favor. Plenty of things break against us. And also history also can dance with us and be our partner as well. And so we did make it to shore. Avery is fine. I'm fine. I'm very fine. Avery tells the story, my daughter, and she has a great, great story of it herself. I hope someday that we can meet and I can, you can get to see her tell that story. But I tell that story about where we are which is keep swimming. There may be things that open up our way, but I just want to close with that. So thank you all the panelists. Thank you all the tech people. Thank you interpreters. Thank you everyone who attended. Thank you people who are watching the recording or the stream. Thank you everyone. Really appreciate all of the work, all the effort. All the blessings. Thanks everyone.