#  Natalie Cherie Campbell, MDiv '18: Climate Justice Week Transcript 

 



 Harvard Divinity School · Natalie Cherie Campbell, MTS '18: Climate Justice Week - Keynote Reflection 

 



 

 

 

I found the keynote conversation of climate justice week to be really impactful. Rev. Vernon K. Walker talked about building coalition, and the fact that it really just comes down to treating your neighbor right. And as we focus on our commonality, we recognize a quote from Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.: “We are all tied in the inescapable garment of mutuality. And what affects one directly affects us all indirectly.”

And this idea of community was a theme for Terry Tempest Williams as well. And I was really moved by her throughline that imagination when shared creates collaboration. Collaboration creates community, and in community, anything is possible.

As we seek out the possibilities in how we address climate change, I found Matt Potts’s comments on hope and courage to be very helpful. Hope when experienced as empty optimism, that everything will work out, isn't really helpful.

And the question about “Where do we find hope?” comes up a lot, and this notion of reframing it to: “Where do we get courage to face our future realistically, and to understand that what we are working toward or fighting for is of a value that is sufficiently worthwhile to risk for it, even if the future doesn't turn out to be what we hoped or what justice would demand, that we walk toward that future with courage anyway?"

And I really appreciated these different ideas because as Judith Butler says, as quoted by Matt, “We can tell who we love or what we love by whether we would grieve for it if we lost it.” It was nice to feel more deeply but also to be inspired to act."