2021-Nov-01 : INVITE: COP26 stand by me
Today, COP 26, the 26th UN Climate Change Conference of the Parties, has opened in Glasgow. It brings parties together to accelerate action towards the goals of the Paris Agreement and the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change. COP26 recognises and highlights that climate change is the greatest threat facing the world.
In our Centre for Spatial, Environmental and Cultural Politics (SECP) at the University of Brighton, some of us follow the invitation by artists and choreographers Simon Whitehead and Rosemary Lee to a small meditative activity, alone or in company, daily or as it suits, for the duration of COP26 (and beyond?):
In our Centre for Spatial, Environmental and Cultural Politics (SECP) at the University of Brighton, some of us follow the invitation by artists and choreographers Simon Whitehead and Rosemary Lee to a small meditative activity, alone or in company, daily or as it suits, for the duration of COP26 (and beyond?):
Stand by me is an invitation to do something really simple that may appear really difficult: to stand next to a tree. (image: Whitehead and Lee 2021)
This is an invitation to take part in a collective act of solidarity.
Over the duration of COP26 (1-12 November 2021) we invite you to spend some time with a tree or stand of trees close to where you live; to stand by, to eat your lunch with, to listen to or to lie beneath. Plant life is a crucial part of our shared cosmology, trees continue to be threatened, felled, diseased by the effects of climate change and the out-of- this-world growth of global capitalism. Let’s be together with trees…
Breathe in, breathe out
human being stand by me…
COP26 has four main aims, all of which relate to our work on productive urban landscapes and sustainable food systems and to all of which we aim (and always have aimed) to contribute:
* SECURE GLOBAL NET ZERO by mid-century and KEEP 1.5 DEGREES within reach.
* Adapt to PROTECT COMMUNITIES AND NATURAL HABITATS.
* Mobilise FINANCE.
* WORK TOGETHER to deliver.
Over the duration of COP26 (1-12 November 2021) we invite you to spend some time with a tree or stand of trees close to where you live; to stand by, to eat your lunch with, to listen to or to lie beneath. Plant life is a crucial part of our shared cosmology, trees continue to be threatened, felled, diseased by the effects of climate change and the out-of- this-world growth of global capitalism. Let’s be together with trees…
Breathe in, breathe out
human being stand by me…
COP26 has four main aims, all of which relate to our work on productive urban landscapes and sustainable food systems and to all of which we aim (and always have aimed) to contribute:
* SECURE GLOBAL NET ZERO by mid-century and KEEP 1.5 DEGREES within reach.
* Adapt to PROTECT COMMUNITIES AND NATURAL HABITATS.
* Mobilise FINANCE.
* WORK TOGETHER to deliver.