Small Holder farmers are anything but Small: Project Dandelion's Newest campaign

Dear Readers,

This year, as the UN shines a long-overdue light on rural farmers, and women farmers in particular, Project Dandelion is celebrating the millions of smallholder farmers whose daily work sustains not only their families, but often their communities. In fact, 75% of the entire food ecosystem is often supplied by the food grown on small holder farms. Isn’t it time we stopped referring to these rural women and men as ‘smallholder’? They may be tending small plots of land, but their contributions are significant, not only in the regenerative practices which restore depleted soil, but also in leading front line innovations to adapt to the disruptions and challenges resulting from the changing climate everywhere.

The growing movement for regenerative agriculture has been powerfully captured in films like “Kiss the Ground” and “Common Ground”, available on Amazon prime, and the new global documentary on regenerative agriculture coming out next year, “Groundswell”. There is a ‘groundswell’ of stories documenting the big changes from the smallest places with a handful of soil, a farmer’s care, entrepreneurial spirit and commitment.  They also affirm one of the commitments of Project Dandelion: to elevate these stories and amplify the solutions that can be scaled and shared.

We began our journey to understanding more about the impact of regenerative agriculture when Ronda Carnegie and I joined the Gates Foundation’s Regenerative Agriculture Convening in London in June. We had the opportunity to understand more fully the contributions of rural women’s initiatives and innovations as well as the big gap that exists between the work they lead and the funding needed to sustain and grow their impact. 

All smallholder regenerative farmers, men or women, are an important source of healthy, accessible food in their communities and countries, and yet receive less than 1% of all climate finance. That’s not only a funding gap; it’s a $1 trillion missed opportunity to invest in the solutions for food insecurity that are growing in numbers in many places in the world. 

Project Dandelion in collaboration with The International Fund For Agricultural Development's Gender Transformative Mechanism (IFAD) and in partnership with The PACT project in South Ethiopia Regional State, Ethiopia and the Nav Tejaswini project and Industree Foundation in Maharashtra, India, we signed on to create a global campaign with the goal of attracting more investment where it can have the greatest impact. 

Working with our marketing/media team at WRTHY, we shaped a social media campaign intended to shift the perception of ‘small’ in the ‘smallholder farmer’ by highlighting the stories of two important adaptations being innovated and led by rural women farmers coming together to solve community and regional challenges.  

If you’re interested in knowing more about other regenerative farming initiatives closer to home, check out 

Regenerative Famers of America

Regenerative Organic Alliance 

Soil Health Academy Farm Registry

And going forward, Project Dandelion will be amplifying many more stories of the rural women and men farmers who are leading the work towards food security and towards better balance between our natural resources like the very soil that sustains us and holds the solutions to many of the human caused climate impacts. 

For some of you, this may be an inspiration for you to become a ‘small holder’ gardener and tend the soil closest to you with the same care and commitment. It may inspire neighbors to do the same–this is happening in backyards and on city rooftops! Small in size, yes, but abundant in what we’re learning about adaptations to sustain and secure access to healthy food.  And for many others, supporting access to healthy food is a ‘way in’ to becoming engaged in the work to shape a more sustainable, healthier, cleaner future.

At Project Dandelion, we think of this campaign and the much needed focus on rural women and men to be modeling the best attributes of the dandelion: climate resilient, able to grow and adapt in any climate and environment; providing through its own leaves, roots, and seeds, ways to heal and nurture, as regenerative practices heal the soil, and the dandelion’s ability to find even the smallest cracks to grow and flourish. With small or large solutions, also being unstoppable in a commitment to spread the seeds of the better future that we can build, together, from the ground up.

Together, we can help shift the narrative from charity to justice, from underestimation to recognition. Together, we can seed a livable future for all.

Onward!

- Pat

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Women in Sustainability: Solutionists Leading with Heart and Action

On this day, just 7 days ago, I was arriving at Rancho La Puerta for the inaugural Women in Sustainability Week. Along with Project Dandelion cofounder and Executive Director, Ronda Carnegie, and other “solutionists” (a term I explain later in this newsletter), we convened there from an exhausting (and exhilarating) NYClimate week. We were ready to reflect, restore, and reimagine what is possible when we align the health of the planet with our personal well-being and that of our families. 

