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It was about two years
after Hurricane Katrina

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that I first saw the Louisiana flood maps.

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These flood maps are used
to show land loss in the past

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and land loss that is to come.

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On this particular day,
at a community meeting,

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these maps were used to explain

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how a 30-foot tidal surge
that accompanied Hurricane Katrina

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could flood communities like mine
in south Louisiana

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and communities across
the Mississippi and Alabama coast.

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It turns out that the land we were losing
was our buffer from the sea.

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I volunteered to interact
with the graphics on the wall,

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and in an instant my life changed
for the second time in two years.

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The graphic showed
massive land loss in south Louisiana

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and an encroaching sea,

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but more specifically, the graphic showed
the disappearance of my community

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and many other communities
before the end of the century.

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I wasn't alone at the front of the room.

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I was standing there with other members
of south Louisiana's communities --

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black, Native, poor.

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We thought we were just bound
by temporary disaster recovery,

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but we found that we were now bound
by the impossible task

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of ensuring that our communities
would not be erased by sea level rise

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due to climate change.

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Friends, neighbors, family, my community:

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I just assumed it would always be there.

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Land, trees, marsh, bayous:

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I just assumed that it would be there
as it had been for thousands of years.

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I was wrong.

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To understand what was happening
to my community,

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I had to talk to other communities
around the globe.

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I started in south Louisiana
with the United Houma Nation.

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I talked to youth advocates
in Shishmaref, Alaska.

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I talked to fisherwomen
in coastal Vietnam,

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justice fighters in Fiji,

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new generations of leaders

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in the ancient cultures
of the Torres Straits.

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Communities that had been here
for thousands of years

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were suffering the same fate,

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and we were all contemplating
how we would survive the next 50.

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By the end of the next century,

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it's predicted that
more than 180 million people

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will be displaced due to climate change,

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and in south Louisiana,

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those who can afford to do so
are already moving.

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They're moving because
south Louisiana is losing land

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at one of the fastest rates on the planet.

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Disappearance is what my bayou community

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has in common with
other coastal communities.

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Erasure is what communities
around the globe are fighting

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as we get real about
the impacts of climate change.

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I've spent the last 14 years
advocating on behalf of communities

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that have been directly impacted
by the climate crisis.

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These communities
are fighting discrimination

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within climate disaster recovery,

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and they're also trying to balance
mass displacement of people

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with an influx of others

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who see opportunity in starting anew.

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Since 2005, people
have been called "refugees"

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when they leave when they're displaced
by climate disaster,

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even when they don't cross
international borders.

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These terms, these misused terms,

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that are meant to identify the other,

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the victim,

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the person who is not supposed to be here,

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these terms are barriers

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to economic recovery,

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to social integration

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and to the healing required from
the climate crisis and climate trauma.

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Words matter.

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It also matters how we treat
people who are crossing borders.

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We should care about how people
who are crossing borders today

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to seek refuge and safety
are being treated,

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if for no other reason than it might
be you or someone you love

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who needs to exercise
their human right to migrate

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in the nearby future.

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We must start preparing
for global migration today.

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It's a reality now.

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Our cities and our communities
are not prepared.

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In fact, our economic system
and our social systems

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are only prepared to make profit
off of people who migrate.

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This will cause rounds
of climate gentrification,

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and it will also penalize
the movement of people,

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usually through exploited labor

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and usually through criminalization.

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Climate gentrification that happens
in anticipation of sea level rise

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is what we're seeing in places like Miami,

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where communities
that were kept from the waterfront

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are now being priced out
of the high ground

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where they were placed originally

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as people move away from the coast.

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These folks are being moved,
forced to relocate away

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from the social and economic systems
that they need to survive.

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Climate gentrification also happens
in the aftermath of climate disaster.

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When massive amounts
of people leave a location

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for an indefinite amount of time,

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we see others come in.

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We also see climate gentrification happen

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when damaged homes are now "green built,"

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but now have a higher value,

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generally outside of the reach
of black and brown and poor people

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who want to return home.

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The price difference in rents
or the ownership of a house

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is the difference between
being able to practice your right,

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your human right
to return home as a community,

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or be forced to resettle somewhere else

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less climate resilient,

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less expensive

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and alone.

