And they are doing it all with a women-led global movement.
Elizabeth
Soltis used to live in Africa doing climate change work on behalf of
the United Nations. She would visit different African countries and see
firsthand the effects of climate change derived from choices made in the
western world.
When she was working in Ghana, she and
her UN colleagues visited a small village in a dense forest where they
met with the village elders. The people there had told her the
temperatures had become so high they were no longer able to grow the
crops they had once relied on. Soltis was told that yams were literally
burning up in the ground because the ground was so hot.
Sitting
in a circle under a canopy of trees, she expressed her deepest
apologies to the chief for how western civilization had impacted their
livelihood.
It
was one of those poignant moments in my life where he looked me right
in the eye to take in my apology, and I looked him right in the eye, and
it was a true heart-to-heart moment,” Soltis told Global Citizen. “And
he said to me, ‘I accept your apology on one condition: that you go back
home and you change your ways and you spread this message to your
brothers and sisters.’”
Nowadays, Soltis serves as the partnerships director for TreeSisters and is able to do just that.
TreeSisters
is a charity founded by Clare Dakin that is dedicated to reforestation,
behaviour change and feminine leadership. As a global network of women,
they currently plant one million trees a year through NGO partnerships
in Madagascar, Brazil, Kenya and India.
But
as the effects of climate change continue to threaten our planet,
TreeSisters has decided that more needs to be done to restore the
environment.
That's why today TreeSisters is launching their
Journey to a Billion Trees
, a multi-year campaign that aims to plant one billion trees a year.
As
an organization, TreeSisters focuses on tropical reforestation because
that’s where trees grow the fastest, where biodiversity is most
threatened and home some of the most vulnerable people live in the
world, according to Soltis.
They
fund this planting thanks to monthly donations from 2,500 members from
over 40 different countries. In order to reach their goal of planting
one billion trees, they will need to increase their base to 25,000
people.
Their current funding allows them to plant with
partners that put community ownership at the heart of the tree planting.
These young trees are cared for and protected by women in the local
community. The women also derive economic benefit from the trees,
according to Soltis.
“We’ve had the patriarchal culture
in our world for thousands of years, and it’s really time to overturn
that," Soltis said. “It’s about women rising… And normalizing planetary
caretaking is a fantastically powerful way for women to rise in their
goddess energy.”
Still, Soltis emphasizes that while TreeSisters is a women-led global reforestation movement, everyone is welcome to contribute.
“We
live in a time where we need all hands on deck, which means we
welcome — and I feel grateful for — our TreeBrothers who are with us,
and stand with us,” she said.
TreeSisters doesn’t just
focus on reforestation by way of planting more trees. They aren’t just
looking for more funding, but really looking to guide people to change.
“The
big factor here is voluntary belief and behaviour change,” she said.
“If we take a look at the world and how it is that we’re relating to the
trees, to the environment, to the air, to the oceans … there’s
something going on in our psyche, in our collective belief system, that
makes it OK to degrade the environment the way we are.”
The
Billion Trees Campaign
starts today with seven weeks of online events, including a series of
interviews with environmental activists, weekly global meditations,
Facebook live events and teachings.
“We want to guide people through an expansion of consciousness to catalyze this global movement,” Soltis said.
In
short, it’s one thing to give an organization money, it’s another thing
to actually make a genuine change to do more for the environment.
Check out billiontrees.me to become a part of this growing movement.
Global Citizen campaigns on issues of climate change and gender equality. You can take action here.
Đăng nhận xét