Rancho La Puerta, a place long celebrated for its deep commitment to wellness, community, and nature was the perfect setting to learn more about what it looks like to shape a truly sustainable future for all. Set in the foothills of Mount Kuchuma just over the border from San Diego, Rancho La Puerta, itself, is a real time experience in sustainability solutions which aren't just a theory, but a practice which is made visible and tangible. 

From its solar-powered energy, sustainable and local building materials, to the delicious farm-to-table meals grown in their abundant organic gardens and regenerative farm, to a state of the art water treatment plant that uses the wetlands to filter water through a thriving ecosystem of native plants, and perhaps most impactful of all, a steadfast investment in the local community of Tecate. The Ranch stands as a living model of how wellness and sustainability are inseparable and a model for how life should be everywhere.

Much gratitude to Rancho La Puerta and its extraordinary founder, Deborah Szekely, now 103 and still holding sessions with guests and her daughter, Sarah Livia Brightwood, who has led the sustainability practices and literally embodies the spirit of the place, carrying the legacy forward with such grace and generosity. Women in Sustainability week was Sarah’s idea, and I hope we can do it again as it was the rest and restore retreat we all needed and the reminder that everything we do, every choice we make can be made with love and care for each other, for the earth and for ourselves. 

 Again and again through the Women in Sustainability speaker presentations, we envisioned sustainability as not just a set of practices but a mindset and a movement; a commitment to think of everything we do as an act of reciprocity with the earth and with one another. 

Today, I’m sharing some of the highlights of this memorable week of wellness offerings with something for everyone looking to regenerate, restore and return to our lives and work with new perspectives and ideas. 

That’s the invitation that Project Dandelion accepted–to curate daily presentations, working closely with Rancho’s  Roma Maxwell and trustee, Kris Biliter. Looking broadly at the concept of sustainability, we invited presentations from people we now call–solutionists. This term was coined by a sister dandelion, Solitaire Townsend. In her book The Solutionists: How Businesses Can Fix the Future, Soli defines “solutionist” as “someone whose purpose is to solve real societal or environmental problems, not merely doing sustainability as an add-on. On a podcast she says she coined the term to give a shared language and identity to changemakers. The women we heard from during this week are doing just that. 

Norma Meza Ronda and myself during our session

We began, as every gathering should, by grounding ourselves in the wisdom of the land and its first caretakers. Norma Meza, a Kumeyaay elder, offered a beautiful blessing in front of the Dining Hall—calling us into presence, gratitude, and reverence for the earth beneath our feet. Her words set a tone of humility and interconnection that carried through the entire week.

In the first conversation, Ronda Carnegie and I shared the many diverse pathways for becoming a ‘solutionist’. It’s a touchstone of Project Dandelion’s work–to catalyze the collective power of women’s leadership (but not women only) who are still on the sidelines of this crisis, not because they don’t agree with the urgent need to reverse the damage to our environment, but because they don’t see a role for them in the solution making. What we offer are stories of women identifying and leading solution focused initiatives or women innovating solutions, in some instances, small scale but always impactful. We also share ways to become engaged as an advocate, beginning with talking about the challenges and/or becoming a supporter of front line solutionists. 

Project Dandelion is committed as a global movement to elevate the solutions we need to a shape a better future, rather than the catastrophic one if we don’t act.

Tzeporah Berman

We are also committed to offering every platform possible to the women leading important global initiatives and solutions, and at our first presentation last week, invited Tzeporah Berman, founder of the Fossil Fuel Non Proliferation Treaty to talk about this very large scale initiative to enlist every country to sign a treaty to phase out and eventually end the use of the fossil fuels. The pollution of carbon emissions is a major cause of environmental related disease, death and through the extractive practices, also a major contributor to the loss of biodiversity and our natural resources. A global treaty is a bold, brave idea, and Tzeporah is both, with enough courage to lead this monumental effort. She and her team have already convinced more than a dozen countries to sign the treaty with other big news on their progress coming soon. 

