Phoebe Barnard, PhD
Global Change Scientist | Ecosystems, Population & Conservation Biologist | Sustainability Strategist
Climate Action is an Art - An Art of Sight
~ A tribute to my mother, the scientist ~
By Cat Simmons
As poets and climate activists, we understand the importance of science communication.
We understand the value of emotion, personal growth, and grassroots community involvement.
We are curious about the interconnectedness between the void of a consumer-driven society and the destruction we wreak on our environment. We speak in terms of the ineffable aliveness of life on Earth.
The perfect dynamism of each ecosystem in its natural state. The near orgiastic splendour found in capturing nature in verse as though it were the most unbridled part of ourselves.
We understand that we cannot be extracted from nature and that climate is more than just the air we breathe--but rather the food in our bellies and the water in our veins, thanks to optimal conditions for life and harvest. It's the great facilitator; and, by definition, the greatest threat to our survival if abused.
My mother calls herself a climate scientist, but she has never been a meteorologist, honing in on climate variations in isolation. She has always been a big-picture thinker. She has been blessed with the freedom and privilege to tackle some of the greatest challenges of our time, alongside global leaders, scientists, activists, and artists..I have seen her spearhead the development of international nature reserves along the southwest coast of sub-Saharan Africa. I have seen her build communities that empower women in science, protect endangered species, and highlight the importance of population control. I have seen her work on greening wilderness spaces, carbon sequestering, and connecting science and the arts through poetry and film. I have seen her draw ties between climate change and species migration in passerine birds. I have seen her win awards, chair international coalitions, and hold the presidential seat of BirdLife South Africa.
My mother lives and breathes this work in every waking moment. She's never been afraid to host difficult conversations around politics, religion, sustainable development, gender disparities, population, sustainable living, and being the change you want to see. She is intensely value-driven.
A trait she has thankfully passed on to both of her daughters. She thinks laterally, and well into the future.
She is spearheading a soon-to-be internationally acclaimed documentary with my step-father, aimed at spelling out actionable climate solutions that help us reduce the carbon in the atmosphere and stem further emissions.
She is intelligent, wise, driven, strategic, capable, and effective in almost all she does.
She faces obstacles and setbacks with an otherworldly grace.
She runs behind the scenes, facilitating conversations that build roads for policy and behaviour change at the local, national, and international levels. She is humble and kind. Generous and shrewd.
Detail oriented, and big-picture thinking.
She embodies these words by George Bernard Shaw:
"This is the true joy in life, the being used for a purpose recognized by yourself as a mighty one; the being a force of nature instead of a feverish, selfish little clod of ailments and grievances complaining that the world will not devote itself to making you happy.
I am of the opinion that my life belongs to the whole community, and as long as I live it is my privilege to do for it whatever I can.
I want to be thoroughly used up when I die, for the harder I work the more I live. I rejoice in life for its own sake. Life is no "brief candle" for me. It is a sort of splendid torch which I have got hold of for the moment, and I want to make it burn as brightly as possible before handing it on to future generations."
Climate activism is an art of sight because it requires not only that we hold within ourselves a vision of both dark and light future outcomes, but that we do so independently, despite a lack of vision or foresight in those around us.
It requires an internal steadfastness--like a tightrope walker on a high wire, with a balancing beam with reason and urgency on one end, and wisdom and hope on the other. It requires that we engage not only with human behaviour, but human need, within a closed ecological system that desperately needs us to need and want less. It requires that we hold a clear vision of how it could and should be, whilst navigating the harsh realities of what is.
All this...whilst remaining a mother, wife, friend, and functional adult who pays the bills and folds the laundry.
Everyone thinks that I am the poet in the family.
But that is only because writing is the way my art takes form.
My mother's life is poetry.
Her work is poetry.
Her impact is poetry.
My mother is an artist because the way she thinks is poetry.
