Reforest Your Mind
Let's rethink our relationship to each other — and music festivals like Coachella.
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LISTENING: to airport chatter
FEELING: grateful for airport lounge food
SEEING: an empty bowl of gummy bears
"Reforest your mind."
Artist and cultural strategist Favianna Rodriguez shared those words during a panel discussion I moderated Tuesday. I immediately wrote them down.
Reforest your mind — it's about reimagining, rewriting the stories we tell ourselves, reshifting our approach to the work we do.
We know what's wrong, but how do we build something better?
I'm leaving SF Climate Week, specifically the Earth Summit Commons put together, and heading to the Society of Environmental Journalists conference next. There's always so much work to do: voices to uplift and minds to train. I'm thinking a lot about how I need to reforest my mind in regards to my work. How do I learn new skills to do the work I want to do? How do I refocus my reporting to prioritize the stories I'm itching to tell?
How can you reforest your mind? What new seeds can you plant? How high can the trunks soar into the sky? How far can the branches reach? What new organisms will sprout and take root in the understory?
At Tuesday's panel, another panelist, Hike Clerb founder and executive director Evelynn Escobar, urged attendees to take "inspired actions." If we put our energy into one or two things that truly inspire us, then the actions come much easier. I loved that idea.
I'm always inspired by stories and hard-hitting journalism. My inspired action these days is about improving my own skill sets and narrowing my reporting focus. I signed up for an investigative online course starting in May that I hope makes me a better journalist.
I've got a lot to learn when it comes to investigations, but my research for one more investigative project I've been working on for seemingly ever led me to a discovery I wanted to share. In the California desert, Coachella just wrapped up. Big names like Charli XCX and Lady Gaga took to the stage. I've always longed to go, and many climate influencers attend every year.
Well, maybe they should rethink their attendance.
The owner of Coachella has donated to right-wing conservative causes, including anti-LGBTQ+ and climate denial organizations and candidates. More recently, billionaire Philip Anschutz donated to Elton John's AIDS foundation, but that doesn't absolve him of his past. After all, his billions came from fossil fuels. He's since begun to invest in some renewable energy (namely, a wind farm in Wyoming), but let's not greenwash his story.
So here's some information that can help reforest the mind — one idea for an inspired action. Let's stop giving our money to these evil billionaires. Climate activists have launched a boycott of Elon Musk and Tesla, and it's working! In 2019, calls for a Coachella boycott rang, including from actor and model Cara Delevingne. Musk can't be the only one taking the heat. What about Anschutz?
I'm burning my dreams of ever attending Coachella. And I hope by next year, I've got the investigative chops to write a big story about where Anschutz's money will be then. I hope that there's a brighter story to write then. Not of another billionaire donating to efforts to erode human rights — but of people who took inspired action. Musicians and music lovers and influencers who stopped feeding the damn beast.
This is how we reforest the mind. By standing up in mass. By putting thought into where we send our dollars. I'm not perfect, but we've got to start somewhere. 🌀
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