Artists, Writers, Visionaries & Educators Share their Stories
How can the arts help us learn to speak the language of the Earth and cultivate our intuitive intelligence? What is the power of mentorship for forging character and creative vision? How can we hold onto our cultural heritage and traditions, while preparing students for the needs of the 21st century?
Vice President · Head of the Paris Office
UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network
The SDSN was set up to mobilize research and science for the Sustainable Development Goals. The development goals were adopted in 2015 by all UN member states, marking the first time in human history that we have a common goal for the entire world. Out of all the targets that we track, only 16 percent are estimated to be on track. Currently, none of the SDGs are on track to be achieved at the global level.
Vice President · Head of the Paris Office
UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network
The SDSN was set up to mobilize research and science for the Sustainable Development Goals. The development goals were adopted in 2015 by all UN member states, marking the first time in human history that we have a common goal for the entire world. Out of all the targets that we track, only 16 percent are estimated to be on track. Currently, none of the SDGs are on track to be achieved at the global level.
Founder of Kids4abetterworld
Climate Activist & Educator
Sagarika Sriram is currently a student at Jumeirah College in Dubai. She founded the organization Kids4abetterworld when she was 10 years old with a mission to educate and encourage young children to lead a more sustainable life and reduce their carbon footprint. Children are the worst affected by the effects of climate change, yet most children do not participate in climate change discussions or take actions to live more sustainably because they do not have the awareness and capability to do so. Kids4abetterworld conducts awareness workshops on sustainability aiming to Educate, Motivate and Activate young children to conserve natural resources, protect biodiversity, and positively impact climate change. As a UN Climate Advisor, she has participated in the global consultations that will ensure children are made aware of their environmental rights and that UN member states protect and uphold these.
Dakota & Yaqui Writer, Health Advocate · Co-Chair, UN Global Indigenous Youth Caucus
Founder of Translations for our Nations · Co-founder Ohiyesa Premedical Program
My mom and my dad would often go to protests. They would organize movements. They'd be part of multilateral indigenous people's movements, not only nationally, but internationally, that were operating at the grassroots level. Activism, it’s a tradition in my family for indigenous rights. I have aunts and uncles that were very involved as well. So as a kid, I was often at those protests. I was running around as a little Native kid with all the other little Native kids, when our parents would be in meetings discussing how to move forward discussing indigenous rights.
Dakota & Yaqui Writer, Health Advocate · Co-Chair, UN Global Indigenous Youth Caucus
Founder of Translations for our Nations · Co-founder Ohiyesa Premedical Program
My mom and my dad would often go to protests. They would organize movements. They'd be part of multilateral indigenous people's movements, not only nationally, but internationally, that were operating at the grassroots level. Activism, it’s a tradition in my family for indigenous rights. I have aunts and uncles that were very involved as well. So as a kid, I was often at those protests. I was running around as a little Native kid with all the other little Native kids, when our parents would be in meetings discussing how to move forward discussing indigenous rights.
Fmr. Minister of Environment, Ecuador
Fmr. President: WWF Int’l, World Conservation Union, Founder Fundacion Futuro Latinoamericano
One of the reasons why we haven't been able to overcome many of the climate crisis factors is because people don't understand what it means. What is it about? What can I do? Usually, when we hear these experts speak about the climate crisis, at least me, I don't understand 9/10ths of the speech or the document. Simplifying the message, allowing that difficult scientific knowledge to become popular language that I can use when explaining to a child, to a rural person, to someone who has a different type of education, that knows much more about the planet but not necessarily about university, explaining those difficult issues will make a difference. And we have to invest much more in that. Speaking difficult scientific language is not helpful to the majority of society.
Fmr. Minister of Environment, Ecuador
Fmr. President: WWF Int’l, World Conservation Union, Founder Fundacion Futuro Latinoamericano
One of the reasons why we haven't been able to overcome many of the climate crisis factors is because people don't understand what it means. What is it about? What can I do? Usually, when we hear these experts speak about the climate crisis, at least me, I don't understand 9/10ths of the speech or the document. Simplifying the message, allowing that difficult scientific knowledge to become popular language that I can use when explaining to a child, to a rural person, to someone who has a different type of education, that knows much more about the planet but not necessarily about university, explaining those difficult issues will make a difference. And we have to invest much more in that. Speaking difficult scientific language is not helpful to the majority of society.
President of UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network
Director of Center for Sustainable Development, Columbia University
If we’re badly educated, we’re not going to make it on this planet. If I had to put my finger on one Sustainable Development Goal above all else, it is let’s empower young people so that they know the future. They know the world that they’re going to be leading soon. They can do something about it…If you’re in elementary school up to university, you should be learning–What is climate change? What is biodiversity? What can we do about it? And this kind of learning is not only book learning, but is also experiential learning.
Dr. Farhana Sultana is an Associate Professor in the Department of Geography and the Environment at the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs of Syracuse University, where she is also the Research Director for Environmental Collaboration and Conflicts at the Program for the Advancement of Research on Conflicts and Collaboration (PARCC).
