“Don’t let anyone take away your hope.” Back in 2012 Al Gore enshrined that phrase onto the hearts of one thousand of us from 68 countries gathered in San Francisco to become Climate Reality Corp. Leaders. Now, six years and countless presentations later, in 2018, they’ll be over two thousand of us from over 100 countries gathering in Los Angeles for a massive training and conference where I’ll be honored to serve as a Mentor.

Much has changed since my last Climate Reality Project conference and much has stayed the same. Mother Nature is a powerful lobbyist and many more are waking up to these “Inconvenient Truths”. The world has witnessed that turning a blind eye to the increasing climate crisis hasn’t lessened the devastation. A hurricane, or wildfire, or drought, or famine, or storm surge, or mudslide, or heatwave, or flood, or endangered species, doesn’t care about one’s political party affiliation, gender, ethnicity, or socioeconomic status, it just leaves a path of devastation. Though it’s true that those with the largest carbon footprint are often the most resilient to the effects of climate change, which of course deepens the social injustice.

One thing that hasn’t changed for me is my commitment to keep working to engage, educate, and inspire as many people as possible to do what we can to make a positive difference in our world. So yes Al, I’ll never let anyone take away my hope. How about you? We’re all indigenous to Mother Earth. It’s our home, shouldn’t we try?