This is my second conversation with seth klein where we get an update on the Climate Emergency Unit and a suggestion on how the arts and culture sector can identify a shared vision and set of actions that constitute a true climate emergency agenda and how to create a joint campaign. This episode includes an excerpt from e41 rae, with Jen Rae, in response to e26 klein.
Seth Klein, October 2021, Vancouver
My first conversation with seth klein was on april 16, 2021 (see e26 klein – rallying through art). This follow-up conversation on November 2, 2021 (again once again at Trout Lake Park, Vancouver) looks at what has happened with the Climate Emergency Unit since then and includes a suggestion on how the arts and culture sector can identify a shared vision and a shared set of actions that constitute a true climate emergency agenda and how to create a joint campaign. We also talked about radical listening, the 85th anniversary of the CBC (founded 2 november 1936) and life as a climate emergency worker. This episode includes an excerpt from e41 rae, from Jen Rae, in response to e26 klein.
While I chose the ‘identifying a shared vision and a set of actions’ as an excerpt to promote this episode I also want to quote this passage from later on in our conversation, which touched me deeply. Thanks for this and all the work you do, Seth.
Claude
The theme of this season is radical listening. It's something I've been trying to do because I think radicality is necessary now, but also listening very carefully to the people around us and to knowledge that we might not have really understood in the past. I'm thinking about indigenous knowledge, but other types of knowledge. So that's, to me a bit of a contradiction, because if you're in an emergency mode, how can you slow down and listen? You can actually walk and talk at the same time. That's what we're doing right now.
Seth
You're right to name the tension and I actually I speak to that tension in the chapter on Indigenous Leadership in the book (A Good War) : the tension between trying to move at the speed of trust, which is often not very speeding, particularly when doing coalition work, and yet feeling the panic and the urgency of this moment. I remember Khelsilem in the book, a local indigenous leader from Squamish nation. When I asked him about that tension, he just said, just start. You know, and it has to be okay to make mistakes.
Seth Klein is a public policy researcher and writer based in Vancouver who served for 22 years as the founding director of the British Columbia office of the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA), Canada’s foremost social justice think tank. He is now a freelance policy consultant, speaker, researcher and writer, and author of A Good War: Mobilizing Canada for the Climate Emergency. Seth is also an adjunct professor with Simon Fraser University’s Urban Studies program and remains a research associate with the CCPA’s BC Office. For more information on Seth work, see https://www.sethklein.ca/ Note: there is a section on this web page about ‘Art and Music’ and http://www.climatechangetheatreaction.com/marcus-youssef-with-seth-klein that I recommend.