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I’m back from a month long (much needed) sabbatical immersed in nature, books and family. Taking a break (and taking care of myself) has always been really hard for me - from feeling not worthy of rest, to being too burned out to stop, to fear of missing out (FOMO), it’s rare that I am able to pull myself away. But chronic pain has had the last word this year and I knew I needed to change things.

Now that I’m on the other side of it, I’m amazed to discover how “productive” rest can be. Not productive in the capitalist sense, but in the way it allows us to build capacity for more depth and resilience in the work.

Re-entering has been overwhelming. What is clear from the unbearable heat waves to the devastating Maui wildfires to the earthquake in Morocco to the deadly flood in Libya to the Burning Man fiasco, is that the common denominator in all news is that we are living in a man-made climate emergency. But I’m meeting that reality now with a knowing that our collective survival isn’t a sprint but a journey of sustained and rigorous practice. And for that, we need each other AND we need rest.

Kerri (she/her)

Art: Slow Factory

NTK (need to know)

1. We’ve been through this so many times, the story finally uncovered of a rich or powerful or celebrated man being accused of sexual abuse for years or decades. Can we really be surprised when rich and powerful men are accused of sexual abuse?

2. Wanted: 20,000 Young Americans to Fight Climate Change. Young people have been fighting for a vision of government that could work for future generations and the planet…they just won.

3. What Does It Mean to Dismantle Racial Capitalism Anyway? When one thinks about race and the economy, it’s important to understand that economic exploitation is not primarily about the greed and racism of a few, but rather is structural, and historically grounded.

4. Systemic change will absolutely irritate everyone. Slow Factory's Céline Semaan gets real about sustainability activism and how to create positive, major change in the world of bullies.

5. What if our jobs weren’t who we are, but something we did because our lives were enriched by something more than money? Free your mindset.

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Solidarity

President Biden on Wednesday announced an initiative to train more than 20,000 young people in skills crucial to combating climate change, such as installing solar panels, restoring coastal wetlands and retrofitting homes to be more energy-efficient. This didn’t happen overnight. The Sunrise Movement began the fight for a Climate Corps in 2020 and spent the last 3 years organizing communities, protesting, building coalitions and pushing our leaders to stand with our generation. After years of demonstrating and fighting for a Climate Corps, they turned a generational rallying cry into a real jobs program that will put a new generation to work stopping the climate crisis. This is a HUGE victory AND we’ve got more work to do.

• Call on Biden to declare a climate emergency: Declaring a climate emergency can help break the grip of the fossil fuel industry by responding with the full force of the federal government to climate disasters as they occur, redirecting funding to building cleaner energy systems, resilient infrastructure, affordable housing, and good and efficient transit, halting crude oil exports, stopping oil and gas drilling, ending the practice of leasing public lands and waters for fossil fuel production, and transitioning our economy off of fossil fuels (plus using over 100 other statutory powers to stop the climate crisis).

• Secure a livable future for all under a Green New Deal: The Green New Deal is a congressional resolution to mobilize every aspect of American society to 100% clean and renewable energy, guarantee living-wage jobs for anyone who needs one, and a just transition for both workers and frontline communities—all in the next 10 years. Here’s how you can help

• Fight fascism: How is fascism connected to the climate crisis? Fascists in power are fighting for the fossil fuel industry, bent on destroying our communities for profit, despite a worsening climate crisis. They are fighting for wealthy white supremacists to succeed on our backs. They want state sanctioned discrimination. And they want a repressive military state that oppresses people and throws them in prison. We must fight fascism wherever we are, but especially at the polls.

Source: Sunrise Movement

Practicing Justice

If we are able to look at world events through the lens of history stretching over hundreds or thousands of years, we will recognize that we are in a time of great transition—a time when the world as we know it is ending and a new world is fighting to be born. In the latest in the Murmerations series, Aisha Shillingford, collage artist-philosopher behind the Intelligent Mischief posts of possibility. As a Black futurist, she teaches through encouraged dreaming and spell-casting questions and how Black imagination can build a better world.

Art: Intelligent Mischief

We-ness

Grace Lee Boggs with what all of us need to hear right now.

Art by Slow Factory

Thanks for subscribing to WELLREAD. For the last six years we’ve been providing folks with the need to know (NTK) news, calls to actions and resources for how to stay engaged and resourced along the way. But now, we’ve added an option to “upgrade to paid” to help sustain our work. While we will never put our content behind a pay wall, we depend on the support of our community to keep us going. 💛

Upgrade to paid

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