Brighter Green

For a shared Earth, please support Brighter Green. As the world continues to warm and we witness more intense wildfires, floods, droughts, and other disasters as a result, Brighter Green’s work is more important than ever. Since our inception, our focus on interconnectedness has stood out, both in the environmental and animal protection movements.

We, people and animals, all have common needs. Clean water. Breathable air. Fertile soil. Intact forests. Habitat. A stable climate. And so much more. If we don’t create policies and practices that center the wellbeing, equity, and rights of all species, we may not have a livable planet for much longer. That’s why Brighter Green matters.

In the sections below, you’ll see why this approach matters, and how it’s reflected in our recent work. Brighter Green advocates for policies that address not just one nation, one climate solution, or one species, but instead, our shared past, present, and future. Through our written works, speaking at conferences and in classrooms, joining coalition campaigns, educating, influencing leaders, and developing new narratives and policies, we’re able to move the needle on key policies to support the living earth, and all its inhabitants.

As 2022 comes to a close, we thank you for supporting and engaging with us this year. We hope you have a wonderful holiday season and a happy, healthy, peaceful, and biodiverse new year. With your help, we look forward to continuing our work for a just and livable future in 2023 and beyond.

—Mia MacDonald, Executive Director (more…)

Brighter Green was at COP27 in Sharm-el-Sheikh, Egypt. We weighed up whether to attend, given the host country’s terrible human rights record and severe limits on environmental activism. However, we decided it was important to be present to emphasize the connections among human rights, the climate crisis, the treatment of the nonhuman world, environmental sustainability, and the many problems associated with intensive animal agriculture.

As part of our agenda at COP, Brighter Green is a partner in the first ever Food4Climate Pavilion, which brought food system transformation and sustainable diets to the heart of COP27, mainstreaming a transition toward diverse and resilient food production and consumption systems. The Pavilion hosted programs focusing on proven climate change mitigation and adaptation solutions, including the shift towards plant-rich diets, adopting sustainable and resilient agricultural practices, and reducing food loss and waste.

Brighter Green co-hosted three panels at COP27, along with a number of partner organizations (see names below). First, was an official COP27 side event (available to watch on the UNFCCC’s side events YouTube):

• Friday November 11, 16:45–18:00 (EET) (Room Thutmose). Sustainable Diets: Fostering a Just Transition towards Resilient Food Systems. (Co-hosted with ProVeg International, Ministry of Environmental Protection Israel, the Good Food Institute (GFI), Compassion in World Farming, A Well-Fed World, and FAIRR). Watch online here.

And at the Food4Climate Pavilion, along with the Global Forest Coalition, we’re presenting these two panels (also available to watch live or on video on the Pavilion’s livestream):

• Friday November 11, 14:30–15:45 (EET). No More Omissions: Real Policy Action on Land Use, Animal Agriculture & GHGs—with a Focus on Methane. (Co-hosted with Global Forest Coalition.) Watch online here.
• Monday November 14, 12:30–13:45 (EET): Livestock and Feedcrops Impact Women and Communities: Achieving Climate and Gender Justice through Intersectional Policies and Programs. (Co-hosted with Global Forest Coalition.) Watch online here.

Summer has been succeeded by autumn here in New York City, and while we miss the longer daylight hours, we at Brighter Green are also looking forward to a busy few months ahead. Like you, we see a world with multiple challenges: a climate emergency upending millions of lives, the war in Ukraine causing enormous suffering and privation, and the continued and in some places (like Brazil’s Amazon and Cerrado) accelerating destruction of nature and the non-human world to produce more meat and feed for farmed animals. Yet, we are also buoyed and continued to be elevated by the visionary and tenacious work of our colleagues around the world, and so many others. Please read on for some short updates on what we’re doing and planning through the end of 2022.

Teaching: Animals, the Environment, and Policy and Praxis in the Anthropocene

Executive Director Mia MacDonald is teaching a new graduate-level class called Animals, the Environment, and Policy and Praxis in the Anthropocene at New York University (NYU) this fall academic semester. The class, part of the NYU Animal Studies Program, focuses on how the climate emergency, biodiversity loss, the COVID pandemic, and multiple inequalities among peoples, societies, and species are reshaping life on Earth. Students are being asked to make connections between food systems that exploit billions of animals and contributions to forest loss, extinction, water pollution, and global heating. They’re exploring how to increase policy protections for animals and the environment and navigate the landscapes of power and influence in which policies are shaped. Students are also engaging in and testing varied facets of policy analysis and advocacy, and “go deep” on issues of particular interest to them, while also learning from expert guest speakers. Please let us know if you’d like to learn more about the class or see the syllabus. Mia has also taught undergrads, grad students, and professional students at NYU and Columbia University, also in New York City. (more…)

This event was live streamed on November 9, 2021 at COP26 in Glasgow Scotland.

Brighter Green participated in an official COP26 side event called, No More Omissions: Addressing the Ambition and Scale of Change Required in Global Food Systems. 

You can watch the event in the embedded player below, or on YouTube.

• Watch this and other side events on the UNFCC’s YouTube channel.

Food and agricultural systems have an enormous impact on human lives, especially in vulnerable communities, the lives of other animals, and the ecosystems and climate on which all species depend.
Learn More

The fourth session of the UN Environment Assembly (UNEA-4) is taking place from March 11-15, 2019 in Nairobi, Kenya. Learn More