Speaker: Wendy Brawer, Director, Green Map System
Wendy Brawer: In answering the question about what inspired me to care about climate change and climate solutions, I have to say it was an orangutan that started me off.
How (and why) are you taking action on climate change solutions in, for, and with your community?
Wendy Brawer: Hey, I'm Wendy Brower. I'm in New York, New York, and I have been working for about 30 years to help people use mapping to Connect and explore and activate places in their community under the umbrella of sustainability and climate health. Now, we have co-created an iconography which is open source and shared it with people in 65 countries. It focuses on nature, culture, social justice, and green living. Locally, people decide how to frame their maps. They do not include everything necessarily, but so many of them have included climate action spots around mobility, dining, shopping, everyday living, recreating, working, and it's really been terrific to see how people. Using these tools to share knowledge, build networks, and gain skills around communicating around sustainability while at the same time creating a new vision of home that's very actionable and inviting. It helps people see that their home place has so much going on that they can connect with. So, When people are making these maps, they decide whether it's a print map, interactive map, experience, etc. I'd be happy to help lots of other people do this. There's been about 1000 projects over the years. And many of them have incredible outcomes on a community level, on a personal level, and to make change visible in their community. So for campaigns, for tourism, for lots of reasons, these are really important green maps. Thank you.
Who or what inspires/inspired you to care about climate change and climate solutions?
Wendy Brawer: In answering the question about what inspired me to care about climate change and climate solutions, I have to say it was an orangutan that started me off. It was in Indonesia in 1989, and this orangutan and I locked eyes, and she threw me a stone. I caught that stone and turned green, and I began thinking, what could I do? What could I create? That could help empower people around the world to take action locally, and I realized so many people didn't know what was going on right in their own backyard, and I knew seeing was believing. So that's why I became inspired to make the set of mapping tools, iconography. And engagement resources that have now been shared all over the world over the last 30 years. So it's all about creating a pathway that everybody can get on. We don't know what inspires people. Everybody is different, so we have to show every inspiring thing. Every positive action that might spur someone to take on action themselves, or take the next step, work together, synergize what they've created, and do more for climate change, climate health, and climate solutions.
