The global youth response to the climate crisis

Intro, Layal: Hello everyone and welcome to the Nonviolence Now Podcast, brought to you by Pace e Bene, where we explore the principles of nonviolence, where it all started, and how it shows up in today’s digital world.

Alisha: Welcome to today’s episode on climate justice and youth, which is a very exciting topic for myself because that’s how I got into the movement myself. Layal, would you like to introduce our lovely guest on today’s episode?

Layal: Hi everyone! It’s so good to be back. Bianca, it’s even greater to have you with us on this platform. It’s so good to see you again. Let’s unleash this amazing episode with your amazing expertise. Bianca Castro is a Portuguese actress and climate justice activist. She began her climate activism in early 2019 with the Fridays for Future movement, having organized the first ever student climate strike in Lisbon, and is currently the Deputy Program Leader of Roots. Bianca has over five years of experience in both the grassroots climate movement and UNFCCC processes, being a delegate at the UN Climate Conferences since 2019. Additionally, Bianca is an environmental columnist for a national newspaper, a guest author for several publications, and was one of the voices of the National Radio Podcast where she analyzes and debated national and international policies. Bianca’s work is centered on climate justice, working with frontline communities and youth, and holding companies and governments accountable. Bianca, how are you doing today?

Bianca: Hello! Thank you so much for having me. I’m really excited to be here speaking about this, and it’s so good to see you, Layal, again.

Layal: I’d like to start off right before we kick into the topic, let’s talk a bit about how we met and let’s maybe share a few thoughts or memories, whatever comes to your mind with regards to the climate justice camp. What comes to your mind?

Bianca: I think actually one of my favorite memories from the camp in Lebanon where we met was actually how you taught everyone in the plenary to dance dabke. And I think that was one of my favorite moments of the entire camp. And I sometimes I go back and I watch photos and videos of that camp, and it’s just one of the moments that I think we all had the most fun in. And I think it kind of also just describes the overall vibe of that week.

Layal: We had 500 people learn the dabke all at once! It really was a moment of unity, it was a moment filled with happiness, and yeah, it definitely is one of the first things that come to my mind. Tell me more, who is Bianca deep down and what drives Bianca to move forward right before we kick into the content and the material of today’s episode.

Bianca: Oh, that’s a very difficult question, a good one though. I’ve been asked a few times why I started doing activism, and I never really understood why myself. I usually just kind of would say, “You know I’ve always kind of been interested in these sort of things, I was always into politics and into being somewhat active in these things, and then when I saw the opportunity I just knew I wanted to do it.” But I didn’t really realize why, and so I’ve been reflecting on it. And I think I finally have a background story about it that I didn’t realize maybe was one of the things that were fueling what I wanted to do.

But when I was a kid I grew up in the countryside in the south of Portugal. It was really beautiful. I love my hometown so much and I really miss it. And my parents, our dog, and I, we would go on these big walks through the forest, and from one of our windows I had a view of a hill that was so beautiful and full of different kinds of trees. But I remember one day all of a sudden those trees were cut down and replaced by rows and rows of eucalyptus, which were planted way too close together. At the time I did not know, but now I know, that it was due to how profitable they are, especially for Portugal’s paper industry.

At the same time I saw that summer after summer, wildfires were getting worse and I was always a little scared that one would get too close to our house. But I didn’t realize back then that I was actually just witnessing the climate crisis right in front of me and getting worse and worse and being driven by those putting profit over the planet. And so a few years later I moved to Lisbon to start studying, and everything changed. So that was a little bit of the beginning of my activism journey in early 2019. And when we organized the first climate strike in Lisbon, and I remember that we were all thinking, “If 500 people show up, it’s going to be huge, it’s going to be amazing.” And then all of a sudden we had over 15,000 in front of us, and we were like, “Whoa, what do we do with this?” But it was absolutely incredible and I didn’t realize until years later how much that day became a turning point in my life. Turns out for the past five years since then, I’ve pretty much dedicated my life to the movement.

