Fuel for the Winter

AS THIS ISSUE was heading to the printer, COP27, the latest United Nations climate conference, wrapped up in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, with a historic deal to set up a “loss and damage” fund to help developing countries pay for the rising costs of climate disruptions. At a summit that offered little else of note, this agreement — approved without an opposing vote — offered a ray of hope. Climate-vulnerable countries have been campaigning for such a fund for three decades. (The proposal was first raised by Vanuatu at the 1992 Rio Earth Summit.) This time, 134 developing nations, known as the G77 group, and China, stood united in their demand for the overdue fund, despite opposition by some rich nations that don’t want to pay for the impact of their emissions on poorer nations.

There was plenty to be disappointed in at the talks: failed commitments, failed fossil fuel cuts, watered down carbon-market regulations. And holding global warming to the 1.5 degrees Celsius, the target agreed upon in the 2015 Paris Agreement, appears further out of reach. But the creation of a loss and damage fund, a justice issue bitterly contested for years and even derailed in past conferences, shows a path forward, one based on collective action by those people who are directly affected.

As Assad Rehman, director of the climate and social justice group War on Want, noted on Twitter: “Ultimately the COP is a contested space between those with power & those without. Our strategies as movements must be about building power — inside & outside of the process.”

These words have me thinking: So much of the work we do here at the Journal, the stories we choose to tell, is about amplifying efforts to build power by communities of people around the world. Honestly, that’s what inspires our small team to keep at it every day.

Take the features in this issue, for instance. “Resisting the Spread” follows a group of young farmers and activists who have pushed back against the growing threat of hazelnut monocultures; “A New Job for Older Forests” is about veteran environmentalists girding up to save their beloved Shawnee National Forest yet again, this time to create the nation’s first climate preserve; and “The Bucks Stop Here” about a deer-control effort on Staten Island, underscores how years of animal rights advocacy is forcing conservationists to consider more humane alternatives to culling.

Many of these efforts might seem small, or localized, but they are all connected to the larger goal of ensuring the thriving of all life on Earth. Which is why reporting about them (and supporting them) is important. To borrow from Doug Bierend’s words on fungi networkers, we all need to be “purposefully cultivating social connections and spreading ideas through communities of practice and cultures of exchange.” Because ideas, community, and connection fuel change, and, as Journal associate editor Brian Calvert points out in our cover story, they also fuel joy.

I hope you’ll find such fuel in this Winter Issue.