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Creating A Spark In Climate Activism Through Music With Donna Grantis

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Last September 2022, Corinna Bellizzi interviewed Tzeporah Berman, Founder of Stand.earth. Her inspiring words from that episode were used by Donna Grantis in her moving musical presentation centered on climate activism, A Drop in the Bucket. Donna is here to talk about using her music in raising awareness on saving the environment through her newest project, Culture v. Policy. She explains the role of arts during a climate emergency, some simple practices to reconnect with nature, and why she considers Planet Earth as a co-writer of her songs.

About Donna Grantis

CMBB 141 | Climate ActivismDonna Grantis is an artist and guitarist from Tkaronto (Toronto). From 2012 to 2016 Grantis performed and recorded with Prince as a member of his funk-rock trio 3RDEYEGIRL and supergroup New Power Generation. As a bandleader, she fronted a 5-piece electric jazz quintet and released the critically acclaimed debut album, DIAMONDS & DYNAMITE. Her newest project, Culture vs Policy, fuses the emotive power of music with thought-provoking dialogue about the climate and ecological crises. In collaboration with climate scientists, activists, Indigenous leaders, policymakers, researchers, sociologists, and others, Grantis seeks to highlight in her art narratives exploring human impacts on the planet. As an EarthPercent artist and a signee of the Music Declares Emergency declaration she is passionate about music as a force for social change. Guest Website: https://donnagrantis.com Guest Social: https://www.instagram.com/donnagrantis, https://www.facebook.com/DonnaGrantis, https://www.youtube.com/donnagrantis, https://twitter.com/donnagrantis Additional Resources Mentioned: https://earthpercent.org/, https://www.amazon.com/Intersectional-Environmentalist-Dismantle-Systems-Oppression/dp/0316279293/ Show Notes: 00:00 – Introduction 04:59 - Donna's origin story 07:17 - Using music for activism 14:51 - Earth as your co-writer 22:28 - Reconnecting with nature 25:17- Future of Culture v. Policy 30:04 - Dietary tips 31:56 - Role of arts in climate emergency 33:44 - Final Words 37:30 - A Drop in the Bucket Full Performance Join the Care More. Be Better. Community! (Social Links Below) Website: https://www.caremorebebetter.com YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCveJg5mSfeTf0l4otrxgUfg Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/CareMore.BeBetter/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CareMoreBeBetter LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/care-more-be-better Twitter: https://twitter.com/caremorebebettr Clubhouse: https://www.clubhouse.com/club/care-more-be-better Support Care More. Be Better: A Social Impact + Sustainability Podcast Care More. Be Better. is not backed by any company. We answer only to our collective conscience. As a listener, reader, and subscriber you are part of this pod and this community and we are honored to have your support. If you can, please help finance the show (https://www.caremorebebetter.com/donate). Thank you, now and always, for your support as we get this thing started!

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Creating A Spark In Climate Activism Through Music With Donna Grantis

This is a very special episode. I'm thrilled to be able to introduce you to Donna Grantis. After the opening, after you get to meet her and after the entire interview, you'll have the opportunity to listen to the entire track uninterrupted end to end. This was a performance that was recorded live in Toronto at a climate event featuring the words of Tzeporah Berman. I interviewed her back in September of 2022 to talk about all of her work to put to bed the fossil fuel proliferation or reliance on fossil fuels. This is one part climate activism, one part music appreciation and such a treat as we get to know somebody who's using their art for good. I'm thrilled to be able to introduce you to her. I encourage you to stick around for the end of the episode when you'll get to read the entire track end to end.

