How empowering women and girls can help stop global warming | Katharine Wilkinson

110,624 views ・ 2019-02-15

TED


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There are two powerful phenomena unfolding on earth:
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the rise of global warming
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and the rise of women and girls.
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The link between them is often overlooked,
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but gender equity is a key answer to our planetary challenge.
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Let me explain.
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For the last few years,
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I have been working on an effort called "Project Drawdown."
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Our team has scoured humanity's wisdom
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for solutions to draw down heat-trapping, climate-changing emissions
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in the atmosphere --
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not "someday, maybe, if we're lucky" solutions,
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the 80 best practices and technologies
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already in hand:
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clean, renewable energy, including solar and wind;
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green buildings, both new and retrofitted;
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efficient transportation from Brazil to China;
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thriving ecosystems through protection and restoration;
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reducing waste and reclaiming its value;
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growing food in good ways that regenerates soil;
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shifting diets to less meat, more plants;
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and equity for women and girls.
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Gender and climate are inextricably linked.
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Drawing down emissions depends on rising up.
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First, a bit of context.
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We are in a situation of urgency, severity and scope
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never before faced by humankind.
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So far, our response isn't anywhere close to adequate.
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But you already know that.
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You know it in your gut,
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in your bones.
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We are each part of the planet's living systems,
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knitted together with almost 7.7 billion human beings
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and 1.8 million known species.
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We can feel the connections between us.
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We can feel the brokenness
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and the closing window to heal it.
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This earth, our home,
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is telling us that a better way of being must emerge, and fast.
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In my experience, to have eyes wide open
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is to hold a broken heart every day.
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It's a grief that I rarely speak,
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though my work calls on the power of voice.
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I remind myself that the heart can simply break, or it can break open.
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A broken-open heart is awake and alive and calls for action.
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It is regenerative, like nature,
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reclaiming ruined ground, growing anew.
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Life moves inexorably toward more life,
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toward healing,
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toward wholeness.
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That's a fundamental ecological truth.
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And we, all of us,
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we are life force.
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On the face of it, the primary link between women, girls and a warming world
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is not life but death.
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Awareness is growing that climate impacts hit women and girls hardest,
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given existing vulnerabilities.
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There is greater risk of displacement,
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higher odds of being injured or killed during a natural disaster.
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Prolonged drought can precipitate early marriage
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as families contend with scarcity.
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Floods can force last-resort prostitution
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as women struggle to make ends meet.
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The list goes on and goes wide.
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These dynamics are most acute under conditions of poverty,
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from New Orleans to Nairobi.
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Too often, the story ends here.
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But not today.
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Another empowering truth begs to be seen.
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If we gain ground on gender equity,
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we also gain ground on addressing global warming.
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This connection comes to light in three key areas,
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three areas where we can secure the rights of women and girls,
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shore up resilience
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and avert emissions at the same time.
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Women are the primary farmers of the world.
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They produce 60 to 80 percent of food in lower-income countries,
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often operating on fewer than five acres.
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That's what the term "smallholder" means.
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Compared with men, women smallholders have less access to resources,
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including land rights,
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credit and capital, training,
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tools and technology.
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They farm as capably and efficiently as men,
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but this well-documented disparity in resources and rights
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means women produce less food on the same amount of land.
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Close those gaps,
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and farm yields rise by 20 to 30 percent.
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That means 20 to 30 percent more food from the same garden or the same field.
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The implications for hunger, for health, for household income --
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they're obvious.
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Let's follow the thread to climate.
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We humans need land to grow food.
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Unfortunately, forests are often cleared to supply it,
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and that causes emissions from deforestation.
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But if existing farms produce enough food,
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forests are less likely to be lost.
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So there's a ripple effect.
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Support women smallholders,
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realize higher yields,
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avoid deforestation
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and sustain the life-giving power of forests.
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Project Drawdown estimates that addressing inequity in agriculture
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could prevent two billion tons of emissions between now and 2050.
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That's on par with the impact household recycling can have globally.
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Addressing this inequity can also help women cope
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with the challenges of growing food
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as the climate changes.
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There is life force in cultivation.
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At last count,
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130 million girls are still denied their basic right to attend school.
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Gaps are greatest in secondary school classrooms.
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Too many girls are missing a vital foundation for life.
