Sunday Celebration and Remembrance

Happy Birthdays and Days of Honoring

Happy Sunday to you all. How are you today?

I’m a bit sleepy but feeling good because I’m almost finished packing all of your greeting card sets and Navigators packages. It’s taking a little longer to finish since I’ve been doing everything on my own, but I’m aiming to get them shipped out to you tomorrow or Tuesday. Thank you to my wonderful friend

Hillary Harrison

for all of your guidance on bulk shipments. :)

I have a post ready for tomorrow, and another for Thursday, but I wanted to do a quick one today, too, as this day brings up different topics and memories I wanted to share. Today, December 8 of course is the day that John Lennon was shot and killed outside the Dakota, very nearby to where I am now as I type this to you. Today people will gather at Strawberry Fields, to lay flowers and sing songs in his memory, just as they do on his and Yoko’s birthdays. I’ll try to go by there for a moment today. <3

Today is also the birthday of my dear friend and collaborator Bill McKibben, one of our most important leaders of the climate movement, who wrote the first book on climate change in 1989, The End of Nature. He’s the founder of 350.org and Third Act, and has written 17 other books, and I would suggest to read them all. And of course his Substack, The Crucial Years, which he offers for free to anyone and everyone.

Mailing thousands of letters to Comptroller Scott Stringer with Bill, November 2017

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Following in this area of activism is Giovanni Caccamo, whose birthday is also today. Giovanni is a singer and composer from Italy, a friend of mine since 2019. He joined Pathway to Paris on some virtual events in 2020, and this past April, Becky and I joined him at the United Nations for the Change the World Forum, where we spoke about the climate crisis to a room full of students from around the world, ending in a spontaneous eruption of singing and lights.

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And today is also the birthday of my friend Nick Zinner, an incredibly talented composer, musician, and photographer who also uses his platform for the greater good whenever and however he is able to. He is always energetic and ready to help however possible, moved to action by compassion and deep concern, fueled by creative ideas he offers selflessly to support the cause at hand.

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I first met Bill McKibben when he spoke at our very first Pathway to Paris event in 2014, 10 years ago. It was the day after the People’s Climate March, the biggest event in the history of the climate movement, where over 400k people were gathered in NYC to speak out about the crisis and demand that our leaders take it seriously. I had wanted to do something celebratory to highlight the victory of this event, so with Rebecca Foon, we put together an event in NYC at Le Poisson Rouge to highlight and celebrate, and named it Pathway to Paris. Our event opened with Bill McKibben offering a moving talk of words surrounding what’s already happened, what needs to happen going forward, and the importance of us all working in collaboration together.

Following the success of our event, we decided to make it a year long series of events, discussions, concerts, festivals, all leading up to Cop21, the United Nations Climate Change Conference which would take place in Paris, December 2015. The year of our events culminated with 2 nights at Le Trianon Theatre in Paris during the conference, 9 years ago, when the Paris Accord was written and later ratified. You can hear the album we released of songs from the shows, and watch clips of our performances and talks from both of those evenings below.

We continued our work, and in 2016, following Trump’s election, we became a 501(c)3 non-profit organization and offered 1000 Cities, our own tangible solution to the climate crisis. We launched a petition and collected nearly 120k names and words from people all around the world. With our technical team, Sustainability Solutions Group, we have offered tools and research to contribute to the movement, have continued to hold events, concerts, and festivals throughout the world to raise awareness and funds, engaging our audiences in live actions and arming them with tools and resources to bring home to their families, friends, and communities.

All throughout this work, Bill McKibben has been there with us, speaking and leading live letter-writing campaigns at nearly all of our events, offering guidance, advice, and seriously kind encouragement throughout the way. Thank you so very much, Bill.

With Bill at Strawberry Fields, April 2024

Here are a few more videos, showing a glimpse of the vast community of collaborators and contributors that has grown over the last 10 years. Thank you so very much to everyone. September 22, 2024 was the 10 year anniversary of Pathway to Paris, and we look forward to more collaborations and projects moving into 2025 and beyond.

Thank you so very much for reading along, watching videos, listening to songs, wishing happy birthdays. I will be doing another post tomorrow, a crosspost in collaboration with another Substack writer, and another one in draft, almost done!

What are you up to or working on today? How is your Sunday?

Sending lots of good thoughts to you all as always. :)