Dr. Sultana is an internationally recognized interdisciplinary scholar of political ecology, water governance, post‐colonial development, social and environmental justice, climate change, and feminism. Her research and scholar-activism draw from her experiences of having lived and worked on three continents as well as from her backgrounds in the natural sciences, social sciences, and policy experience.
Prior to joining Syracuse, she taught at King’s College London and worked at United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). Author of several dozen publications, her recent books are “The Right to Water: Politics, Governance and Social Struggles” (2012), “Eating, Drinking: Surviving” (2016) and “Water Politics: Governance, Justice, and the Right to Water” (2020). Dr. Sultana graduated Cum Laude from Princeton University (in Geosciences and Environmental Studies) and obtained her Masters and PhD (in Geography) from the University of Minnesota, where she was a John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Fellow.
She was awarded the Glenda Laws Award from the American Association of Geographers for “outstanding contributions to geographic research on social issues” in 2019.
DR. FARHANA SULTANA
We are always students. We are students of the earth. We need to do better and we can do better because the capacity of the human spirit is quite expansive and we owe it to future generations to do the best we can do while we can…It’s about who is at the table or rather what is the table, meaning what are the terms of the debate. Setting the terms of the debate, but how do we even know what the terms of the debate are, who is being included, who is being heeded, and part of that is, therefore, a decolonizing of knowledge and power structures because it’s centrally or fundamentally a justice issue.
One of the issues is that, yes, it is harder to be a woman of color in any field, but it is harder to be a very outspoken vocal woman of color. That has been my reality because I don’t think silence is an option. Too many centuries of my people were silenced in various ways, and if I have the privilege of education and voice it is an absolute unending responsibility to therefore speak out and share my knowledge and expertise.
This interview was conducted by Mia Funk & Mariana Monahan Negron with the participation of collaborating universities and students. Associate Interviews Producer on this podcast was Mariana Monahan Negron. Digital Media Coordinator is Phoebe Brous.
Mia Funk is an artist, interviewer and founder of The Creative Process & One Planet Podcast (Conversations about Climate Change & Environmental Solutions).
Co-author: Water Politics: Governance, Justice & the Right to Water
Fmr. UNDP Programme Officer, United Nations Development Programme
We are always students. We are students of the earth. We need to do better and we can do better because the capacity of the human spirit is quite expansive and we owe it to future generations to do the best we can do while we can…It’s about who is at the table or rather what is the table, meaning what are the terms of the debate. Setting the terms of the debate, but how do we even know what the terms of the debate are, who is being included, who is being heeded, and part of that is, therefore, a decolonizing of knowledge and power structures because it’s centrally or fundamentally a justice issue.
Founder & CEO of Closed Loop Partners
Former Deputy Commissioner of Sanitation, Recycling & Sustainability, NYC
We live in buildings and cities because that’s what generates a living for a lot of people, but where we’re most comfortable as humans is when we’re in nature. Your generation owns this. Don’t let anybody take it from you or damage it because you own it. The next generation is the one that owns it and view it with a sense of ownership and a sense of pride and a sense of protection because there are a lot of benefits you get from nature.
Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of Oregon
Member of the United Nations Knowledge Network on Harmony with Nature
The term Rights of Nature tends to be applied to two different things. One is this underlying legal philosophy that is actually broader than just Rights of Nature, that’s probably better understood as ecological jurisprudence that may or may not be expressed in terms of rights, but because Rights of Nature is getting a lot of attention that term tends to be applied to represent this broader underlying philosophy. Of course, the other way it’s used it to refer to the legal provisions that explicitly recognize Rights for ecosystems.
Vlad Sokhin is a Russia-born documentary photographer, videographer, and multimedia producer covering sociocultural, environmental, and human rights issues worldwide. His projects are supported by various UN agencies and international NGOs. Vlad’s work has been featured in over 40 publications, including National Geographic, NPR, Newsweek Japan, BBC, and The Guardian. In 2014, he was named Best Photographer in Russia, and in 2017, he was awarded the Visa d’or Franceinfo: Award for the Best Digital News Story for his “Warm Waters, Kamchatka” series. Vlad is a citizen of the world. He is currently based in the Asia-Pacfic region and continues to work on photography and video projects there, in addition to Africa, Europe, Russia, and the Middle East.
VLAD SOKHIN
It's not about money, as my teacher said, "If you want to be rich, go to advertising." It's about lifestyle. It's what you want to achieve, what you want to share with people. And in terms of topics I choose...somehow these topics choose me. I just happen to be there. For example, I moved to Australia, and then I was exploring the neighbouring countries, back in 2011. That's where I found my first big projects that I started working on. And one of them was gender-based violence in Papua New Guinea. So of course, I travel far away, but mostly it's something that is in my neighborhood, around me. And that's where I also encountered later on stories that are related to climate change. I was sent in 2013 to cover deforestation and illegal logging in Papua New Guinea. Australian online media sent me there, The Global Mail. I did one story, I did another for them. And then I thought, oh, it'd be interesting to keep telling these stories and connect the whole region together. And that's how Warm Waters was born.