In another presentation during the week, we explored the impact of  intergenerational activism and no better family to exemplify that than Laura Turner Seydel and Vasser Seydel–a mother/daughter who represent an entire family’s commitment to being solutionists. Laura spoke powerfully about the legacy of stewardship of the land that she learned from her father, Ted Turner, a legacy he continues to lead through the multiple ranches he owns and land he protects. Laura is deeply engaged in the regenerative practices on many of the ranches, and a long standing advocate and activist, she also serves on multiple conservation focused boards–EWG, Project Drawdown, Waterkeeper Alliance,  League of Conservation Voters Education Fund, Georgia Conservation Voters, the UN Foundation (UNF.org) and as a Patron of Nature with the International Union for Conservation of Nature.

At 30, Vasser leads The Oxygen Project with a mission to ignite a community of climate champions and accelerate collective action through storytelling, trainings, and campaigns. These two extraordinary sustainability leaders exemplify how values are passed across generations, and motivate others to join. As Laura’s mother in law and Vasser’s grandmother, I am both motivated and inspired in my environmental activism by both of these women, and it gives me such joy to share experiences like this week with them and to share their work with others. 

Every week at the Rancho La Puerta, guests are invited to walk the 2 miles to the Ranch’s organic gardens and farm where we see the food, learn more about the regenerative practices that make the food so delicious and healthy.  After a delicious breakfast on site, and someone very much at home in this setting, we heard from Jamilia Norman of Patchwork City Farms here in Atlanta. Farmer J, as she’s known on Homegrown, you can watch the series on HBOMax

Jamila reminds us that sustainability begins in the soil and in our local communities. She shared her experience of building change from the ground up, with small farms, stitching together a ‘patchwork’ of regen farms that are offering organic, healthy food to many Atlanta communities. And Jamilla exhibits the joy that comes from feeding people healthy food!  As one committed woman, changing the way food is grown, distributed and made available, she raises up the possibilities for each of us to consider doing our part…in small gardens, perhaps, and certainly in the ways we select, purchase and consume food.  

Jamila Norman

Through their very popular, interactive session’s, Environmental Working Group (EWG.org), Jocelyn Lyle and her colleague Kristine Gardner, along with Solutionist Gay Browne, gave us guidelines for making healthier choices in products we use everyday for cleaning our homes and even for applying to our bodies.  EWG.org offers research data on products and ways to easily assess their levels of toxicity and help us make healthier and safer choices for ourselves and our families. Their sessions made it clear that sustainability begins at home, one conscious choice as a consumer at a time. I suggest that we all visit EWG.org to check the safety of our homes and bodies. I checked my skin care and cleaning products and had to discard most…and even as an environmentally focused consumer, I could do better–and intend to follow their guidelines going forward.

In another session focused also on personal wellbeing connected to planet health, Gay Browne deepened the conversation with a powerful call on living with a green heart, which is also the title of her book. This phrase beautifully captures the alignment of personal wellness with planetary care. She reminded us that when we care for our own bodies and homes, we extend that care to the Earth itself.

Intention is important and so is being informed about how our individual actions connect to important global initiatives. Amanda Ellis’s powerful presentation, ‘Innovation to Action to Impact: WE Empower UN SDG Challenge’ made the case so clear of how the many ways that the nature and climate crisis intersects with and impacts gender, racial and geographical inequities. The United Nations set forth 17 goals, referred to as SDG’s–Sustainability Development Goals) that respond to the urgent need to shape a more equitable, climate safe and peaceful future. So far, few countries have achieved the goal’s targets, but becoming more aware of the interconnectedness of all the impacts helps us evaluate local policies and politics as well as national leaders.. Amanda’s session was a masterclass in understanding the important role of women’s leadership and imperative for all of us to consider every individual choice we make as consumers and as citizens as an opportunity to be a solutionists, solving for that better future the SDG’s are intended to deliver. 

Gay Browne, Jocelyn Lyle Amanda Ellis

We were also honored to have on this inaugural Women in Sustainability agenda, the globally respected, deeply inspiring indigenous youth leader, Xiye Bastida. She shared her journey from the Otomi-Toltec community of central Mexico, exemplifying at every step the indigenous wisdom that guided her from age 15 to be a frontline protector of Mother Earth. We need to listen to and trust that wisdom now more than ever, remembering with reverence and gratitude for the caretaking of the world’s critical ecosystems for centuries by indigenous communities worldwide. Xiye’s insights challenge us to reimagine sustainability not as a goal, but as a way of being in relationship with nature, with one another, and with purposeful engagement of the leadership that indigenous leaders bring to all the work towards a healthier, more sustainable future. You can learn more about Re-Earth Initiative here. 

