Ursula Rakova
“My name is Ursula Rakova. I come from Papua New Guinea, but I was born on the Carteret Islands in the Southwestern Pacific. My elders and my community have given me a huge task, to tell the world what is happening on my island and what climate change is doing to destroy our lives. My work involves organizing our people and moving them from the island to the mainland where we need to re-locate to safe and secure ground. We are being forced from our ancient island homeland to the mainland of Bougainville Province in Papua New Guinea where we must start new lives and find sustainable means to produce our food and survive. I want to make sure that my people have a future life for generations to come. I would say to people who believe that climate change is not happening, if you have...
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It’s about the women who live with the effects of climate change every day.
Women who see high tides destroy their food supply and submerge their homes. Women who watch a merciless cycle of unprecedented floods followed by droughts drown their children, wash away their livelihood, and then suck their crops dry again. Women who pick up the pieces, improvise solutions and, facing their very survival, carve out unconventional paths to leadership.
These women are determined to travel the globe, speaking out at colleges and universities, talking to community and business groups, and making their voices heard at major world events on climate, climate justice, and gender equality.
Through powerful public conversation with local women leaders, the compelling stories of the Climate Wise Women connect the dots between seemingly remote local climate occurrences with the daily realities of the global community.
In 2010, women from Biloxi, Mississippi, the Cook Islands, and Uganda spoke at 16 different events in North America. Last year the Climate Wise Women completed a European speaking tour and were featured at events at the UN General Assembly in New York in September and at the COP 17 in Durban in December. This year sees the Climate Wise Women hosting events at the Council on the Status of Women and Rio+20, with plans for workshops and presentations in the Maldives and in Australia at the end of the year.
The Climate Wise Women is a proud project of the Earth Island Institute www.earthisland.org
Climate Wise News
Climate Wise Women to present “Climate Change as Catalyst for Access: How Grassroots Women Obtain Tools for Sustainability” at the United Nations on February 28 at the 56th Council on the Status of Women. Speakers to include Cristina Rumbaitis del Rio, Associate Director, Rockefeller Foundation and Lucy Wanjiru, Program Specialist, Gender and the Environment, UNDP.
Stayed tuned for updates on our Rio+20 events.
Please visit our calendar page for more information about our upcoming speaking engagements.