Alisha: I really appreciate that story from when you were little, seeing all these things happen around you, these fires, these plantations of trees for the paper industry. And to segue into our next point, this is a podcast about nonviolence. There’s almost a question of, “Okay, why are we talking about the climate crisis on a nonviolence podcast?” When you were seeing those things happen outside your window, it’s not like anybody was necessarily doing violence to you. Or one day the trees just aren’t there, and there’s different trees planted. There’s a fire, nobody like set it in order to be violent to somebody else. Why do we speak about the climate crisis as a form of violence? It all just seems like it’s kind of happening around us. Who’s doing it to who? With that as a preface, what would you say is the root cause of the climate crisis? And does that have anything to do with why we’re calling it a form of violence?

Bianca: Absolutely. I mean, the climate crisis goes way back to the Industrial Revolution, so when we first started burning massive amounts of coal, oil, and later on natural gas. The thing is that since then, our society and our economy have been set up around this model of continuous production and endless economic growth. And this model was initially imposed by major world powers, especially in the West, and has mostly depended on extracting wealth and natural resources from regions mostly in the global south. The concept of climate justice in itself, and I will get a bit more into it later on, but it emphasizes that there are historical contributors to this crisis that have emitted the majority of greenhouse gases while countries in the global south and the countries that have contributed the least actually bear the brunt of it’s consequences.

And these consequences are violent, right? We see floods, we see wildfires, we see people dying in floods at the same time as people are also dying of thirst. And we see communities being displaced in order for the fossil fuel industry to expand its business. We see people losing their livelihoods and their lives. So it’s a very violent crisis. And I have learned more and more about the concept of climate justice since 2019, since getting into the movement, and in a nutshell, it understands climate change has a complex political issue of social justice. So when we talk about climate change, we often talk about numbers, projections, degrees. But the reality is that climate change is about people, and it’s about the right to water, to housing, to health. It’s about racial justice, gender justice, labor rights, and above everything it’s about human rights. So it’s a reminder that no form of justice can truly exist until there’s justice for everyone.

Another thing important to remind us all is also that while climate change effects everyone, the majority of its emissions actually trace back to about 100 companies, which I find crazy to think about. And it just makes it clearer that accountability in the climate crisis isn’t spread evenly at all. It’s deeply tied to historical power dynamics and to actions of a few major players, even though the people that end up facing the worst consequences of it are the ones that really didn’t contribute towards it.

Science tells us that we need to cut 50% of greenhouse gas global emissions by 2030, and this is a number that a lot of us have heard. But not doing it means destroying the physical conditions that have allowed human civilization the way that we know it now, and it means closing our eyes to climate injustice. And I talk about climate injustice because the climate crisis truly is a handover of colonialism and of exploitation, and it puts the ones that have the least contributed to it at the very front line. We can’t forget that climate justice is social justice for all of these reasons, and that the global north has to own up to it, its historical ecological debt.

That’s also why, when we talk about climate justice, and that’s why everytime I talk about my activism, I say that it’s climate justice activism. And I really wanna emphasize the word justice in it because it is, it means that we need solutions that will not only reduce emissions but that are gonna be inclusive and contribute at every level to a just world. It’s not only about reducing emissions if it’s not in a fair way. It has to include issues like energy poverty, like racism, like housing, and perhaps most of all, peace. So all of these struggles are part of the fight for climate justice, and climate justice will not be achieved without all of these other ones as well.

Layal: I don’t think there could have been any better way for the definition of it and for your perspective to be put into words, so thank you so much for translating it in that way. And I think it’s really important to emphasize this idea that nonviolence is not just about renouncing it, but it’s more about confronting it and stopping it. So yes, this is a climate justice issue, but as well it is a social justice issue, it’s a human rights issue, it’s a racial issue, it’s a gender issue. With that, I’d really like to know and hear from you about the different strategies that you’ve used during the nonviolent direct action campaign that you’re a part of.