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If you've been reading this show since at least September 2022, you likely read an interview with Tzeporah Berman, Founder of Stand.earth. She's also a leader in the movement to stop fossil fuel proliferation. You may also recall that an incredible musician, Donna Grantis sampled Tzeporah’s words from that interview playing it on stage at a live climate event in Toronto, Ontario. That music has been released as a track called A Drop In The Bucket. I have a real treat for you as Donna is joining me to talk about her efforts. Donna Grantis is an artist and guitarist from Toronto. Tkaronto is the indigenous word for that. From 2012 to 2016, Donna performed and recorded with Prince as a member of his funk-rock trio 3RDEYEGIRL and supergroup New Power Generation. As a bandleader, she fronted a five-piece electric jazz quintet and released the critically acclaimed debut album, DIAMONDS & DYNAMITE. Her newest project and something that we'll in deeply, Culture vs Policy, fuses the emotive power of music with thought-provoking dialogue about the climate and ecological crises. In collaboration with climate scientists, activists, Indigenous leaders, policymakers, researchers, sociologists and more, Grantis seeks to highlight in her art narratives exploring human aspects on the planet and how we impact Earth. As an EarthPercent artist and a signee of the Music Declares Emergency declaration, she is passionate about music as a force for social change. This is an exciting moment for me. Donna Grantis, welcome to the show. Thank you so much, Corinna. It's great to be here. Finally, it's in order. I was waiting for what seems like forever to hear about the performance that you did in Toronto. That was October 21, 2022 and then you released it on YouTube in January 2023. I was beside myself. It’s a beautiful work. Thank you. Thank you so much. I was so inspired by the episode, Stand Up with The Earth with Tzeporah. You had about a 40-minute conversation with her which was fantastic. You touched on so many things. I was so inspired to pull some quotes from that episode and compose music around those words. I was honored. It brought me right back. This podcasting pursuit is sometimes a thankless art. You put a lot of effort into each episode. You never know the impact you're going to have at the end of the day. I've been so inspired by those individuals who've graced me with their presence, including Tzeporah or Nina Simons, who is the Cofounder of Bioneers who made that introduction for me. It's the thing that keeps me going, the juices that keep flowing. Ultimately, in every single one of those episodes, I learn so much. It's my way of giving back to the climate too. I wanted to get started to learn a little bit more about your origin story and what inspired you to become a musician in the first place and then use this as a platform in the way that you are now. It's going to be so interesting to every single person who reads this show. When I was thirteen, my older brother had an acoustic guitar. One summer, I thought I'd pick it up and learn a few chords. I picked up the tab for Stairway to Heaven and so many guitarists. Isn't that the first song almost everybody learns? That's so true. I wanted to play electric so I made a deal with my dad. If I learned one song perfectly, he would get me an electric guitar. As a 13-year-old, I wasn't thinking about the fact that Stairway was over 7 minutes long. I just thought that it was such an amazing song. I learned that, got an electric guitar and never looked back. I started with Pink Floyd's Wish You Were Here, which is far simpler. There's a lot of pick work in that. It's more complicated than you think it will be to play an elegant simple song when you get started. My father is also a musician so I've been around music my whole life. He's always had at least 30 guitars. How many are in your collection? I have about ten. Each is very special to me for different reasons. Slightly different tones, pickup configurations or different materials can create different sounds brighter, darker or warmer. The guitar that I played in the Drop In The Bucket video is the main guitar that I've had the longest. That was my first real guitar. It's like you have a love affair with the instrument, at a certain point. I have one. I have an acoustic Martin that my dad got me. It mostly hangs on the wall. That's the sad reality for it. I like to hang my guitars up on the wall because then they're always available. You can pick them up at any time and be creative. You had the opportunity to play with one of the most iconic performers of the 20th century, which is Prince. How did that experience influence your music and pursuits? I learned so much from Prince musically and about playing guitar, funk and recording but also so much about life and spirituality. I was at Paisley Park recording and touring with him and Hannah and Ida, the members of 3RDEYEGIRL, and also with New Power Generation. Firsthand, I got to experience the power of music as a unifying force. We talked a lot about music as medicine and a healing force. We played concerts throughout North America, Europe and Dubai. Everywhere we played, there was a wonderful sense of community of people coming together to celebrate and feel something like joy, belonging or connection. It's amazing to see the impact that music can have on people all over the world. It touches people in a very emotive way. I remember before going to Dubai to play a concert, I was wondering how the music will be received or what it will be like. I'd never been there before. The experience was the same as it was everywhere we played. Music speaks to something about the human experience that we can all relate to and it provides a point of connection that's special. I'm not a musician but my father is. He's the type of musician that can pick up an instrument and learn to play it in half an hour. He started on the flute as a kid and then he played the clarinet. He got his first bass guitar at fifteen. He still has the first Fender that he had then. He was born in '45 so it was an early Fender. He plays the sitar. He calls himself a percussionist