The Changing Climate, Stories from Paris and What Now?
Jill MacIntyre Witt, Seth Fleetwood, Freddie Lane
Nations worldwide have been meeting annually for years to address the changing climate, in hopes of determining policies and direction for tackling the planetary crisis. Did the recent COP 21 (Conference of Parties) Summit in Paris result in a viable agreement to put us on a path toward a workable and livable future? This panel of three local environmental leaders who participated in the Paris gathering will discuss what led them to become climate activists, their commitment to working for climate responsibility and their motivations for going to Paris. They will offer insights into how this historical moment in time signifies the beginning of the end of the fossil fuel era and provides a vital opportunity for all of us to become engaged in this critical work.
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Speaker Bio
Jill MacIntyre Witt, with a degree in Environmental Biology, has made it her lifelong passion to connect others to the natural world and to care and protect our planet. She is currently in the Masters program for Environmental Studies in Huxley College of the Environment. She works at Western as a Physical Education Instructor and Peace Corps Campus Representative and also serves as the faculty advisor for Students for Renewable Energy club, which works on the “Divest Western Now” campaign. She gives climate change presentations for Climate Reality Project and organizes for 350Bellingham, the local chapter for 350.org, an international organization building a grassroots climate justice movement. As a mother of 2 daughters, she doesn’t want them asking her why she didn’t do anything about climate change when she had the chance. She hopes to inspire others to action…at the very least, for the world’s children and the future generations.
Seth Fleetwood was born and raised in Bellingham. He graduated from the University of Washington in 1986 and worked in Washington DC as a congressional aide before attending Willamette University Law School. Seth has a law practice in Fairhaven. He served two terms on the Whatcom County Council and two terms on the Bellingham City Council. Seth formerly served on the Bellingham Greenways Committee and is the current chair of the Greenways IV Levy Campaign. He has served on numerous boards over the years including People for Puget Sound and the Bellingham City Club. He is a member of the Climate Reality Project Leadership Corps.
Freddie Lane is a Lummi Tribal member, born and raised on the Lummi Indian reservation. Lane is the 11th of twelve children of the late Vernon and Nancy Lane. A documentary filmmaker, Freddie has traveled with six of the totem pole journeys with Jewell James and the House of Tears carvers beginning in 2002 with Americas Healing Pole Journey to last year's Journey to the Powder River Basin and the Anti-Coal campaign on behalf of Lummi Nation. Lane works every summer with the American Indian Film Institute's Tribal Touring Program which travels throughout Indian Country educating American Indian youth in store development, script writing, filming, editing and making short films like: Sasquatch Chronicles, 'Leschi -- the Man, the Warrior, our Chief,' Keep me Alive and most recently, The Earth is Alive. Lane and a delegation of Lummi youth traveled and brought this important message of The Earth Is Alive to Paris. Freddie is most known for his stance for 'Freedom of the Press' within his own tribe, when in 1998 he was fired by the Tribal Chairman for printing a letter of then Whatcom County Councilwoman, Marlene Dawson in the Squol Quol newspaper. The letter was addressed to Washington State Congressional representatives, accusing the Lummi Tribal Schools of being 'incubators of racism.' Lane is currently self employed with his public relations business and is working on the Totem Pole documentary and preparing a video for presentation on the Paris trip.