Bianca: Since 2019, I’ve been part of a lot of campaigns and I’ve had the pleasure of getting to know different parts of the movement. Something that I really like to talk about is actually what I call the movement ecology, because I see the climate justice movement has a live ecosystem where each player has a very specific role but it all fits together and it’s all necessary for this ecosystem to continue existing. I see now that youth activists are using everything from grassroots protests to climate litigation to policy advocacy, nonviolent direct action and everything is so important and fits into each other.

And I started off, well, with the climate strike. So we would strike on Fridays, every Friday, and then I moved on to also being part of nonviolent direct actions, or sometimes we call it civil disobedience, where it truly is about—I don’t know if it translates well to English, but in Portuguese we would say “Dar o corpo ao manifesto” which means “giving our body to the manifest, to the cause.” So a lot of the times we are using ourselves, we are using our body to block something from happening. And I think it’s a very powerful tool. But it’s also dangerous to put yourself in that position, so you really gotta believe in what you are doing. And at the same time you are trusting people around you to not hurt you because you are putting yourself in a vulnerable position in order to fight for something that you truly believe in. So I think it’s something very powerful to do, but that you also need to be very mindful of, because it is a privilege to be able to do these sort of protests. And I do believe that, especially doing activism in the Portuguese context, in Europe where we’re very privileged to be able to do a lot of sorts of actions and I do believe that if I had the privilege to be able to do them then I feel a duty to be able to do it, to do everything in my power to speak about this crisis and to make it stop.

I do have an example about a nonviolent direct action that I was part of. And it was part of a bigger campaign. But basically in 2015, Portugal had 15 contracts lined up for fossil fuel exploration and extraction, both on land and offshore. Over the years, despite government pushback and multiple failed attempts in parliament to cancel these projects, there was a powerful grassroots movement growing and that was pushing back against the fossil fuel industry. And after very long struggle, the last two remaining contracts that we still had by 2020 were finally abandoned. And a big turning point for this was actually a nonviolent direct action climate camp that we held, and it was the first of its kind happening in the country, where local groups, national organizations, and even international activists united to resist the fossil/gas drilling in this region, which was in central Portugal. And just one year after the camp, the company that was planning to drill there was actually dropping the fossil/gas exploration plans.

And so this victory was won through mass protests, climate strikes, dedicated local campaigning across the country. But I think the major game changer was the direct action where people used their bodies to protect the land and to stop the destruction from happening directly. And all this collective effort ultimately forced the companies to leave. So it was a win done by activism and public pressure, and we managed to get the 15 projects shutdown. Though obviously we knew, and we still know, that the fight for a fossil-free Portugal, unfortunately, is not over. So one of our ongoing demands is still a total ban on any new fossil fuel projects in the country. But this is an example that truly showed us that activism does work. And on a personal note it was also so beautiful to see that the local population joined. So we would have, for example, older ladies in the front line of a march holding the banners saying that they would not let the company go their and destroy their lives, destroy their houses. And it was really beautiful to see activists from all over Europe come and get together with this community that lived there all their lives and that obviously wanted to defend their land the way that they could as well.

Alisha: That’s really cool. So you’re just like putting your body on the line, and with these community members. On kind of a different note, I’ve heard that you also do policy analysis and financing for social movements. So we’re transferring from like putting your body on the line in front of like some big machine to policy analyzing and finance. If I was hearing that from anybody else, I’d think that maybe, yo, that’s a pretty boring person, but knowing you, I bet this is probably something a bit unorthodox. So could you tell us more about that side of things and why are these two things both a form of climate justice activism?

Bianca: I think that’s the beauty of being a climate activist. One day you’re blocking a road, and the other one you’re analyzing policy, and it’s all part of it. I think like I said, I mean, it’s an ecosystem, so not everyone needs to do every part of the work. Not everyone needs to want to have meetings with ministers, and not everyone has to be willing to put their body on the line, and that’s why there’s a role for everyone in the movement, and I think that’s why it is so beautiful also.