but he plays all of these instruments. I've had the joy of being there when the band practices went late or when he was performing. I experienced it in a few moments when I could see that these musicians were conversing using their instruments and following along with one another. I observed as a child, as young as three, the impact this had on the group as a whole. I've since interviewed my father on a family show and we've talked about it. He said that there's this certain point that I've gotten to a few times in my life and it's super special when it happens. You essentially are outside of your body, you're watching everything happening there and you're in the music. It's like you're living as part of it. When we get in these groups of people that are truly in the moment and appreciation of the music, we transcend the physical body and we become part of this consciousness together. This is why in particular the movement to head in this Culture v Policy perspective and work to make music a part of this climate movement is smart. It's needed and it's going to help us break down political barriers. You mentioned going to Dubai not knowing how your music is going to be received. The culture is so different. You're having that moment of doubt perhaps that you won't be perceived well. I see so much in-fighting. I find myself jettisoning my time from Facebook and saying, "I don't want to hang out here." I have friends that are connected across political spectrums and they're arguing. Do you think that music can help us transcend that and break down these barriers? I do because it brings together people of all demographics. Regardless of your political beliefs, religious views, age or socioeconomic background, music transcends all of that. It reaches a very wide demographic. It's a beautiful thing. Your observation is about the idea of getting to a certain place. It's beautiful. As a musician, that's something that I strive for with every performance and I hope I get there. I don't know how in control I truly am about getting to that zone but when musicians are listening to each other, interacting together in the moment and the sound is balanced, it's an incredible feeling. It feels like there are no boundaries, limitless. Sometimes I wonder if it's a particular meditative state but it's a beautiful place. I feel like that is communicated to the audience as well and the audience can participate in that. That special connection is where the magic is in a live performance. Also, when sound is used to communicate a message about social issues and very important issues that need to be addressed, like the climate crisis and the ecological emergency. It's going to be interesting to see over the next decades especially the potential of that to create cultural change. Also, to inspire people. Many of us end up walking around feeling like we can't be the change. "That sounds like a pipe dream and a great idea. I want to but how am I, singular, going to affect the greater world around me?" That doubt is what is starting to burden so many people. They get into this space of eco-anxiety. That's the term we've thrown around for it but it's more than that. It's ultimately driving us to feel disconnected from one another. "Who am I in the grand scheme of things?" You feel separated and then this separation leads to depression and hopelessness. There are people I interview like Anne Therese Gennari. She calls herself The Climate Optimist. She released a book called The Climate Optimist Handbook to help people tackle that challenge. Getting someone to sit down and read can be challenging. Getting them to listen to something that they already know they're going to enjoy with the gift of music is incredible. I wanted to dig into this a little bit more because you have listed Earth as your co-writer on this. You even donated this song to a compilation album that I believe Brian Eno helped to arrange, another iconic artist. Talk to me about this. How is it working? How has this collaboration come together?
CMBB 141 | Climate Activism The Climate Optimist Handbook: How to Shift the Narrative on Climate Change and Find the Courage to Choose Change
EarthPercent is a charity that Brian Eno co-founded. Brian is an incredible artist, the pioneer of ambient music, a legendary music producer and an activist. The Earth as Your Co-writer campaign is a groundbreaking initiative. I'm so excited that A Drop In The Bucket is part of this campaign. The Earth is credited as the writer of this song. Funds directed to the Earth as a shareholder flow to EarthPercent where they will be redistributed to climate justice and environmental organizations. We're working across five key areas. Greening music, supporting a clean energy transition, climate justice, legal and policy change and protecting and restoring nature. This is an amazing idea. The recorded music industry is a multi-billion dollar industry. 1% by 1 artist of 1 song directed to the earth could be a relatively small amount. When you consider collective action, one percent of potentially billions of dollars a year is a tremendous amount of money that can be distributed to environmental organizations. I went and purchased my copy. I should say donated my copy because that's how it's set up. You go to EarthPercent's website, you click on it and you see that there are 60 different tracks that have been donated to this compilation. This was a surprise to me because I didn't see The Cure listed on there but then suddenly, I'm listening to the album and I'm like, "That's Robert Smith." It was a collaboration with The Cure's Robert Smith and CHVRCHES. They produced this beautiful track. Some of the tracks, I liked better than others. Some were more to my taste than others but all of them are super high quality, interesting and got me thinking differently. It's on my playlist. I bought it through Bandcamp. I have it as a download. I put it on my server at home so I can search and play it from any room in the house without my phone on me. That was a treat too. Your track is on there. When that comes up, I'm giddy with glee. That's an EarthPercent Earth Day Bandcamp collaboration. All funds raised will be directed to impactful