How do you feel about naming yourself a Climate Advocate? And what does it mean to be one?

I was scared to publicly and visibly name myself a Climate Advocate.

In December 2023, I finally did it on my Linked In profile. That’s after 30 years of working in social change and the last 12 really focusing on sustainability innovation.

Why now? I felt vulnerable giving myself that label but I wanted to do it, as part of being – and sending out – a signal of change. I knew that I needed to plant a flag in the sand, of what makes me who I am, however the algorithms work for or against me.

I started to ask other people working for sustainability solutions, “Would you call yourself a Climate Advocate?” The answer was invariably, No.

That really made me wobble if I’m honest. I faffed around looking for another label to use. Then I started to ask, “Why?” or more to the point, “Why not?”

What I heard was, that we’re not comfortable being defined in ways that bring us into conflict with others, including family and friends. I heard shame. I heard fear. I heard the penny drop – ah ha, now is the time.

How do you feel about naming yourself a Climate Advocate?

Because, isn’t it how we inhabit and live the words that make the definition, at a time when we need to win hearts and minds of people everywhere for climate action? In these moments, we need to bridge the gap in our communities with the recognition that climate action IS the way to meet our needs for love, joy, livelihoods.

For me, naming myself feels like an act of coming home: a deep healing and permission to be on a shero quest to create flourishing futures by empowering people to imagine and create solutions. The more I inhabit the words, the stronger the signal of change that I send out.
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If we name ourselves as Climate Advocates today, each living those words in our own way, creating a constellation of signals in our communities, what futures might we unfold?
 
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