Xiye Bastida

Along with the learning from our Solutionists, we also had inspiring music…as all retreats for body and spirit must have! Musician Amber Rubarth held us spellbound in the beautiful web of storytelling that is rooted in her songs. In multiple performances, she shared a deep connection that became, in many ways, the emotional heart of this gathering. Her melodies reminded us that art, like activism, can open new pathways to healing and hope. Amber has an ongoing series, Cover Crop Offerings, a project that she says “blends music, storytelling, and environmental consciousness. Much like an NPR ‘Tiny Desk Concert meets an Anthony Bourdain style journey,”. Amber’s work explores culture and community through an environmental and feminine lens, celebrating our interconnection. Each song in her series is offered as a kind of “cover crop”.

Amber Rubarth

In a powerful presentation that closed out our week, well known solutionist across many sectors–finance, farming, food, community, culture and more– Kat Taylor challenged us to test the boundaries of what can be done and must be done. She shared a “solution list”

Good Money-reforming finance and banking
Good Food-transforming agriculture and food systems
Good Energy-creating renewable and equitable energy systems

She also spotlighted women who are already building regenerative and/or equitable futures:

• Jillian Hishaw, agricultural attorney and founder of F.A.R.M.S., advancing land justice and economic equity for Black farmers.

• Pandora Thomas, founder of EARTHseed Farms, teaching regenerative design through the lens of cultural resilience.

• Konda Mason, co-founder of Jubilee Justice, demonstrating racial healing and soil regeneration through cooperative rice farming.

• Zakiya Harris, artist and founder of Hack the Hood and Blukiss, channeling creativity and innovation as tools for climate solutions.

• Kaitlin Archambault, sustainability designer and strategist, transforming complex climate goals into visual pathways for change.

• Camilia Chavez, seeks to empower historically disenfranchised communities with the training and skills to make transformational changes in their communities.

Pandora Thomas, Jillian Hishaw, Camilia Chavez, Kaitlin Archambault, Kat Taylor, Zakiyah Harris, Konda Mason, Sarah Livia Brightwood

As I reflect on this week at Rancho La Puerta, I’m reminded that transformation often begins in community, in circles of trust and shared purpose. Each woman here brought her story, her solution and her spark. Together, we lit a fire that I know will continue to grow.

A fire ignited from one truth that was shared by all our presenters at Rancho La Puerta: Sustainability isn’t a destination—it’s a journey of learning, a daily practice of care for the earth, for ourselves, for one another, and for a better future we are shaping together.

Onward!

- Pat

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Earth's Anthem: Reflections on Climate Week and 'Dear Everything'

Dear Readers,

Every year, I walk into New York Climate Week proudly wearing my Dandelion pin—determinedly optimistic that this year will be different. That this year we will begin to solve for the fragmentation within our environmental movements that too often holds us back from real progress. Progress toward global policies set and enforced by governments, toward new standards and accountability for business, toward real commitments from the financial sector. All of which are essential if we are to move away from catastrophic climate impacts, biodiversity loss, and the unlivable future that looms if we fail.

Ronda Carnegie, myself, Laura Cook, Emily Moody, & Dr. Nancy O’Reilly at Solutions House

And yet, Climate Week unfolded much as it always does: nearly 800 organizations competing for attention, unpredictable scheduling conflicts, traffic jams compounded by motorcades for 200 world leaders—one in particular whose presence can shut down midtown Manhattan, who dismisses this crisis as a “con job”. Tell that to the people of Louisiana, Texas, California, North Carolina, Florida—or any community in this country—that has endured the hurricanes, floods, and wildfires fueled by a warming planet. The latest Planetary Health Check confirms what lived experience already makes clear: climate change is no hoax. It is our shared reality, and if unchecked, it will only get worse.