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The climate crisis
is a much larger conversation

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than reducing CO2 emissions,

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and it is a much different conversation
than just extreme weather.

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We're facing a shift
in every aspect of our global reality.

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And climate migration
is just one small part,

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but it's going to have ripple effects

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in both coastal cities
and cities in the interior.

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So what do we do?

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I have a few ideas.

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(Laughter)

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First, we must reframe
our understanding of the problem.

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Climate change is not the problem.

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Climate change
is the most horrible symptom

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of an economic system

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that has been built for a few

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to extract every precious value
out of this planet and its people,

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from our natural resources

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to the fruits of our human labor.

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This system has created this crisis.

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(Applause)

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We must have the courage
to admit we've taken too much.

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We cannot close our eyes to the fact

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that the entire world is paying a price

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for the privilege and comfort
of just a few people on the planet.

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It's time for us to make
society-wide changes

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to a system that incentivizes consumption

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to the point of global imbalance.

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Our social, political and economic
systems of extraction

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must be transformed into systems
that regenerate the earth

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and advance human liberty globally.

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It is arrogance to think
that technology will save us.

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It is ego to think that we can continue

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this unjust and extractive approach
to living on this planet

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and survive.

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(Applause)

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To survive this next phase
of our human existence,

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we will need to restructure
our social and economic systems

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to develop our collective resilience.

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The social restructuring must be
towards restoration and repair

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of the earth

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and the communities
that have been extracted from,

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criminalized

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and targeted for generations.

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These are the frontlines.

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This is where we start.

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We must establish a new social attitude
to see migration as a benefit,

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a necessity for our global survival,

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not as a threat
to our individual privilege.

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Collective resilience means developing
cities that can receive people

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and provide housing,

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food, water, health care

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and the freedom from overpolicing

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for everyone,

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no matter who they are,

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no matter where they're from.

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What would it mean if we started
to plan for climate migration now?

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Sprawling cities or declining cities
could see this as an opportunity

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to rebuild a social infrastructure
rooted in justice and fairness.

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We could actually put money
into public hospitals

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and help them prepare

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for what is to come
through climate migration,

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including the trauma
that comes with loss and relocation.

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We can invest more of our time in justice,

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but it cannot be for temporary gain,

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it cannot be to help budget shortfalls,

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it has to be for long-term change

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and it has to be to advance justice.

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It's already possible, y'all.

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After Hurricane Katrina,

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universities and high schools
around the US took in students

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to help them finish their semester
or their year without missing a beat.

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Those students are now
productive assets in our community,

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and this is what our communities,
our businesses and our institutions

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need to get ready for now.

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The time is now.

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So as we reframe the problem
in a more truthful way

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and we restructure our social systems
in a more just way,

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all that will be left is for us
to reindigenize ourselves

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and to conjure a power
of the most ancient kind.

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This necessarily means
that we must learn to follow --

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not tokenize, not exotify, not dismiss --

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the leadership and
the traditional knowledge

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of a particular local place.

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It means that we must commit
to standards of ecological equity

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and climate justice and human rights

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as the basis, a base standard,

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a starting point,

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for where our new society is to go.

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All of this requires us to recognize
a power greater than ourselves

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and a life longer
than the ones we will live.

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It requires us to believe in the things
that we are privileged enough

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not to have to see.

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We must honor the rights of nature.

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We must advance human rights for all.

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We must transform from a disposable,

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individual society

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into one that sees our collective,
long-term humanity,

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or else we will not make it.

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We must see that even the best of us
are entangled in an unjust system,

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and we must acknowledge

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that the only way you're going to survive

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is for us to figure out

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how to reach a shared liberation together.

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The good news is

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we come from powerful people.

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We come from those who have,
in one way or another,

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survived so far to be us here today.

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This is reason enough to fight.

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And take it from
your south Louisiana friend,

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those hardest fights
are the ones to celebrate.

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Let's choose to make this next phase
of our planetary existence beautiful,

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and while we're at it,

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let's make it just and fair for everyone.

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We can do this, y'all.

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We can do this,

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because we must.

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We must, or else we lose our planet

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and we lose ourselves.

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The work starts here.

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The work starts together.

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This is my offering.

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Thank you for receiving it. Merci.

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(Applause)