But I do think—I’m a bit of a policy nerd, also. It is quite boring for a lot of people, I gotta say. For me, it’s quite exciting. I’ve always loved analyzing policies. And when I was like 14 I would be part of this project in my school which was called a youth parliament where I had to come up with demands to improve the educational system. So I’ve always loved these sort of things.

But I think that one thing that I’ve been noticing in the movement as a whole, and I also notice it in myself, is that a lot of us that create these demands and do these protests and do put our bodies on the line, we are also becoming policy experts. So it’s not only that we can be noisy on the streets. We also know what we’re talking about. So we are being noisy, we are taking to the streets, we are getting the population together to demand these changes to happen. But that’s the point—we know what needs to happen. And we even know how, sometimes.

So for example, there’s even this campaign, we talk a lot about jobs transition, obviously, also here in Portugal. And we talk about creating green jobs and how, you know, to dismantle the fossil fuel industry, millions of jobs will be created in the new green industry, and how there needs to be a requalification of workers, and all these things that have to do with labor justice. And we have a campaign called The Climate Jobs. It’s a global campaign and we have a chapter here. And it says, very clearly, what needs to happen for this to be a reality, and it even says where to find the money for it, because a big argument from policymakers sometimes is that there’s no money for it or like it will ruin the economy, which we know is a lie, actually, both on a local level and on a global level. When we talk about international negotiations, so for example climate finance, which is a big topic right now, we know where this money can come from. It can come from the fossil fuel industry that is destroying it, that is destroying us, it can actually come from there and pay the ecological debt from the north to the south, but also pay for jobs transition everywhere.

So we know these things, and I think that’s a beautiful duality that climate activists get to have. Where we know how to organize a protest and mobilize, but we also know how to analyze the policies that need to be done. It’s something that I think sometimes can be quite scary, because a lot of people had to learn it by themselves. I remember that the first COP that I attended was the UN Climate Conference in 2018, and I was 18 years old. And I remember meeting activists who were like 15, 16, and they already knew so much, and the way that they would speak about it, it was both impressive and scary because you’re not supposed to be able to speak like that about these important subjects at such a young age. And it’s a bit sad that we had to, but I find it also very impressive, how we were able to grow alongside the movement, and to evolve alongside it as well.

And I also find it really powerful how now, for example, there’s so many climate litigation cases happening, which is something that we maybe weren’t that used to seeing anymore, and now it’s a powerful tool that the movement also has. So I think it’s a bit of the ecosystem working its way.

Layal: Part of what you said, 15-16 year olds would talk about things and you’d look at them and be like, “How on earth did you manage to learn these things? Where? With what time? With what mind? You actually, you’re a teenager and you’re doing that, that’s crazy!” And I think that’s also a huge role that digital media plays today and our role and responsibility as activists in terms disseminating this kind of information, of transforming these social media platforms into accessible educational platforms, to educate people and to raise awareness about these specific issues. That yes, these issues do not only exist, but there are ways to tackle them and these are the spaces granted for you. I’m gonna take this idea and plug it into what you have been able to do with Roots and Greenpeace and what I was very fortunate to be part of as well with the climate justice camp. I really want you to talk about Roots. I want you to talk about your story with how you guys decided to come up with the climate justice camp, the idea of the camp, and what it offers, and let’s look and explore the outcomes right afterward.

Bianca: I joined Roots in 2022, fresh out of the movement. Well, I’m still in the movement, but you know. But I joined in 2022 and we are a global program centered on climate justice. We mostly work with frontline communities and with youth to build local power. What this looks like in practice is basically a range of offerings from workshops on organizing, on wellbeing and resilience, creative storytelling, but also tackling climate disinformation. It also looks like building networks and hosting events that connect intersectional communities across borders and issues and also providing funds and grants and resources to support promising youth-led climate justice initiatives.

