From 15-18 May 2018, the RLC Campus at University of California, Santa Cruz, hosted a number of U.S. and Canadian Laureates of the Right Livelihood Award, as well as Coordinators of the RLC. The Laureates discussed each other’s work and developed plans to support each other regionally and internationally to advance social and environmental justice. The conference was organised jointly by the Right Livelihood Award Foundation and RLC Campus Santa Cruz coordinator David Shaw. It was embedded in a number of exciting events including a day-long teach-in with laureates and public panels focusing on climate change, water protection and nuclear threat.
Journalist Amy Goodman, environmentalist Bill McKibben and whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg are three of the leading change makers that came together to discuss opportunities for advancing justice and sustainability in times when challenges are rising, both regionally and globally. Other champions of change who attended the first-ever Conference of North American Right Livelihood Award Laureates include Inuit activist Sheila Watt-Cloutier, writer and researcher Frances Moore-Lappé and Paul Walker who is leading the fight to rid the world of chemical weapons.
Conference highlights
- Tuesday, May 15: Climate Justice: A Conversation with Bill McKibben and Sheila Watt-Cloutier
- Wednesday, May 16: Blue Future: Protecting Water for People and the Planet Forever with Maude Barlow and Robert Bilott
- Thursday, May 17: A Day of Teaching and Activism for Human Rights, Sustainability, Social Justice, and Media Reform with Amory Lovins, Frances Moore Lappé, Wes Jackson, Maude Barlow, Alice Tepper Marlin, Tony Clarke, Paul Walker, Jamila Raqib and Yannick Beaudoin
- Thursday, May 17: A Conversation with Amy Goodman and Daniel Ellsberg
Two students from the RLC Campuses in Valdivia, Chile, and Córdoba, Argentina, participated in the conference and presented their research:
Barbara Edith Siegenthaler: Review, discussion and design of intervention devices in Scio-envirinmental crisis and catastriphes from real serious urban emergency: The towers tradegy in #2141 Salta Street, Rosario City, Argentina. (RLC Campus Córdoba)
Laura Fúquene Giraldo: Redefining Sustainability from a situated Perspective: Community museums in Southern Chile. (RLC Campus Valdivia)
Left: Christian Henriques (RLC Valdivia); middle: Laura Giraldo; right: Barbara Siegenthaler.