So yes, it is real. And yes, it is frightening. But here’s the message we carried with us to New York—along with our sneakers for the six miles of walking each day: we can reverse this damage if we act quickly enough and with more collective action.

Even if we exceed 1.5°C in the coming years (and many scientists say this is unavoidable), we can get back there with policies that phase out fossil fuels; with bold investments in renewable sources of energy; with regenerative agriculture and grazing practices; with proximate and indigenous leadership; and with leaders at all levels who take the long view and make courageous choices.

We can still secure a livable, healthier future for all. The solutions already exist. What we need now is a unified strategy for collective actions that will apply pressure on governments, businesses, corporations, and financial institutions to act with urgency as well as compassion, clarity and care.

This is why my radical optimism grows—when I see more leaders wearing the Dandelion pin and committing to its promise: to protect what we love, restore what we’ve lost, and embrace regenerative practices that heal. To choose collaboration over competition, reciprocity over extraction. To remember that we are not separate from nature, but of it—and that every choice we make is a chance to shape a safer, more just, more livable planet.

Of course, there are those clinging to outdated and unfair systems. They enrich themselves while endangering future generations. But that doesn’t have to continue—if we unify, strategize, organize, and vote for leaders aligned with a vision of a sustainable and equitable future.

We need more than policies. We need a cultural breakthrough. We need the breakthrough power of stories, music, and art—the same forces that have fueled every great movement. And one of the biggest and most effective global movements of all time was launched by one play by one extraordinarily gifted writer and passionately committed activist: V (formerly Eve Ensler.) She knows a lot about how to launch movements with words, songs, and personal stories.

V’s “The Vagina Monologues”  launched the V-Day movement to end violence against women, and with performances in 150 plus countries, thousands of cities, villages, public squares and Parliaments, raising over $100 million for local organizations worldwide.

V, the cast, and supporters after the Atlanta performance.

Turning that same creative fire and activist passion to the nature and climate crisis, V collaborated with Justin Tranter, Caroline Pennell, Eren Cannata and director Diane Paulus to create a memorable theatrical experience called Dear Everything which I wrote a bit about last week but got to see again last night in Atlanta.

It was just what I needed after the pressures and stresses of NY climate week to return to Atlanta where Dear Everything launched a multi-city national tour. With a rousing rock musical score, a narrative that captures the challenges of today with a story of youth resisting the easy answers to ‘sell out’ the future and reclaiming their community. There are so many songs in this totally captivating performance that each could become a movement anthem, and given audience response each time I’ve seen this awesome cast win hearts and open minds, I predict that these lyrics and this song could be the new Anthem for a youth led movement. A youth led movement to resist the challenges of NOW that continue extraction and exploitation of our resources and the opportunity to stand up and take action for a better tomorrow.

“We want you to panic! We want you to Act. You stole our future and we want it back!”

Dear Everything has three more cities on this national tour: Miami, Los Angeles, and Salt Lake City. Check out listings and information if you live in those cities and watch for other future opportunities.

Many of us now need to get some sleep and more of that self care i wrote about (but have challenges living my own advice), and then we return to the front lines to continue what Christiana Figueres calls “radical optimism”; what Project Dandelion co-founder Mary Robinson calls “radical collaboration” and what I will call for now, a “radical solidarity” based on a new “remembering” as my friend, Tom Blue Wolf, Founder and Director of EarthKeepers, writes in his new important book The Great Remembering that “the earth is a living being, to honor the power of our words and to awaken the deep knowing that we are not separate from creation–we are part of its song”.

Onward to more singing and resisting and regenerating, together!

- Pat

Everyone has a Story and some stories change everything!

Dear Friends,

As many of you know, the world lost a great believer in the power of storytelling this week–an artist/actor/visionary named Robert Redford. As some of you may know, he was also a beloved friend of 30 plus years. His friendship is a gift I cherish and hold closer in this time of grieving the loss of his light in the world.

