EarthX 2023
Happy Earth Day from Dallas!
Got to speak at EarthX alongside Annah Amani about falling in love with climate solutions and taking notes from environmental heroes in rural, climate vulnerable communities.
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“Rural communities in lower and middle income countries represent the most climate vulnerable. Of people around the world living in poverty, eight in ten people are rural. That means they have livelihoods that depend on agriculture, and climate change disrupts that.
These communities are vulnerable. And yet, it’s communities like these that have made me a climate optimist, that have shown me that it is possible to reverse the cycles that contribute to climate instability.”
Prayers for the Earth
“Your natural world is a playground
a classroom
an adventure
and a sanctuary.”
Those words say it best and remind me of my favorite moments on forests, farms, and waterways.
I’m not an environmental saint. I have an impact on this place I love, that I try to be aware of and to maybe even steer some of it in the direction of good. A healthy relationship with nature always leads to abundance and care.
Happy Earth Week.
Dr. Dodoy's Farm
Meet Dr. Dodoy, the doctor-turned-farmer, but also still-a-doctor who welcomed us on to his eco-farm in the Philippines. He greeted us with some goodies: cassava, coconut juice, and plantains… all of which were grown on his farm.
His crops are doing well. So is his fishery and his bees and his livestock. Other people have taken an interest in learning from what he does so he hopes to expand his farm into a training center. The farmers I’ve met around the world are the most generous people when it comes to sharing knowledge and things they’ve learned from experience about what works.
It’s why promoting things like soil conservation agriculture and tree intercropping among this population is so valuable. Wherever you have an ecosystem where the primary livelihood is agriculture, related knowledge can spread extremely quickly. Include some techniques and ideas that are good for the regenerative cycle, and watch it spread.
The Philippines' Climate Story
So there’s this gap…
I’m a climate storyteller whose told stories from a bunch of different countries. But up until this year, that hadn’t included the Philippines. A country where my ancestry is from that I’d been to a dozen or so times. I guess all those visits were a bit before my climate consciousness and storytelling work had really taken off.
But I wanted to fill in that gap. So many of my peers had told me incredible things about the Philippines’ ecology: from the incredible and unlikely rapid respawning of its baby coral to all the biodiversity found within its forests. Understanding traditional Filipino relationships with nature offers a whole other dimension as well.
It’s an incredible story, but also not a unilaterally happy one. Unfortunately the Philippines leads the world in the number of environmental activists killed every year. Climate hasn’t exactly been a top priority of recent administrations, and it is among the most climate vulnerable countries in the world.
My most recent visit featured time under water, time spent with farmers, and a hike up one of Visayas’ highest peaks. And I know I still have a TON to learn about all the storylines’ present in this country’s ecology, I’m happy to keep doing that catching up.
Take More Friend Trips
As friendships get a little older, you have to put more work into keeping them. Time and money and other commitments create so many constraints, it’s easy to go entire months without touching base with your favorite people.
When you do, it’s easy for the catch-up session to consist entirely of reliving old memories. And there’s nothing wrong with that! But I also want to keep forming new memories.
That’s why I’ve been loving being able to take more friend trips in recent years.Being in a new environment helps to set the stage for new memories to take form.
A Taste of Slower
My cousins dog had puppies just a week before we showed up, so naturally Rhys named them Kai & Juni.
We didn’t just come to the Philippines to run from one beach to another, cramming our days with seeing sights.
Don’t get me wrong, plenty of that happened.
But I wanted to have a sense for the place as a whole, and in order to get that, you need to go a little bit slower. Plan on doing everyday things.
I loved meeting my cousin’s newborn puppies. Navigating public transport to try and reload our wi-fi minutes. Getting a dentist visit.
Loved that taste of everyday life.
Life in Iloilo
We didn’t just come to the Philippines to run from one beach to another, cramming our days with seeing sights.
Don’t get me wrong, plenty of that happened.
But I wanted to have a sense for the place as a whole, and in order to get that, you need to go a little bit slower. Plan on doing everyday things.
I loved meeting my cousin’s newborn puppies. Navigating public transport to try and reload our wi-fi minutes. Getting a dentist visit.
Loved that taste of everyday life.
Diasporic Longing
The very first time I heard the term ‘diasporic longing,’ I knew right away what it meant.
It’s the itch for my kids to have their own sense of connection to the Philippines.
The way each visit to the islands feels like a reset.
The way mangroves and mango juice reminds you of your relationship with nature, and how you are not really all that separate from the rest of creation.
It’s the fact that the slower pace of life, the abundance mindset around time in the day, just feels right. It’s amazing how when you refuse to rush through everything, time feels less scarce.
Getting My Filipino Tattoo
My Filipino video tattoo has been one of my most watched pieces in a good while.
Of course I find Filipino tattoos really special, but it’s impressive to me how much tattoo art is present in so many cultures of the world and provides a really strong link to the past. I’ve come across some really cool traditions from Maōri, Hawaiian, pre-Islamic Pakistani cultures too, among many more.
If I had the means to put together a full fledged documentary exploring the art in its different forms around the world, this would be an incredible subject.
Daniel & Joy
One time I invited Daniel to watch a Korean movie but fell asleep five minutes into Secret Sunshine, leaving him to watch one of the most bleak and depressing films ever made all on his own.
This past weekend was basically the opposite of that memory, which did not make it into the best man speech.
