Meeting the climate crisis inside out

Tuesday, 12 September 2023

Watch the recording

If humans are to adequately address the challenge of climate change, then we need to better employ our inner capacities, including the skill of mindfulness & the motivation of compassion.  

In September 2023, WCC co-hosted a key forum to discuss the contribution of the science of compassion to resolving our climate crisis.

Authors of the recently released report Reconnection: Meeting the Climate Crisis Inside Out Jamie Bristow and Dr Christine Wamsler were in conversation on the important messages in this report. These messages relate directly to the 11 actions in the Women’s Climate Charter for Change, particularly Action 6: Elevate Compassion and kindness in government.

This webinar was jointly hosted by: Charter for Compassion, Australia; Women’s Climate Congress; Mindfulness Initiative International; Global Compassion Coalition’s Climate and Sustainability Cluster; Compassionate Ballarat; and Let’s Talk Peace Ballarat.

Jamie Bristow is a prominent expert on the application of inner development and contemplative practices in public life. He currently leads  policy & advocacy for the Inner Development Goals, emphasising the inner skills and qualities needed for a sustainable transition. For eight years, from 2015 to 2023, Jamie played an instrumental role in the UK's All-Party Parliamentary Group on Mindfulness, acting as its clerk and serving as Director of the associated policy institute, The Mindfulness Initiative Institute.

Christine Wamsler is a researcher interested in sustainable urban development, climate change, resilience and associated cognitive and material transformation processes. Global trends such as climate change and mental ill-health, the ways in which power emerges and consolidates, and the causes and consequences of the unequal distribution of vulnerabilities and risk, are central to understanding urban challenges