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Education means better health for women and their children,
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better financial security,
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greater agency at home and in society,
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more capacity to navigate a climate-changing world.
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Education can mean options, adaptability, strength.
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It can also mean lower emissions.
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For a variety of reasons,
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when we have more years of education,
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we typically choose to marry later
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and to have fewer children.
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So our families end up being smaller.
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What happens at the individual level adds up across the world and over time.
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One by one by one,
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the right to go to school impacts how many human beings live on this planet
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and impacts its living systems.
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That's not why girls should be educated.
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It's one meaningful outcome.
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Education is one side of a coin.
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The other is family planning:
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access to high-quality, voluntary reproductive health care.
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To have children by choice rather than chance
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is a matter of autonomy and dignity.
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Yet in the US,
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45 percent of pregnancies are unintended.
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Two hundred and fourteen million women in lower-income countries
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say they want to decide whether and when to become pregnant
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but aren't using contraception.
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Listening to women's needs,
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addressing those needs,
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advancing equity and well-being:
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those must be the aims of family planning, period.
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Curbing the growth of our human population
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is a side effect, though a potent one.
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It could dramatically reduce demand for food, transportation, electricity,
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buildings, goods and all the rest,
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thereby reducing emissions.
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Close the gaps on access to education and family planning,
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and by mid-century, we may find one billion fewer people inhabiting earth
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than we would if we do nothing more.
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According to Project Drawdown,
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one billion fewer people could mean we avoid
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nearly 120 billion tons of emissions.
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At that level of impact,
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gender equity is a top solution to restore a climate fit for life.
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At that level of impact,
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gender equity is on par with wind turbines
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and solar panels and forests.
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There is life force in learning
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and life force in choice.
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Now, let me be clear:
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this does not mean women and girls are responsible for fixing everything.
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(Laughter)
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Though we probably will.
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(Laughter)
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(Applause)
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Equity for women in agriculture, education and family planning:
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these are solutions within a system of drawdown solutions.
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Together, they comprise a blueprint of possibility.
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And let me be even clearer about this:
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population cannot be seen in isolation from production or consumption.
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Some segments of the human family cause exponentially greater harm,
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while others suffer outsized injustice.
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The most affluent --
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we are the most accountable.
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We have the most to do.
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The gender-climate connection extends beyond negative impacts
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and beyond powerful solutions.
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Women are vital voices and agents for change on this planet,
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and yet we're too often missing or even barred from the proverbial table.
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We're too often ignored or silenced when we speak.
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We are too often passed over
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when plans are laid or investments made.
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According to one analysis,
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just 0.2 percent of philanthropic funds
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go specifically towards women and the environment,
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merely 110 million dollars globally,
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the sum spent by one man on a single Basquiat painting last year.
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These dynamics are not only unjust, they are setting us up for failure.
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To rapidly, radically reshape society,
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we need every solution and every solver,
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every mind,
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every bit of heart,
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every set of hands.
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We often crave a simple call to action,
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but this challenge demands more than a fact sheet
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and more than a checklist.
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We need to function more like an ecosystem,
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finding strength in our diversity.
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You know what your superpowers are.
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You're an educator, farmer, healer, creator, campaigner, wisdom-keeper.
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How might you link arms where you are
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to move solutions forward?
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There is one role I want to ask that all of you play:
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the role of messenger.
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This is a time of great awakening.
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We need to break the silence around the condition of our planet;
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move beyond manufactured debates about climate science;
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share solutions;
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speak truth with a broken-open heart;
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teach that to address climate change, we must make gender equity a reality.
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And in the face of a seemingly impossible challenge,
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women and girls are a fierce source of possibility.
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It is a magnificent thing to be alive
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in a moment that matters so much.
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This earth,
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our home,
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is calling for us to be bold,
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reminding us we are all in this together --
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women, men,
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people of all gender identities,
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all beings.
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We are life force,
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one earth,
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one chance.
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Let's seize it.
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Thank you.
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(Applause)
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