Top 5 Lessons From Climate Week NYC: Connection Is the Climate Solution
Climate activist, teacher, and Goldman Prize winner Miss Sharon Lavigne (RISE St. James) and her story featured prominently in a midtown Manhattan cathedral during Climate Week. Credit: WildEarth Guardians
Every September, a constellation of people working on climate – from lawyers and technologists to activists and farmers – converges in New York City for Climate Week NYC, tackling what might be the most “wicked problem” humanity has ever faced: how to confront an unprecedented multicrisis threatening life on Earth.
I first learned the term “wicked problem” in a graduate course on systems thinking. It describes an evolving, seemingly unsolvable problem with tangled threads constantly pulling at one another. There’s no roadmap or precedent. Is there any better description for the climate crisis?
“What Are Wicked Problems?” Credit: The Commons Social Change Library.
Climate work can feel like assembling a puzzle with mismatched pieces while a doomsday clock ticks down. What makes Climate Week so valuable is that all these pieces – social, political, environmental, economic, physical, and philosophical – come together to ask the question: “How do we work together?”
Climate work is systems work. Systems are made up of interdependent parts – a river, a coal mine, a keystone species, an investment firm, a microbiome, a suburb – each acting on the whole. Success depends not on individual performance, but on coordination and connection between parts. In other words, solving the climate crisis depends as much on our relationships as on policy or technology.
A keynote session on coalition building featuring Julia Fay Bernal, Executive Director of Pueblo Action Alliance, a Guardians’ NMLAWS partner in the fight for environmental and climate justice under the NM state constitution. Credit: WildEarth Guardians
Think about it: What’s more effective for food security – growing food alone or with your neighbors? What’s more protective of air quality – regulating individual smokestacks or addressing cumulative impacts across a community? Who’s more likely to pass corporate accountability laws – a politician tied to lobbyists or one tied to workers? The outcomes in all these scenarios depend on connection – on the relationships between people and places.
Connection is always the best thing to come out of Climate Week. Sure, I learned about the latest in regenerative agriculture, the electrification of NASCAR, and the strategies of congressional champions. But information alone means little if it’s not applied with and alongside others.
A chance to reconnect with U.S. Representative Melanie Stansbury (NM 1st Congressional district) at a Make Polluters Pay event during Climate Week.
This year’s Climate Week was the biggest yet: over 1,000 events covering everything from finance to food systems. Panels and protests, workshops and happy hours –all unfolding during the 80th United Nations General Assembly and a visit from President Donald Trump. It was as overwhelming as it was energizing. Instead of recapping it all, here are my 5 key takeaways:
#1 We Are the Majority
Research shows that most people believe climate change is happening, human-caused, and a serious problem – but we often feel isolated. The trouble isn’t a lack of people, but a perception of lack that fuels apathy. Climate Week reminds us how vast and connected the movement really is. Paraphrasing Yale professor Anthony Leiserowitz: One of the most powerful forms of climate communication is just telling people that a majority already cares. Go find your people!
#2 Diversity is Our Strength
A climate march in Denver, CO (2019). Credit: WildEarth Guardians.
Life depends on diversity – ecological and human. Without it, we’re cooked. Climate Week drew people from every corner of the globe, from U.N. delegates to local organizers, many engaging in peaceful protest against corporations driving climate chaos. The gap between climate reality and global leadership remains huge, but we are the ones filling that gap. Whether you work in policy, agriculture, education, or direct action – your work connects to climate!
#3 Listen Deeply
James Beard Award winner Chef J.J. Johnson speaking at the “Hope On A Plate” event by FoodTank, an opportunity to listen to farmers, chefs, and food system innovators about regenerative agriculture’s role in climate work. Credit: WildEarth Guardians
Diversity can feel like chaos when you don’t listen. Across panels and protests alike, one message echoed: listen to those different from you. Deep listening requires humility, patience, and time – but paradoxically, slowing down helps us move forward faster. Open the ears, quiet the ego!
#4 Define Success as Ending Oppression
Too often “climate success” is measured in kilowatts, carbon tons, or acres restored. But none of our environmental goals will last without ending racism, classism, sexism and other systems of oppression. When humans dominate one another, Nature will always be exploited too. Is your climate work resisting oppression?
#5 Follow and Uplift Leadership
NM youth leaders and allies protested at Blackstone headquarters during ClimateWeek NYC. Blackstone is the world’s largest private equity firm and is planning to take over NM’s largest public utility. Credit: YUCCA
From Wales’ Well-being of Future Generations Act to the international Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty and the Make Polluters Pay campaign, trailblazers around the world are modeling bold solutions. I reconnected with Indigenous leaders like Pueblo Action Alliance and ecological restoration innovators at EcoRestoration Alliance. At WildEarth Guardians, we aim for precision tactics no one else is taking – but leadership doesn’t always mean standing in front. What leaders can you amplify?
The most impactful climate solutions grow in shared spaces – places of trust, humility, and collaboration where real change can take root. Coalitions, town halls, church groups, and kitchen tables are all fertile ground for the same question: How can we work together, across differences, for the well-being of people and planet?
It might sound idealistic, but it’s not. We are the majority, and we have countless tactics. The key is to listen, learn, and act. (Wash, rinse, repeat.)
Even if those around you don’t believe in climate change, they still need clean water, healthy food, and safe jobs. So, skip the jargon. Ask what they need. Wherever their needs meet yours, start there. That connection – built on common ground – is where true climate work begins.
A peaceful moment in Central Park. The most effective climate action happens in the places we meet, on the bridges that connect us. Credit: WildEarth Guardians