Nostalgic for the Present
I usually find myself prone to nostalgia.
It just takes a few notes of a song from 2009 and suddenly it feels like I’m back in a dorm room, getting ready to go out for the night. The world feels like a hundred things to be discovered within each hour.
There’s definitely an unhealthy side to misplaced nostalgia, but I think I view it a bit more positively. It’s what happens when you throw together the seemingly incompatible ingredients of melancholy, loss, and gratitude.
It means I really appreciate what my life has been at one point.
It also makes me wonder if it’s even possible to cultivate a sense of nostalgia for the present. Sure, it probably wouldn’t even be called nostalgia anymore at that point. But to be able to bring that sense of romantic appreciation for the scenes of life that are currently unfolding… that sounds like a lovely thing.
Dinagyang Festival
What was it like to show up to my mom’s hometown, the city in the Philippines that I grew up visiting every few years, during its wildest celebration?
It’s kind of like having a cousin you saw from time to time growing up. All your memories are of playing hide and seek or driveway basketball, childhood good times. Then you connect with them as an adult and go out for a night and you realize, ah yeah. You go into party mode now.
Dinagyang
We arrived in Iloilo just in time for Dinagyang… the biggest celebration of the year. This one was even bigger, since the previous two had been cancelled.
Because of the time of year and the Catholic connections, it feels akin to Mardi Gras or Carnaval. But the items of celebration are actually Santo Niño (baby Jesus) and the sale of an island by the Aeta indigenous folk to Javanese migrants. Quirky mashup, but let’s party.
The celebration was felt from the moment our plane landed. Seriously, my kids were freaked out by the thundering drummers. All the hotels were fully booked and traffic into the heart of town was a trickle. To make things even more complicated, they shut off all cell signal and internet to prevent terrorist attacks. (I truly wonder if they stirred up more danger by cutting off communication, but who knows?)
Anyways, I didn’t just want to be inconvenienced by the festivities. I wanted to partake! Thanks to our friend TinTin’s jeepney navigation and crowd maneuvering skills, we secured a great spot to watch the parades and pageants. This is something I can say I’m glad to have seen!
A Few Alaska Favorites
Flashing back to some favorite Alaska sites.
🍕 Moose’s Tooth Pizza
☕️ Resurrect Art Cafe
🫙 203 Kombucha
The kombucha bar in Palmer, and the church-turned-coffee-shop in Seward are definitely on that list.
On top of that, we also got to eat at the fourth ranked pizza joint in the country. How one can eat at enough pizza spots to confidently make such a claim, I’m not sure, but that person is doing the Lord’s work. Sure enough, Moose’s Tooth served up some great slices and beer.
Iloilo Date Night
Tracked down sunsets and Vietnamese food in the Philippines cause date night is no skips.
Kayero Market
I’ve always been a believer that if you want to get to know the heart of everyday life in a community, head to the market. In a lot of places that means the grocery store or supermarket but in settings like rural Burundi, that’s also an open air market where goods are sold by the hands that planted them.
White Lotus Panglao
Did our stay in Bohol give some White Lotus vibes? Totally. But it also came with the best beer runs.
World Water Day Bangladesh
It’s #WorldWaterDay
There’s a big irony when it comes to island nations like the Philippines or low-lying coastal countries like Bangladesh. Water should be abundant, but because of the really high salinity, drinking water can still be scarce. Extremely high saline concentrations also makes the water less suitable for farming, which is a problem that climate change intensifies.
I loved these Water ATMs I found in Bangladesh, installed by the organization BEDS. Eco-villages can manage their own water-treatment facilities by using local knowledge, the nature-based solutions of Pond-and-Sand Filters, and technologies like solar power and reverse osmosis.
The introduction of the ATM system has made these services more widely available, connecting about 12,000 people with clean water. Water-borne illnesses are no longer a concern, and local women have more opportunities without having to spend hours collecting water.
Toddlers Without Borders
Toddlers without borders
I’m no expert, but within the past year, I’ve taken my toddler and twin babies to Guatemala, Alaska, Hawaii, and the Philippines.
Adjust your expectations 🏞️ Part of what makes or breaks an experience is how it compares to your expectations going into it, right? Well, expect traveling around with a kid to be different. In general, you’ll go slower and do less, and you’ll probably spend more time in your rental or in city parks. It’s not such a bad thing. Kids are naturally gifted at helping us relearn wonder and curiosity.
Match your ages with your places 🗾 There are many places that are high on my list because of hikes and nature… Nepal, Peru, for example. But they’re not happening anytime soon as family trips because two of my kids barely started walking! (Also, Peru almost had a coup a month ago, so there’s that.) On the flipside I bumped Guatemala up because of its proximity. Places I can anticipate being child-friendly… Japan, Costa Rica, Netherlands, might get a boost. Of course, that depends on what you come to do. There’s a side to Dutch tourism that isn’t kid friendly at all, of course.
Balconies are your bestie 🌆 My kids tap out around 7 PM. Unless we have a reliable sitter on the trip with us, that means we’re also done going out for the day at that time too. If it’s kind of a bummer not being able to interact more with your destination, the balcony will at least help you be more outside… and maybe you can grab a local wine or takeout or something. If space is an issue, you can talk at a normal volume, be a bit more integrated with the location, while still being responsible with your kids and all that.