In Alaska, they're moving villages. There's the village of Newtok. They're relocating the entire village to a new location where they hope that they won't be affected by permafrost thawing and coastal erosion. Those new houses they built, they already built them in such a way that they can be slid somewhere else. So, they have this in mind that you can put them on the slides and then move them somewhere else, easily. The village of Shishmaref in Alaska is where just a few years ago, they voted for the entire relocation of the village, and before they spent millions of dollars building big sea walls, hoping that this would protect them. But it doesn't work. In places like Tuvalu, for example, people also try to immigrate, try to move. It's not only because of climate change, it's also because of overpopulation. It's because of lack of jobs, many things. But climate change is also becoming one of those important factors. And yeah, they move to New Zealand. Tuvaluans try to move to Niue, another Pacific island that is more protected. It's a big volcanic elevated rock in the middle of the ocean, and they face the other problem of depopulation. There, people have New Zealand citizenship, so they move to New Zealand and nobody wants to stay there. So, these are interesting shifts and migrations we can see in the Pacific. But many of them now are associated with climate change, especially in tiny atolls, because the people there are most affected.
I'm sure there are some people who deny climate change, they have different reasons. And now I think, of course, every Pacific Islander who lives on this front line of climate change, they wouldn't say it doesn't exist. They see it every day. But also they have the understanding that some of the processes are also natural, or man-made, which makes effects of climate change more visible. You know, they feel more. But it's started by men. In Kiribati, there was an island in the middle of the lagoon. And then they started creating causeways, building roads between little islets, and the water flow changed and that island disappeared. And then people start with the same, "climate change, climate change, sea level rise," which it is not. So it's good to understand: this is what we do; this is what climate change does. Right? And how humans are involved in that.
THE CREATIVE PROCESS
And I'm curious also about your childhood, your upbringing, what drew you to your journey towards photography and why you decided that that would be your lens to tell these stories, as opposed to some other way of telling stories or engaging politically?
SOKHIN
Well, first of all, I'm trying to stay away from politics. I'm speaking generally without saying names. I'm trying to stay as far from politics as possible.This is not my thing. Photography is a natural thing. I'm a visual person. I like to see, I connect through it. But I'm not one of those photographers who always walk with the cameras, as well. If I work, I take my camera. If I don't, I like to enjoy life and take photos with my eyes. They inspire me. But, I do it every day. So for me, it was a natural choice. I just chose this path. Because, I do write as well. And for me, writing is also a way, especially if I accompany my story, but it's not as expressive as visual storytelling.
THE CREATIVE PROCESS
And in these societies there are, you know, they're vastly different, some of them, but from things that we understand, whether it's rituals or superstitions or being less inclusive in terms of gender preference. There's a lot of different customs and things that you're navigating, but what do you find are some universal truths that have ignited your experiences?
SOKHIN
The universal truth is probably: there is good and bad. That's the universal truth. Believing in witchcraft, for example. In some societies they do believe in it, in some they don't believe. But, in some societies you are a Democrat, and you're a Republican. And for those people, it's witchcraft as well. So it depends on the point of view. Good and bad is a division, and then people are divided. They believe that there is a duality that exists, that this is "me" and this is "other." In fact, there's no other. That's when I talk about changing the way you think, about climate change, about yourself. There is no other. It's not the "other" country, or these "primitive people," as some call them. No, it's us, as well; it's like your leg, or your finger. But humanity is one organism. If we understand that, there will be way less problems in the world. Some people are still in this stage of development. But, would you blame, let's say, your child for trying to walk and walking a little bit wobbly? No, just give it time. Papua New Guinea was a very remote country, isolated from the rest of the world. They didn't have universities. And then recently, suddenly they were introduced to the Western way of life. It's not better or worse, the way of life that they lived before. It's just different. So, when we introduce it, and we introduce it very fast, people may not be ready for that. That's it. We just need to understand that.
And I'm not saying that they are less developed, it is not that. It's like: there is yellow color; there's blue. Why is blue not yellow? Because it's blue. That's it. And that's what was with them. They just live differently. And now, there's a lot of people trying to reconnect. There's the thinking, "Ah, what do the elders say?" In the United States of America, or in Australia, every new big thing– they now call their native people, and they ask them, "Why don't you do a ceremony to call the spirits?" Now, it's changing. Now, they tap into this truth, to this, let's say, ancient knowledge, that probably people would forget. Now the governments invite these people. I've been to many festivals in Sydney that start with inviting Aboriginal people to do a water blessing ceremony. So, it becomes part of the shifting of awareness: your way of life is different from ours, it's not worse or better, it's just different. So, let's also include it in the way we live and share and exchange.
This interview was conducted by Mia Funk with the participation of collaborating universities and students. Associate Interviews Producer on this podcast was Khrystyna Tsunyak. Digital Media Coordinator is Yu Young Lee. “Winter Time” was composed by Nikolas Anadolis and performed by the Athenian Trio.
Mia Funk is an artist, interviewer and founder of The Creative Process.
