John Foran

The winners of COP 26 were the indefatigable voices of civil society, whose actions were loud and clear:  on the final Friday, many, many organizations walked out of the COP in protest, reminded me of the walkout I witnessed and took part in at COP 19 in Warsaw in 2013.

Openness, imagination, creativity, solidarity, compassion, love, joy, humor, and much more should be the words we keep handy in our pockets, our hands, and our hearts.  Our heads will follow if we dedicate our lives to this.

This impulse toward activism is the sound of love when it roars–when it demands to be heard. The universal is deeply personal.

As scholars, activists, and teachers, we are compelled to ask: in what ways can we assist in the birth of a pluriverse of possible paths forward into our “decade of decision.”

This final part of the series presents a vision of new type of university, exemplified in the world-spanning Ecoversities Alliance, and dreamed of in Transition U and Eco Vista U, two prototypes that I am involved in co-creating with students, staff, faculty, and community members in Santa Barbara, California, and in the Transition US movement.

I believe that working on intersecting crises, on so-called wicked problems, is the order of the day, and as in most things, the very interlocking of our crises gives me hope for confronting them with courage and vision.