day 2: bold action

At 2:30am this morning, I attended a live event at COP28 that was a panel of Filipino activists reflecting on super typhoon Haiyan that struck the Philippines in 2013. I was pretty drowsy still after watching a different stream at 1:30 with my hot chocolate that I made in the dark, but they played a video that woke me right up.

After Haiyan killed about 6,500 people that year, the representative and climate commissioner of the Philippines Nadarev "Yeb" Sano spoke at the first day of COP19. We watched the video of his testimony of utter horror that Haiyan had wrought on his country, and we watched as he declared he would not eat during the COP until meaningful climate action was taken. 300 other people fasted with him, including the Archbishop of Canterbury.

Today, we are only getting closer to worldwide climate disaster. Young activists are throwing soup at famous art pieces, hundreds of thousands gather for marches in major cities, and some have lit themselves on fire — even sacrificed their lives — to bring attention to the climate crisis.

Hearing Sano's testimony from a decade ago prompted much self-reflection in my room early this morning. If I was in his position with his platform today that he had in 2013, would I also think to take drastic measures? Or would the stress of staying on message and being diplomatic in the right way for the United Nations take over?

How do I even feel about these climate conferences happening when I disagree with how the United Nations approaches human rights violations and interventions in war and genocide, which are all climate issues? I'm far from an expert on any of these kinds of proceedings, so do I even have the right to ask these questions?

What about Palestine? I thought. What about Congo and the people suffering because the West needs cobalt for its "environmental-friendly" electric vehicles? What about Sudan and the more than 6,000,000 people who have been displaced by war?

All of these things — genocides, wars, stains on human history — are climate issues. I can't take my mind off of them even when trying to concentrate on COP28 sessions. I try to make the connections between the environmental oppression of Indigenous peoples in North America or typhoons in the Philippines with the genocide happening literally right now in Gaza. I think these connections will help me pay attention to the fine details, help me pull out takeaways from sessions that would be relevant in this moment, but instead I just become angry looking down from a bird's eye view, watching all the lines connect and form an impenetrable spiderweb of greed and evil. 

I went to a rally and march for Palestine in New Haven today. Yesterday, the US vetoed a humanitarian ceasefire at the UN Security Council. The death and destruction I see on my Twitter feed and the pain I hear in the voices of people chanting around me through the streets of Connecticut is unfathomable.

I know that what comes out of COP28 is important. I know that the genocide of Palestinians is a climate issue. And yet, I wonder why Palestinians in Gaza would ever care about COP right now when airstrikes are unceasing and their humanity is denied again and again. When the United Nations has proven an ineffective international body when it comes to effectively addressing humanitarian crimes and emergencies. 

What would it mean for another representative like Sano to be courageous at this COP, to boldly state what's happening in the world, even if it is through tears, and to refuse to carry on business as usual until the problems are meaningfully addressed? How do I take the inspiration I felt watching his testimony and myself become courageous in action in my own way?

I don't have answers or hope at the moment. This work hits me in different places every day, not only during COP time. Sometimes I am energized and see the holes in the spiderweb that we can slip into, unraveling the deadly militarism that is destroying the planet and our souls. Sometimes I am simply wiped out. Today is one of those days.