At some point later, I will share my reflections on this extraordinary man and the enormous impact he had on the lives of all who met him or worked with him and especially the many thousands of other storytellers whose stories were nurtured through the Sundance Institute’s artists programs or screened at the Sundance Film Festival. I’ve had the privilege of witnessing as a trustee of the Sundance Institute for three decades the impact of his vision which was to create new opportunities for discovery and support for the stories not being seen or told because, as he said often, “storytellers broaden our minds: engage, provoke, inspire and ultimately connect us”

I’m going to honor his legacy and the deep roots of our connection by uplifting some stories that I believe embody that promise. Whether spoken from a stage, illuminated on a screen, or performed through music and dance, in every form, stories can create the emotional connections that remind us of our shared humanity. They shape what we believe is possible, and they have always been at the heart of movements for justice.

Whether it’s a documentary that reveals truths we can’t ignore, a performance on stage that stirs us to tears, or a song that lingers in our hearts long after the last note—stories awaken us. They move us to compassion and when compassion takes hold, action follows. That is the transformative power of stories well told.

Let me share one of my stories as a filmmaker and storyteller myself, fortunate enough to have worked alongside Redford on a six hour documentary series on America’s indigenous communities which was titled “The Native Americans”.

It had been Ted Turner’s original idea to document the untold and unknown stories from the history of many of the indigenous nations who lived and thrived on this land before there it was called the United States. Redford insisted that all those stories be written, directed, and produced by indigenous storytellers, many of whom had been supported, mentored, uplifted through the Native Voices labs at the Sundance Institute, a program that continues to offer opportunities for indigenous storytellers from around the world.

Working with Bob (and yes, his friends do call him Bob and it’s hard not to do so here) on this series, was my mentorship on the importance of proximate storytellers, of finding and elevating the stories closest to the challenges. That series was broadcast on Turner cable networks, but has never been shown again after Turner Broadcasting was bought by TimeWarner. You can find it online on various film sites.

I am forever grateful for the experience which taught me more about trust, about authenticity, about allowing stories and storytellers to find their way, and watching Redford do this was a master class in shaping stories for greatest impact.

Recently, when the Helen Gurley Brown Foundation  gave me the opportunity to support indigenous storytellers, I took this grant to the Redford Center, another organization Bob and his son, Jamie, founded to support stories and storytellers focused on environment. We identified four indigenous frontline leaders of solutions to the nature and climate challenges in their communities. These are not easy stories to tell and the storytellers are not professional filmmakers, but the stories they tell have the power of up close and personal witness. These are kinds of stories seldom seen by large numbers of people as the media companies and streaming services aren’t convinced audiences will appreciate their authenticity or their power to engage and inspire. I believe they are powerful stories of resilience and perseverance and of individuals trying to make a difference. Small actions but big differences. And they are authentic storytellers who are, themselves, part of the stories they tell. I’m truly excited to share that you can now see these films.

From September 15–28, you can watch these short films through The Redford

Center’s free virtual screening series, Films That Move.

And on September 26 at 11am PT / 2pm ET, join the filmmakers for a live conversation exploring Indigenous-led environmental solutions, their on-the-ground impact, and a collective call to action. Register here

Enraizados (Deeply Rooted) shares the story of Cherán, a P'urhépecha town in Mexico, rising against illegal logging to reclaim autonomy and revive their forests; offering a model of sustainable self-determination.

Nuraga Bhumi follows an all-Indigenous women patrol team in Sumatra, Indonesia, as they defend their forest and protect critically endangered tigers, showing the power of women-led stewardship.

Zag follows land defenders Zágbág and Isabela as they fight to save the endangered araucaria “Zag” trees—exploring the tension between tradition and modern pressures while honoring a community’s resilience.

Kanenon: we – Original Seeds follows Haudenosaunee women reconnecting with their ancestral seeds to safeguard them for future generations, weaving culture, resilience, and food sovereignty.

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These stories remind us that some of the most effective solutions to the climate crisis are already being practiced by communities deeply rooted in their lands. Shifting the stories we tell—and who we center in them—is essential, because stories shape our sense of what’s possible.

Project Dandelion, as faithful readers know, is the campaign I co founded with Mary Robinson, Ronda Carnegie and Hafsat Abiola, to elevate women-led solutions to a just transition from the current climate and nature crisis to a climate safe and livable world for all, is committed to amplifying these stories of what is already working.