One of the biggest projects that we have been working on is that we are one of the main partners of the Climate Justice Camp platform, which is basically a platform that brings together groups and individuals from mostly the global south to cocreate, collaborate, and share knowledge, stories, and skills. It is designed truly by organizers and for organizers. And each year it brings together hundreds of young organizers, advocates, and leaders from communities on the front lines of climate change. And the first camp happened in Tunisia in 2022, and then it was followed by the camp in Lebanon where Layal and I met in 2023. Then we had a regional edition in the Caribbean for Caribbean participants in 2024 and very recently, I actually just got home a few weeks ago, from the third global camp which happened in Tanzania. Since 2022, it’s kinda crazy but more than 1,000 young people from over 100 climate-vulnerable countries have come together at these camps, and later went onto influence policy, create new organizations, and win campaigns.

And the way this all started was actually that me and the entire Roots team, we were meeting in 2022, I think it was in April, and we were meeting actually in Lisbon for an annual team retreat. We were brainstorming, we had this flip chart in front of us, and we were kind of just doing one of those exercises, you know, brainstorming things that we could do in the future. And we were talking about trainings, we were talking about workshops, we were talking about how to fund initiatives, different sort of things. And someone said, “Hey, what if we create an event where all of this happens within one week? We can just put together all of these factors and make it happen in the same place, like in a camp.”

We honestly thought it was a bit crazy, but we did make it happen in Tunisia, only like 4-5 months later it was happening, which was insane. But it started all of this, and it’s absolutely incredible.

Layal: It’s exceptional because from such an idea you guys have done all these camps and now we have the camps that are yet to come. So for our listeners that would be interested in joining, when would be the right timing for them to apply for 2025’s climate justice camp? Which, if I’m not mistaken, is taking place in Brazil. I think it would be great to let our listeners know and take good notes on your different social media platforms, when and where to apply, and how the process works.

Bianca: Amazing! Yes, it’s gonna be in Brazil. I’m so excited. It doesn’t have a date yet, but basically people just need to keep an eye on our social media. So we have an Instagram called “Climate Justice Camp,” @climatejusticecamp, and also a website under the same link, climatejusticecamp.com. And then also Roots social media are just roots.people on Instagram and we have a website which is poweredbyroots.org so all of our information will be there. And I think it’s so exciting that we’re going to Brazil. I’m really happy. Also because I’ll be able to speak Portuguese.

Layal: That’s absolutely amazing! There’s one thing that took place in the Climate Justice Camp, if I’m not mistaken it takes place in every Climate Justice Camp but I’m going to talk for the Lebanese camp because I was there. We hosted the live-brary event where it was a space for activists to share their story in the form of a book. So they would narrate their story, and whoever would be interested, there would be a teaser about every activist, what their story is, and people would just come and join. So you had these very cozy, serene places to just sit around lanterns and share your story, to have activists from around the world listen to you and ask you questions. It was really beautiful because during the day we would have workshops with trainers and facilitators who are partners that came for free to give in their expertise.

So I remember even when we were trying to make partnerships with other organizations for the Lebanon camp it was mostly dealing with people from the Middle East. And we had various organizations giving different things, and everyone had such a positive attitude towards wanting to tell the world what it is that they know. One part of the day was all about these different tracks based on the kind of causes that you’re advocating for, that you’re working on, the skillset that you need to develop for yourself, and during the night if it was not the human library, we would have these cultural fashion shows. We would have these different events that would really highlight and amplify the voices, not just of the international community or the global south, I’m sorry, but can we talk about the tribes?

We had tribes in the climate justice camp! We had tribes that made it to Lebanon! That was crazy for me, and there was a whole chant and dance that took place. It fills my heart and gives me goosebumps whenever I think about it. You are bringing all of these people together and this is not something worth missing. So if you’re listening to this, make sure you follow Roots, you follow the Climate Justice Camp, on their social media platforms, @climatejusticecamp, @roots.people, and they will be posting about the camps date and the application dates. Be there if you are really involved and really interested in these issues because it really is a life-changing experience. And if you’re an organization that would like to partner up with them, also go on their website. There’s a place for you that should be able to contact them and most likely Bianca will be the one to be in contact with you.