environmental organizations. EarthPercent is doing a lot of great things. There are a number of organizations in the music and climate space that are doing incredible work. Music Declares Emergency as well presented the first Canadian music climate summit where A Drop In The Bucket was recorded live. I did share a snip of that on an earlier episode to celebrate some moves that the show has made over the course of the last few years that I've been recording. The performance on YouTube, the video quality and the audio quality are so good. Listen to the whole thing and watch Donna perform it live. What an incredible treat. Crediting Earth as your co-writer, let's talk about that a little bit more. How many artists are participating in that? Does everybody in this EarthPercent pledge or is it beyond that? Is it catching steam? This is the pilot program. For any songwriter bands, artists and composers reading, if anyone is interested, they can reach out to Earth@EarthPercent.org for more information. Imagine, if one day the earth becomes the beneficiary of the greatest amount of royalties in the history of recorded music. It's possible if enough people get on board with this. It connects nicely to the entire conversation I have with Paul Hawken as well on this show. He shared that Earth needs to be a stakeholder at the table. Considering if you have a board of people leading a company, there's a seat reserved for Earth. Somebody is advocating for the planet, circularity, building regenerative practices and not over-extracting from environmental resources. We live in a complex world. I'm fully aware. Simple things like the fact that plastics have become so ubiquitous that they're everywhere. If you go shopping at the grocery store and you want to buy some blackberries, the blackberries come in a clamshell made of plastic. When did we abandon smarter packaging solutions that were more friendly to the planet? We did it out of convenience and how nicely stackable they are. Maybe the berries stay a little bit better a day longer or something to that effect. It can feel so overwhelming. That's where these charities are pushing for change while it may not be the large conglomerate companies coming on board yet. Driscoll's is a local company to me. I live close enough to Watsonville where they grow most of their berries. When are they going to shift away from plastic? When are companies going to shift away from using so many petrochemicals even in their printer ink? These are big problems. This initiative sets a precedent that hopefully other industries will follow. On a personal level, after writing a song, there's a moment of pause to think, "I would like to gratefully acknowledge the earth in the writing of this song." That reflection is a beautiful thing. Something that's reconnecting with nature and having that moment of pause to acknowledge our place in the world is important.
CMBB 141 | Climate Activism Climate Activism: After writing a song, there’s a moment of pause to acknowledge the earth. It is a moment of reconnecting with nature.
It sounds like gratitude for Earth by taking a grateful moment. Many people take on this practice of gratitude. If we could pause for more than Earth Day or Earth Month, connect with nature and commune with ourselves in that way. We'd be building a better future right out of the gates. When you think about Earth and connecting with nature, I would love to know what personal practices you have that help you to commune with nature, the things that you do. What would you share with the audience that might be helpful to them? I love hiking. I grew up with a giant vegetable garden in my parent's backyard. That had a big impact on me as a kid. We grow the most delicious tomatoes, cucumbers, carrots, raspberries and blueberries. Where do you live? It sounds like paradise. Tkaronto. It's the indigenous name for Toronto. My kids also garden and they were planting all of the tomatoes. That's so special and it creates an appreciation for nature, the food we eat and the Earth. Practicing that with your kids, you're involving them in understanding where their food comes from and thinking about what soil does. These things might seem small but they're big. My kid is home sick with me. It happens. He took it upon himself to go into our yard, pick some mint leaves and make fresh mint tea. Mint is easy to grow but he was thinking, "My throat hurts." We have this local honey. We're out of peppermint tea so he went into the garden. Having these things around you and building the practices in, you're going to affect the next generation. Perhaps, they'll be a little bit more connected to nature because of how you raise them. They'll be a little bit more mindful of the fact that I live on Ohlone Land where you mentioned the indigenous people of Tkaronto. Ohlone Land in The Esselen Nation is also a little bit South of me. I've spent a lot of time in these areas. This portends part of the conversation with Paul Hawken where he said he wants people to know where they live, know the land they're on and the history of it. Beyond the pavement and the buildings, what was there before? How was the land created? Who lived there? Who occupied it? Who lived in concert with nature? What animals exist here? What plants grow? It's such great questions to ask, reflect on and learn about. Where do you see the future of Culture v Policy going? What is your next big plan? Do you have one? I aim to amplify the message of climate leaders by composing recording and performing music to their words. The first song that I wrote for this project is A Drop In The Bucket. There are a number of others in the works. I had a fantastic conversation with Eric Cordes, an ocean scientist who travels in a submersible down to the bottom of the ocean floor to study coral and the acid horizon. I learned so much from that conversation. I'm so inspired by this process to compose music around those words and ideas. I'm planning on writing the album and releasing a full record in 2024. I'm envisioning, as you say this about Eric Cordes, him going down in the submersible with the track playing over that and seeing it on camera in some way. Talking about Eric Cordes and his