I can’t talk about the power of storytelling without referencing V (formerly Eve Ensler) whose plays have quite literally shifted cultures in communities around the world, opened minds, changed policies, uplifted the frontline warriors ending gender based violence in their communities and even saved lives. “The Vagina Monologues” tells individual (but universal) stories and is compelling evidence of the power of stories to launch and sustain a global social justice movement. Now V has turned her award-winning skills as a storyteller/activist to create a new theatrical experience that will launch a youth led campaign to end the extractive practices that have been a major contributor the climate and nature crisis.

Dear Everything: A Musical Uprising for the Earth – Atlanta Premiere

On Thursday, September 25, Atlanta will host the one-night-only launch of Dear Everything at The Eastern.

This extraordinary new musical—created by V (formerly Eve Ensler) and Tony Award-winning director Diane Paulus, with music by Grammy nominee Justin Tranter—is more than a performance. It’s a movement. With riveting anthems, a youth choir, and stories of families navigating a rapidly changing world, Dear Everything channels righteous outrage into galvanizing hope. It’s one community’s story but as a story of young people finding their voice, their way to protest and to lead forward will inspire, engage, and hopefully activate the generation whose future is at risk.

Join us in Atlanta or in other cities around the country.

All these stories and more I will write about in weeks to come remind us that culture is a catalyst for change. Stories move us from despair to determination. They expand our sense of what’s possible.

Staying focused on what’s possible, even in challenging times. I sometimes seek solace and hope in poetry. One of my favorites is the Maya Angelou poem: “When Great Trees Fall”.

A great tree fell this week when Robert Redford passed from this world, and i am comforted by the words at the end of this great poem: “our senses, restored, never to be the same, whispers to us. They existed. They Existed. We can be. Be and be better. For they existed.”

The world is better because Robert Redford existed among us and created stories and empowered others to tell theirs. The invitation before us now is to let these stories and others open our hearts, fuel our resolve, and guide us toward a future where justice, care, and possibility flourish in everyone’s story.

Onward!

- Pat

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The Need for Rest and Restoration

Each September, New York becomes the epicenter of global dialogue on the climate and nature emergency. Leaders from around the world gather for the UN General Assembly (UNGA), and never has it been more urgent — and hopefully, more possible — to reach alignment on peace, security, good governance, and the shared responsibility of securing a climate safe world for all. This year, the UN convening, alongside Climate Week NYC (September 21–25), offers a chance to chart a path forward: one where cooperation, innovation, and collective courage can overcome fear and division.

Climate Week NYC, organized by the Climate Group, has grown into a truly global movement — London hosted one in June and Ethiopia will convene the Second African Climate Summit next week.These weeks provide space for leaders, scientists, policymakers, and activists to share knowledge, amplify solutions, and connect initiatives that might otherwise remain siloed.

In New York, with so many leaders in town, the city hums with urgency — and yes, somewhat ironically so, as fuel-burning cars create traffic jams transporting anti fossil fuel leaders to  meetings on clean transportation or people-centered urban design. Yet even these contradictions remind us why we gather: to imagine and implement a better, healthier, more sustainable way forward.

There are, of course, other challenges to consider this year. . .visa denials and airport detentions will likely discourage some of the very voices we most need — frontline leaders and communities of color — from traveling to the US. And yet, despite political headwinds and national policies that pull us backward, the innovations and technology are already within our reach; the tools to restore and regenerate our planet exist. What is needed more is the collective will — the public pressure that compels governments and businesses to end investments in extractive practices and shift to investments and support for renewable sources of energy and power.

Reuters reported just a few days ago that “yes, politics in the United States and elsewhere are challenging for climate action. But the companies and government with whom we work year round are navigating new realities. They need a place to discuss how that impacts them…. and their urgency to address climate action, and the energy transition has not slowed.”

Hafsat, Mary, Ronda and myself at the Project Dandelion reception in 2023. 

Project Dandelion will be on the ground in New York, joining hundreds of organizations committed to listening, learning, and collaborating. Together with our partners, we are committed to shine a light on one of the most powerful levers of change: women’s leadership. The evidence is clear — when women lead, whether in government, business, or climate organizations, the environmental policies are stronger, the communities are healthier, and the businesses are more sustainable. We will be convening an important cohort of women leaders on Sunday with The Rockefeller Foundation, putting forward the provocation to explore what becomes possible when ancestral wisdom meets intergenerational imagination and when feminist leadership lights the path forward.