On that note, Bianca, I wanna really touch about something we didn’t really get the chance to talk about. Acting! Can you please tell me or now, first thing that would come to your mind, what acting means when thinking about nonviolence practitioners, social justice, what role did it play? I mean this was your professional dream, initially. This was what you wanted to do. Do you manage to incorporate acting, or do you use the skillset you took from acting school in your day to day life?

Bianca: I actually love this question. And by the way, I just want to say, I don’t want to skip everything that you said about the camp right away, I just want to thank you for your words because it just makes me so happy to hear it from someone else and I think it’s just so special and the moments that you touched on, especially the live-brary and the fashion show I think are some of the most beautiful moments I have each year, honestly, getting to experience that at the camps and I think it’s just so beautiful so I really appreciate it. Thank you so much.

But okay, onto acting. I love being able to talk a little bit about it, actually, because sometimes it’s a bit hard to balance between the activism that I’m doing and the climate justice work, which I wouldn’t exchange for anything in the world, but I do miss acting sometimes. And I’ve always had a lot of interests, so I was always very curious about science, politics, and art, and sometimes the climate justice movement was where I found that everything can be together and work together in a way. So I actually started out by studying music. I was a bit of an orchestra kid, but what I really wanted was to try out theater. When I moved to Lisbon in the end of 2018, it was to pursue acting and to start studying it and it just kind of everything came together by starting the movement at that point as well.

But for me, theater and acting in general is really just about—it’s such a powerful storytelling tool, so for me it’s really about telling stories and about honoring those whose stories we get to tell the world and how we’re telling these stories. You know, studying acting not only helped me boost my confidence and gave me public speaking skills but it made me learn so much about human nature as a whole. Cause it’s a lot about stepping into someone else’s shoes. But at the same time it also makes you learn so much about yourself. It makes you learn, you know, what drives your emotions, what makes you feel powerful, what makes you feel vulnerable and passionate and all of this is so valuable in activism. And I think one of the strongest connections that I see between acting and activism is really the importance of storytelling. Because both have storytelling at its core, and I think that whether on stage or in the climate movement, it’s about connecting to people on a deep human level and about making them feel part of something that is so much bigger than each of us.

And something that I have also been reflecting on is how performing can actually be everything that we do in activism. So a protest is also a performance, and when we go in a conference room we take on a role. So when we talk about putting our body on the line, we were talking about it earlier, in activism this is a lot like performing in theater as well. So it’s kind of like a scene on stage when we’re taking part in actions because we’re using our bodies as a statement and we’re trying to make people see and feel the urgency of what we’re fighting for, and in the end it’s about inviting others into the story of the world that we’re fighting for and the story that we are trying to tell, not only of—that we have to work on as a movement is that we shouldn’t only talk about the bad things, but also what this world that we’re trying to build can look like.

One of my favorite quotes is from bell hooks and she said, “The function of art is to do more than tell it like it is. It is to imagine what is possible.” And for me it’s truly about that. I think activism above all is also about daring to dream of a different and of a better world, and not being scared to imagine it but rather fight for it because it is possible.

Layal: That’s beautiful. I mean, yes, that’s the thing. Why do we have the tendency to always, we talked about it as well, pointing fingers. Why are we so good at pointing fingers, but not as good as saying things as they are and yet beyond saying things as they are, as we’ve also previously mentioned. Why not imagine together what the future could look like? What would the future look like if we don’t do anything about it? This we have. But what would the future look like if we did something about it? If we did care a bit more, if we decide to listen to each other? And I think these are the kind of spaces that, through the Climate Justice Camp, they’ve been enabled in a way to let people speak, especially people from the global south.

And you know this interference of having the global north sit down on the grass with the global south and have the global south dictate to the global north what their priorities are, where the importance lies, and the global north gives the skillset to the global south and the finances to see the implementation happen in action. I think this is an exemplary step that the world should be pushing for, you know, this transition of global north organizations, how are they treating the global south? If we look at the world, we’re in a global, international, humanitarian, and climate crisis. We’ve never reached the point in life where there are as many disasters happening at the same time.

