On Oct. 28, 2021 Humanity Rising convened the team who will anchor the 12-day broadcast on COP 26. Lead by Jim Garrison, President of Ubiquity University he shares our intentions each day for the set of conference broadcasts.

Humanity Rising Day 351 (2):   Inside/Outside the COP

As we gather in our Humanity Rising COP 26 Green Room we are alive with the privilege of sharing the perspectives from a team around the world. We are listening intently to what COP 26 announcements herald as intentions from the world’s nations and leaders. And we are sensitive to all the Voices who have gathered in Glasgow to present, connect and influence one another from the 4 Directions.

Here is what we heard from Glasgow direct followed by our international studio comments.

Voices Inside the City Glasgow:

Rupert Read, co-founder of Extinction Rebellion (reporting from the COP 26 Blue Zone inside the conference) is now inspiring a “moderate flank” of the activist movement so that it can embrace more people than those activists who are willing to protest with non-violent action but also willing to go to jail to make a point.

Rupert points out that it is “5 minutes past midnight” on the world-time-to-act clock. He declares, “It is up to us. If not now, when? “ It is time to open up space so that we can build resilience together.

Alden Meyer,  an expert on the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, the Paris Agreement, and other aspects of international climate change, points out that it is cities who are taking the initiatives on the ground. The non-state actors in cities are the ones seeking and making impact. Together with Business actors, Citizens are pressing for market mechanisms with environmental integrity. We are seeing sector signals that fossil fuels must be replaced by clean and renewable energy. He reports that the G20 who just met in Rome (before COP 26 in Glasgow) affirmed the importance of climate change.

Although many narratives are mixed and incoherent with one another – they all contain elements of truth. In the midst of cries for equanimity, realism, hope and grief – we must realize, “ Impossible is not an option”>

Kosha Joubert, leader of the Pocket Project calls for the process of collective trauma healing to restore fragmentation across the many cultures. We must clean up the accumulated pain inside our hearts/beings in order to clean up climate outside in our cities, bioregions and planet.

Voices Outside Around the Planet

In the Humanity Rising Broadcast Zoom we hear:

Vandana Shiva, founder of Navdanya, author of Earth Democracy, calls forth James Lovelock and Lynn Margulis’ scientific revelations that the Earth herself is a living system.

Vandana reminds us of her many confrontations she has had with World Trade and capitalism whose histories and economies have benefitted from the over-exploitation of fossil fuels coal and gas. Vandana calls for “Soil not Oil” – still reminding us (from her repeated attendance of prior COPs) that living soil is the most effective method of CO2 sequestration.

She points to the futility of geo-engineering and CO2 capture as unlikely artificial/mechanistic solutions to our climate conditions – which need to be recognized as symptoms of a living entity replete with other living entities (including humans), all interconnected as a living ecology.

Martin Palmer, theologian, Sinologist, author and international specialist on all major faiths and religious traditions and cultures reminds us that all the faiths are major investors and key stakeholders in the Planet’s wellbeing. He points out that many traditions can cite that, “What God created is blasphemous to destroy.” So, humans are called to steward and nurture the life-giving qualities of Earth and all living systems.

Dita Vizoso, a farmer in Scotland and a Grief Tender, presenced the heart of compassion. The grief that so many people feel in the loss of Earth’s biodiversity, beauty, relationships. But Dita also brought forth the restorative power of story telling/sharing.

Jon Ramer, founder of SINE network (through which the Humanity Rising broadcast is streaming to millions around the world) speaks also of story. He sees the power of weaving together the many networks he can now connect through SINE. Not only the technical language of COP 26 gives us the power to change – but also the networks of Peace and Unity that Jon has so adeptly connected. He invokes, “May Peace Prevail on Earth”.