On November 16, WECAN hosted a COP29 Press Conference articulating a new legal framework and economy based on living in balance with Earth’s natural systems. Presenters discussed the Rights

On November 16, WECAN hosted a COP29 Press Conference articulating a new legal framework and economy based on living in balance with Earth’s natural systems. Presenters discussed the Rights of Nature movement, its successes, and how it can offer a systemic framework for defending and protecting biodiversity, communities, and the climate.

Speakers included: Casey Camp-Horinek (Ponca Nation), Ponca Nation Environmental Ambassador and WECAN Board Member and Project Coordinator, Turtle Island/USA; Nnimmo Bassey, Director of Health of Mother Earth Foundation, Nigeria; Tom Goldtooth, Executive Director of Indigenous Environmental Network (IEN); and Osprey Orielle Lake, Executive Director of the Women’s Earth and Climate Action Network (WECAN), USA.

WECAN presented “A Global Initiative for a Universal Declaration on the Rights of Nature,” which outlines a strategy for national and subnational governments to have a mechanism for countries to adopt a Universal Declaration on the Rights of Nature. To learn about this vital new initiative please see our website here: https://www.wecaninternational.org/ron-declaration

Do we have a right to be hopeful? With political and ecological fires raging all around, is it irresponsible to imagine a future world radically better than our own? A world without prisons? Of

Do we have a right to be hopeful? With political and ecological fires raging all around, is it irresponsible to imagine a future world radically better than our own? A world without prisons? Of beautiful, green public housing? Of buried border walls? Of healed ecosystems? A world where governments fear the people instead of the other way around? 

“A Message From the Future II: The Years of Repair” is an animated short film that dares to dream of a future in which 2020 is a historic turning point, where the lessons of the Covid-19 pandemic and global uprisings against racism drive us to build back a better society in which no one is sacrificed and every one is essential.

The film is a sequel to the 2019 Emmy-nominated short film “A Message From the Future” with Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and features the art of Molly Crabapple, with the political storytelling of Naomi Klein, Avi Lewis, and Opal Tometi. The cast of narrators from around the world includes Tometi, Emma Thompson, Gael García Bernal, and the Nigerian poet and activist Nnimmo Bassey.

Watch Part 1 "A Message from the Future" with Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez here.