So if we start to think, what could be one of the reasons? One of them is exactly that. People don’t listen. And so when people assume that they’re doing the right thing, it’s actually just leading to total distraction. So not listening leads to violence sometimes, you know. Greed leads to violence. So the best practice of nonviolence is, how do you share that story and how do you transition it from one continent to the other in a way that the world that we’re leaving today remains in tact? I don’t want to say better. If we manage to die and leave the world the same way we started our lives with, I think that’s a great thing, because already now it’s not ideal. But if we manage to maintain in terms of climate, it’s better than going backwards.

If you were to give us a technique in terms of storytelling, how would you pitch the story of the future of climate, the future of the world if your vision is to happen? What is your vision?

Bianca: Whoa. I’m not ready for this. I’ve been trying to practice this myself, and I actually saw a friend of mine do this at a session she held. Mitzy, she’s an activist from the Philippines, and she started by asking people, I think it was a very happy moment in their life, or something that when it happens they’re just very happy. And once they reply, she goes, “That’s what climate justice is, that’s what it feels like: that moment of your day where you felt so happy, that’s what a climate just world would feel like.”

I’m getting goosebumps just saying that. But I think it is a lot about making people think about these moments where they just feel included, they feel safe. And how it is possible that we build a world where that’s the norm. And I think that, for example, at the Climate Justice Camps, moments like the climate justice runway where everyone is celebrating their different cultures and it’s so beautiful and everyone is just full of joy. That’s the world that we’re trying to build. It’s moments like these where we’re not afraid of just feeling joy with each other. And we’re just sharing and having a good time together, and that’s what I want our world to be most of all.

Layal: Thank you for sharing. Alisha, is there anything you’d like to say before we wrap up today’s conversation?

Alisha: I’ve just sort of been thinking about the connecting threads through this whole conversation. And something I really appreciate about you, Bianca, is your use of the word ecosystem for not just the biological ecosystem, but on also an individual level and on kind of like a community activism level where just one person, they’re not just one thing they’re not just a policy analyst, they’re not just an actor, they’re not just, you know, somebody who’s putting their body on the line or being loud on the street. They’re all of those things, and all of those components kind of come together to make the ecosystem of one person. And then you kind of have the ecosystem of the climate justice movement itself, where we can’t separate what the global north and the global south has. They have to come together and they have to figure out how to—the world isn’t split up in that way. The world is one, and we need to actually sort of recognize and act as if it is. And these kind of different skillsets, these different movements and things that seem very different in terms of who might be attracted to them or what they’re doing, but actually they are kind of reaching out with their hands as one, reaching for the same goal. And the fact that the personal and the communal ecosystem is what can protect our biological ecosystems I think is very poetic. So yeah, I just really appreciated you kind of bringing that perspective to us today, Bianca.

Layal: With that said, I’m gonna leave our listeners to make sure that they follow the Climate Justice Camp, to follow Roots People. This is not a camp that you would want to miss. This is not, if you’re an organization, this is not a camp that you would not want to be part of and partner up with. If you’re an activist, this is a camp that is unmissable. I wish you all the luck and all the best in everything that you do, Bianca. It’s been a pleasure having you on Pace e Bene’s platform. I hope to see you again soon enough.

Bianca, do you have any final thoughts, any last words, that you would like to give to our listeners, to us, or anything you’re just thinking of? How do you feel after this conversation?

Bianca: I honestly just wanna say a huge thank you for having me. I think this was an incredible conversation and I’m really happy to have been part of it.

Layal: Thank you for being here, and we’ll see you guys soon. Stay tuned!

Outro, Layal: Thank you for joining us on the Nonviolence Now Podcast. We hope today’s episode left you feeling inspired. If it did, don’t keep it to yourself—share it with your friends and community! Together let’s spread the word about the power of nonviolent action.