Dear Doug,

I don't normally share such detail from meetings with you, but over the past two weeks I have had such an amazing welcome as I have travelled through Canada, and now here in California, I felt I must share some of these wonderful experiences with you -- and powerful learnings for all of us. Please do forward this email especially if you know people in Canada or California, and I'll be speaking more this coming week in San Francisco (more details below).

News from my travels:  First off, Toronto - where I was hosted by the Quaker’s Friends House, which I loved. I met with faith leaders, press, radio (click here for Rabble interview podcast) and thought leaders - including the utterly inspirational Guy Dauncey. Ron, Lyn, Rita, Angela and Angela, you were my team in Toronto and you were all just wonderful - a big thanks to you all. None of it would have been possible without the support of Toronto Climate Campaign, Greenspiration and Canadian Voice for Women and Peace.

Raven - thank you for your native blessing, which took place before my talk. You can watch the whole event on YouTube. A big thanks to Glen for filming and for taking the lead in putting an ask out to the ether for someone to step forward in Vancouver. $500 was raised that evening - thank you all for your very kind donations. Half of the money stayed with the new team, half helped me on my travels to Vancouver where I met with Geoff who very kindly gifted his fantastic apartment to use, thanks to Eliza and Geordie. Much appreciated.

My first night in Vancouver - off to Douglas College to meet some law students who are so committed that we were there until after 9 in the evening! Filming with Ian MacKenzie was a lot of fun the next morning (he’s one of the brilliant guy’s behind the Occupy Love - a truly creative film-maker), I met with the super Deighen for event-planning over the best organic blueberry smoothie ever and she introduced me to David Lavallee, the director of the excellent film about the Athabasca Tar Sands, White Water Black Gold. David joined us at the event at United Church (click here for podcast) to speak about his film - it was a powerful reminder of why a law of Ecocide is so crucial and why the time is ripe for Adaptive Leadership. $130 was donated - huge thanks and big smiles for all donations.

A special thanks to two people I didn’t even get to meet - Julie Johnston and Peter Carter from Pender Island who forsook their travel and instead gifted their money instead for the hire of the hall. That was a very special gift. Afternoon meeting with Canadian lawyers and others at the Law Foundation of BC, was arranged by West Coast Environmental Law (CJSF's Spoken Word podcast and radio recording) - a huge thanks to you activist lawyers.

Good food has been a leitmotif of my travels; in Vancouver I took Deighen, Geoff, Geordie and David and Ian dinner as a thank you to Preet's place, called Organic Lives (the utterly best ever vegan raw food organic restaurant cafe chill-out place just two blocks from Geoff's). First time I have ever had organic coconut water shots - they were wild! Thanks Geordie.

Late night in Vancouver with new friends

Colorado Springs was next, where I was one of the speakers at the Tobias Leadership Conference. It was inspirational to meet so many thought leaders and to learn about emergent Adaptive Leadership: current leadership norm is changing very fast in response to our changing world - from command and control with control chain of hierarchy to one that is based on complexity where the new reality is emergent, interactive and non-hierarchical.

Emergence creates innovation, adaptability and learning which is enabled through distributed processes. It had been explained to me that our campaign strategy is an "emergent strategy", very in tune with new leadership principles. At the same time I have been speed-reading Simon Sinek's excellent book, Start with Why - How great leaders inspire everyone to take action and I learned where we are in campaigning terms: in the chasm between the Early Adopters and the Early Majority (where we are and where this campaign will go). Essential reading for any campaigner and for understanding our campaign. Watch his TED talk; he explains his graph which shows the chasm that we are currently bridging in terms of campaigning - and how close we are to lift-off.

LA next, and as I write the sun shines and the beach beckons, even just for a few hours. More great eats in-between meetings; Euphoria Loves Rawvolution and Kreation Juicery - they are the good energy that is keeping me going all day (thanks to Catty, it's been a great rest too). Tomorrow morning I depart on a gifted flight from Virgin Unite to San Francisco - big cheers to all at Virgin.

Next week and a half is a jam-packed in San Francisco with events are being updated daily (see schedule below), so keep an eye on the eradicatingecocide.com website diary for the latest plans. I’m greatly looking forward to meeting old friends and new.

It’s we the people who make all of this happen; the crowd-funding back in December was our starting point. We - my team back in London and I - are only able to do what we are doing because of you. The help I receive everywhere I go is remarkable; from people who self-select to arrange events to those who donate and many other small yet important details along the way. Each hand that reaches out to help is a gift. Thank you all.

With love for the Earth,
Polly

Why am I doing this? A question others ask me, and I ask myself. Why? Because I believe a greater world can be created, a world that puts people and planet first, a world where life-affirming business is the norm, not life-destroying business. I believe we can all make Earth our business and I believe to do that we need to change the rules of the game. I believe that we can create a new body of law called Earth law that can change the world, and seated at the heart of it is the missing  5th Crime Against Peace - Ecocide.

I believe we all have the right to good health and well-being - not just humans but all beings: the trees, the seas, the soils and even the honey bees. Put health and well-being of people and planet first and we have the makings of a world that will become a world of peace.

War is driven by conflict which is driven by fear which is driven by lack which is driven by the way we perceive the world. Shift our vision to a different perspective and we can look through a very different lens; start from a place of care and we extend our concern to the wider world, we begin to see our inter-connectedness and we begin to value the intrinsic value of life. When we do that, we recognise that by putting back in, rather than taking out, means that we create a legacy for all beings of our world. For me, I think that's an aspiration worthwhile committing my life to achieving; that's what gives me the courage to speak out.

 

March 1 Thursday: 6:30 pm, Brower Center, Berkeley CA. Polly will speak at screening of A Fierce Green Fire

March 5 Monday: 12.45 - 2pm, Boalt Law School, UC Berkeley, CA with Joe Guth

March 6 Tuesday: 6.30pm, Marin Art Centre, Ross, Berkeley, CA. Polly will speak at screening of A Fierce Green Fire

March 7 Wednesday: noon (tbc) Berkeley, CA.

March 7 Wednesday: 6.30pm, Delancey Street, Berkeley, CA. Polly will speak at screening of A Fierce Green Fire

March 8 Thursday: 12.30pm, lunch for 63 NGO's, Thoreau Center, San Francisco, CA. Sponsored by the Tides Foundation

March 8 Thursday: 7pm, 333 Locus Avenue, San Raphael, CA. Eco-Justice, Tipping the Scales of Life Itself. An Intimate Dialogue with Polly Higgins and Bill Twist of Pachama Alliance about the Rights of Nature and the Eradicating Ecocide Campaign

March 9 Friday: 7pm, Cowell Theatre, Fort Mason, San Francisco, CA. Fired up for Rio+20 with Paul Hawken, Polly Higgins and others www.firedup4rio.org

 

Making Earth law at the Earth Summit
The campaign is committed to making Earth law at the Earth Summit in June 2012. Ecocide is a law prohibiting mass damage and destruction; when we create a crime of Ecocide the Earth's right to life will be protected. Our legacy is to create a body of new law to safeguard humanity, nature and future generations. That is a legacy we believe is worth aspiring to.

Polly and her team are fully supported by the gift economy; either by people gifting their time, energy or money. All are gratefully received and by gifting to our activities you are giving a gift to future generations. By gifting to the campaign you are helping build a future world that puts people and planet first. You can gift money here and you can gift your time and energy here.