If you are in New York for Climate Week, we are hosting something a little different, Dandelions in the Field on Monday September 22 from 12:00-3:00pm at the Bryant Park Center Lawn.

Think of it as a pause in the middle of the whirlwind that is Climate Week. Bring your lunch, grab a flag, and come meet the Dandelion team. We’ll step out of the noise together, if only for a little while, to breathe, to connect, and to remember why we do this work.

In my experience, it’s in these quieter moments — when we allow ourselves to rest and gather strength — that we find the courage and creativity to keep going. The more urgent the crisis, the more essential our pause to activate the solidarity that a connected community requires.

Experience has shown us that the more urgent the crisis, the more exhausted leaders — especially women — can become. After all, women activists/advocates/leaders are almost always also carrying the responsibilities of family and home, as they are also the ones that show up in every room, try to hold every line, and in most communities and in a substantial majority of nature and climate organizations, design strategies for a more sustainable future while coping with a lack of a strategy to sustain our own resilience. The urgency of Climate Week highlights the very reason why spaces of rest and regeneration are not indulgences, but necessities especially since the health impacts from a changing climate are also felt disproportionately by women everywhere.

As my co-founder and Project Dandelion Executive Director Ronda Carnegie recently wrote, “The climate crisis is reshaping global health, and women are on the frontlines of both impact and innovation. As extreme heat, disease patterns, and food insecurity escalate, women’s health and livelihoods are disproportionately at risk. At the same time, women are delivering care, innovating delivery models, and quietly reengineering community-based systems. Their contributions are catalytic.”

A study from the NIH further backs up Ronda’s words, finding that “it is crucial to develop programs aimed at mitigating climate related health risks for women. Their well-being is inseparable from the well being of the planet, and leadership is essential to any just and sustainable future.”

In response, Project Dandelion is launching a Health-Resilient Advisory Council. By bringing together health leaders, we will assess where to focus our health related campaigns and initiatives to best determine how Project Dandelion can support the work of our partner organizations who are effectively engaged in addressing the challenges of health-related impacts and the need to strengthen climate resilient initiatives everywhere.  

Becoming more resilient and more prepared for these intersectional challenges requires us to shift our thinking about rest, restoration, and regenerative practices for ourselves as well as for the planet. In a world that too often equates worth with productivity — and in activist spaces that can sometimes mimic the urgency of the systems we’re trying to dismantle — rest becomes more than self-care. It becomes political. Especially for women. Especially for those of us who have been conditioned to believe that we must earn our right to pause and rest, for some personal attention to the subject of resilience and restoration for body and spirit.

One opportunity came to us to do just that when invited to help curate the first Women in Sustainability Week at Rancho La Puerta.

With the permission of founder and owner Sarah Livia Brightwood Szekely, and her 103-year-old mother, Deborah, who still engages Rancho guests every week in conversation, I’m sharing this information and invitation in case there are others among you, reading this now, (open to all genders) who may feel the need for this kind of restorative week and who can take advantage of the special opportunity. Very few spaces remain, but in the spirit of sharing something we all need — opportunities for rest and restoration — I feel fortunate to extend the invitation to join us in a beautiful natural environment in northern Mexico‘s Sierra Madre mountains just 15 minutes from San Diego.

Mother Nature models why this matters. There is power in a pause. Seasons shift. Trees go bare. Soil is regenerated by time without seeding, so why shouldn’t we? At Project Dandelion, we believe the answers to our biggest planetary crises will come not only from bold policies and breakthrough technologies, but from cultural shifts — especially those that center care, community, compassion, and the leadership of women.

We know that women are driving climate solutions around the globe. We also know too many of them are running on empty. And if we are serious about changing the world, we must be serious about protecting the well-being of those doing the work. That means building movements that value care as much as courage. That means reclaiming rest — not as a luxury, but as a necessity.

This is one of the core truths we’re bringing into the work of Project Dandelion — that a regenerative world must begin with regenerative people as well as practices. We cannot build sustainable systems on unsustainable lives.

Onward!

- Pat

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