work, I would love to have a conversation with him as well if you care to make an introduction. Who knows? Maybe he can come to the show and talk about his work. I so closely follow the health of our oceans because I worked for a long time in the fish oil industry. I watched how the growing acidity of our oceans has affected our aquatic life. I'm also a scuba diver. I live on the Monterey Peninsula and learn to dive in beautiful kelp forests and everything else. It’s this shelf that's only within a few hundred yards of the coast in Carmel, which is one of the deepest trenches close to shore. A lot of research happens here. I've even driven one of the underwater rovers that goes much deeper than any human-occupied capsule can go in a test pool. I've been on some of the research vessels. It's an incredible treat to see the inner workings behind that. To hear scientists talk about the realities of climate change from these and boil it down to the simplest thing. We have more carbon in our atmosphere. More carbon in our atmosphere means our ocean absorbs more of it. Our ocean absorbing more of it means that the acidity of the water increase. With the acidity increase, even if we were to stop the ambient air temperature from rising, the ocean water would continue to rise in temperature because the acidity changed. That's pretty scary and has me full circle. I stopped working in the fish oil industry because we need to let our oceans recover. The act of supporting one fish oil means you're supporting all of them, even if you're a good actor. From a personal perspective, I transition to working in the algae industry where you can grow algae for human nutrition without impacting marine ecosystems while still providing all the benefits of the Omega-3s that we get from fish and even some of the proteins. That's my effort coming into real life but it means that I'm still so closely connected to what's happening in our oceans. I choose that to be one of my missions in life. Maybe it's penance for the success of the fish oil giant, Nordic Naturals. That's interesting to know. I didn't know that algae is comparable to fish oil in terms of its nutritional benefits. Algae feed fish. Fish get their Omega-3s, EPA and DHA from the algae they consume. That's something that was not common knowledge. It's becoming more part of the conversation. I worked for almost a decade for Nordic Naturals to put them on the map as the sales marketing and education leader. I'm a second in command at the company. We had a lot of success and did things much more responsibly than other fish oil companies. You contribute to a problem as part of an effort like that, even if you're doing it better because you've helped an entire industry to rise. There have been so many changes over the past several years in terms of nutrition. Even all of the milk options that are available are incredible like the nut milks. It's great to see.
CMBB 141 | Climate Activism Climate Activism: There have been so many changes over the past several years in terms of nutrition. It's great to see.
I don't know if you want to share but where's your dietary world? Are you shifting to more plant-based? Where do you sit on the spectrum? Often vegan, sometimes vegetarian. I've been working to eliminate dairy, which was hard for me because I love it so much. When you learn about the impact that dairy production has on our climate, it can be pretty challenging to keep doing it. In my coffee, I use oat milk. Have you heard of Almond Cow? Yes, I have. It's incredible. One of your favorites. Bored Cow is another company that's making a dairy replacement that has to be called dairy even though it's not from cows. It has the same lactose present in it and it's created by fermentation but it doesn't come from cows. I'm like, "This is interesting." I sampled it at a trade show and it tasted a little bit maybe 2%. I had already walked away from milk. I'm like, "This tastes funny to me because I haven't had milk in so long." I used to love it. It's the way things flow. I'll have to try Almond Cow. I haven't put it in my coffee or anything like that. It's an appliance. I know what you're talking about. You make your own at home. Yes. You add water and nuts. You hit a button and then a minute later, you have incredible nut milk. If you want it to be a little sweet, you could add maple syrup or whatever you chose. I was thinking of a different brand. I'll reach out to their team and see if they want to come talk about what they do. What do you think the role of the arts is in this climate emergency? It is to create a connection between hearts and minds, evoke emotions and compassion related to the climate emergency, communicate information about the climate emergency to a wide demographic of people that are all united together, enjoy music and art and create an entry point towards tackling the climate emergency together. For example, the IPCC report may reach a certain group. Graphs and data might reach a certain group. Music can also reach a certain group. Through art, music or something that's very inviting, welcoming, fun and unifying, undeniably there's tremendous potential to accelerate climate solutions by influencing the way people understand, act and feel about human impacts on the planet. The arts and music can help spark that potentiality I could talk to you all day about climate change, the health of our oceans and how music could help but we've touched on so much here. From a conversation about the impact that music can have on you personally, the connection that can bring to people and the reality that it can inspire, I would love to hear from you if there's a question I haven't asked that you wish I had or a thought that's resonating with you so that we can take that with us as a pearl of wisdom and continue on this inspired journey. Something that I think about quite often that has influenced the direction of this project is planetary health and environmental justice are inextricably linked to human health and social justice. That connection to me, the understanding of how those systems interact together is what has been motivating me to direct my creative energy and climate action efforts in this way.
