Climate conference
Breathing with the Climate Crisis, the online conference organized by the Section for Agriculture and the Youth Section, connected more than 1200 people from 63 countries.
The Breathing with the Climate Crisis conference was the first complex event of this dimension to be provided digitally by the Goetheanum. At the same time, ten regional in-person conferences took place in Argentina, China, India, Israel, Norway and other countries.
Lin Bautze and Verena Wahl (both Section for Agriculture) and Johannes Kronenberg (Youth Section) report how the conference allowed for broad, cross-sectional cooperation and provided space for a comprehensive look at the climate crisis. Scientists, teachers, physicians and artists connected with young people and biodynamic farmers. Johannes Kronenberg describes how “it was tangible that the existential issue of the climate crisis, which is human-made, can only be resolved if we work together.”
Together: youth and agriculture
Young people and biodynamic farmers also worked together on preparing this conference. Verena Wahl felt that the dialogue between the two groups was really fruitful. “Farmers experience every day how dramatic the climate crisis has already become, but they also have practical solutions. Young people are future-oriented and ready to initiate change.”
The most vividly discussed topic was that of ‘compost’. Composting waste from harvesting and cooking is a simple and very concrete way of tackling the climate crisis on a daily basis. People from all continents – including countries such as Brazil, Chile, Egypt, Finland, India, Kenya, Lithuania, New Zealand, the Philippines and the United States – attended this work group offered by a biodynamic farmer from Auckland (NZ).
Thanks to the dynamics of the digital infrastructure break-out rooms could be set-up spontaneously – something the conference members really appreciated. In their feedback they remarked on how the energy created and the level of cooperation achieved had been new to them.
The importance of cows in dealing sustainably with the climate crisis was another subject for discussion. Given the fact that many young people favour veganism, this was an important and also sensitive issue. It became apparent that livestock farming based on pastureland in combination with the reduction of poultry and pig keeping would leave plenty of land for feeding the world’s growing population. And farm organisms would continue to benefit from the ruminants.
The earth as a living being
The conference created a space for people to connect far beyond the Goetheanum. One conference member from Chile wrote, “Although the […] conference is over […], the strong aura, energy, love, passion, compassion, and wisdom of all participants, performers, speakers and organizers are still wandering and flying all over the world. They will give us the courage for exploration, practice, self-reflection and creation. The etheric body of the conference will continue to grow and influence more people through us.”
Lin Bautze summarized the probably most comprehensive ‘homework’ that the conference sent everyone off with: “When we see the earth as a living being and widen our gaze ‘from the soil to the sky’, then the farmers, who are custodians of the land, will become custodians of the climate, and each of us will discover ways of becoming active.