I cannot tell a lie. When Terry Tamminen, the fearless leader of Seventh Generation Advisors, my boss, and a hero of mine both professionally and personally, told me he would not be able to attend COP15 I was devastated.
I was worried for the people that would be disappointed not to see him in Copenhagen and I was nervous because that meant my colleague Kris and I would have to fill his large shoes and represent our organization during the state and regional climate policy briefings.
Kris my colleague did an outstanding job. With grace and intelligence, she informed the audience of our mission and the mechanisms we would use to reach our goals. It was a great comfort to me to know she could handle this challenge so well.
Kris left today.
Now I had nobody to explore the side streets of Copenhagen with. Now I was here without our fearless leader and without my capable colleague. Tom Peterson turned the table over to me just moments after the briefing had begun. Twenty-five pairs of eyes turned to me. That’s fifty eyes all together. That’s a lot of eyes. I decided to take Terry’s advice and stay away from statistics and science and instead opened with something personal. I referred back to the idea I discussed in my blog yesterday. (How the mass confusion of COP15 was actually a lesson as to why individuals, localities, states and regions need to take matters into our own hands and not sit back and wait for a UN deal).
It was nerve racking at first. But, after a few moments I saw some nods of agreement in the audience and I was encouraged to continue. When I was finished, I sat back down and a gentleman seated behind me tapped me on the shoulder and said, “I absolutely agree, very well said”. Later in the evening, a female panelist came up to me and said that it was a relief to have another woman speak during the briefing.
Right on!
So, on this second to last day of COP15, I am grateful to have had the opportunity to speak on behalf of Seventh Generation Advisors. And I am truly fortunate to have to have such wonderful role models to inspire me. Thank you.