CMBB 141 | Climate Activism Climate Activism: Planetary health and environmental justice are inextricably linked to human health and social justice.
There's a book called Intersectional Environmentalist by Leah Thomas. I'd like to share a quote from that book that I thought was compelling. That quote is, "Social injustice and environmental injustice are fueled by the same flame, the undervaluing, commodification and exploitation of all forms of life and natural resources, from the smallest blade of grass to those living in poverty and oppressed people worldwide." The question is, "How can humans live well together on Earth?" This is the challenge of our time. Donna, thank you so much for joining me. I appreciate your efforts and music. It's such a gift. My hope is that we can play out this episode with a clip of your music but I will go ahead and connect with Trevor on that. I do want to point people to your websites to learn more about you. DonnaGrantis.com is the best place. This has been my absolute honor to have you here. Thank you. Thank you so much, Corinna. It's been great to chat with you.

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To learn more about Donna Grantis and her important work, you can visit DonnaGrantis.com. You can also follow her on social channels @DonnaGrantis. As promised, A Drop In The Bucket by Donna Grantis featuring Tzeporah Berman's wisdom and with Earth as the co-writer. Here it is. "Now, we know that if you have more carbon trapped in the atmosphere, that increases the impacts of climate change on Earth. Eighty-six percent of the pollution that's trapped in our atmosphere, that's literally creating this sweltering blanket that's changing the earth, causing floods, storms, fires and extreme heat waves. Eighty-six percent of it comes from three things, oil, gas and coal." "Fossil fuels, I use them every day. We all use them every day. Can we not? Do we have enough? How much is enough? How much should we be using and producing? Who decides when we have enough? Do we have the replacements for all these fossil fuels? We do. Renewable energy is now cheaper and can scale to replace almost all uses of fossil fuels." "Why are we spending the majority of the world's financial, intellectual and political capital to dig up more of the stuff that we know is hurting us? What we know is that we already have enough fossil fuels above ground that are under construction. If we use it, it will take us past 2 degrees, which is a benchmark in the climate change world. If we go past 2 degrees, then parts of the planet will be uninhabitable. Millions of people will lose their homes. Thousands of people will die. Meanwhile, the oil, gas and coal companies are on track to produce 110% more fossil fuels than we can ever use and if we do use them, they'll burn us." "Fossil fuel companies tried to push the responsibility onto the consumer through public relations campaigns like the carbon footprint. They also wanted to cast out about whether climate change was happening. They were successful in doing that for about twenty years. There are not only climate change implications of some of these major fossil fuel projects but of course, there's impacts on local communities. Health impacts and indigenous rights and human rights impacts. The fact is we need system change. The top 20 oil and gas companies now have about $930 billion invested in new expanded fossil fuel projects between now and 2030. It's not a transition if you're continuing to grow the problem. The fact is we need system change." "I often think about it and about hope is not something we just have but instead something we do. I think hope is something that we create through our actions. Through engaging and organizing, whether it's with our neighbors or with the group that we're in. Being a part of making a change can give you hope. Being a participant instead of just an observer in what's happening in the world." "Sometimes I think of that organizing as the grunt work of social change because if you're knocking on doors, you're signing a petition or you're trying to be greater than the sum of our parts, it sometimes feels like you're just a drop in the bucket. Those drops, they ripple out and they grow and that is what makes change." "Stay connected to nature. We're a part of something bigger that we know so very little about. Find joy, appreciate life and remember what that feels like. Stay connected to nature. Find joy, appreciate life and remember what that feels like. Stay connected to nature. Find joy, appreciate life and remember what that feels like. Stay connected to nature. Find joy, appreciate life and remember what that feels like. Stay connected to nature. Find joy, appreciate life and remember what that feels like."

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