TEDx Talk Sunday: Caring for the land and each other

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Selkirk College is hosting a virtual TEDx series to champion and accelerate solutions to the climate crisis. The free talks include both local and global speakers who will discuss ideas and actions to face the climate crisis.

“The speakers for our upcoming virtual events, both global and local, will be sharing their ideas and then going one step further by turning ideas into action,” says Sustainable Selkirk Coordinator Laura Nessman. “This is what is required when addressing the climate crisis.”

Wildsight’s Graeme Lee Rowlands is one of the guest speakers for this series.

Graeme is an educator, researcher, and organizer focused on the confluence of environmental, social, economic and political issues in the Columbia River Basin, including heading up Wildsight’s Columbia River Field School. Graeme also serves as coordinator of Wildsight’s new Youth Climate Corps (YCC) Program. The YCC empowers young people to inspire and implement solutions to the climate crisis through targeted employment, training, mentorship, community engagement and personal leadership development.

Graeme is presenting at the session this Sunday, November 8th (4-5:30 pm Mountain / 3-4:30 Pacific) which focuses on caring for the land and each other.

“If you want people to do idealistic things, you need to help them meet their practical needs. Young people have so much at stake in the climate crisis and simultaneously hold the fewest resources with which to do something about it,” says Graeme. “The Youth Climate Corps is about providing people ages 19-29 with the economic and professional support we need to focus our efforts on climate action. As a young person working to create opportunities for other young people, I’m uniquely motivated to grow the Youth Climate Corps towards the scale of the problem it seeks to address.”

Graeme will share the virtual stage alongside a mayor in Sierra Leone, an Icelandic author, a professional forester, a climate and gender activist, and a famed plant ecologist. The following Sunday, November 15th, the series wraps up with speakers centred on the theme of Transforming our Cities and Energy Systems.

The online TEDx sessions are free, but you’ll need to pre-register here.

Graeme Lee Rowlands