The Intergenerational Spring Seminar is hosted annually by the UU Office at the United Nations as an opportunity for UUs to collaborate with others while learning to be a global activist. This year, UUMFE was honored to be a partner in planning the Seminar along with UU@UN, UU Service Committee, and Side with Love. The 2022 Seminar continued the previous few years’ focus on climate justice. This time, the seminar specifically focused on climate-forced displacement with the theme “Displacement and Human Rights: All In for Climate Justice.”

The Spring Seminar strives to hold a community space where we can learn about global issues. It also seeks to equip UUs with the knowledge and skills needed to take action. With these goals in mind, the Spring Seminar has made resources available to support a continued engagement around climate justice, displacement, and human rights.

The keynote address this year was given by the Pacific Islands Students Fighting for Climate Change. The PISFCC is fighting to get the International Court of Justice of the United Nations to issue an advisory opinion on the rights of current and future generations in the context of climate change. They’ve put together a toolkit that includes both information about their campaign and about climate-forced displacement in the Pacific Islands. You can access the toolkit through their website here. Or you can access the PDF of the toolkit directly here.

Want to watch the full keynote address from PISFCC? Given the virtual nature of the Seminar, the keynote address, theme panel, and workshops are all available to watch as recordings. You can these on the UU@UN’s Youtube channel.

And if you’re still looking to learn more about climate-forced displacement, check out this resource from the Unitarian Universalist Service Committee. Or, read this article by UU@UN intern Andrew Mickle, “Confronting Climate-Forced Displacement with Global Compassion.” 

Climate change impacts all of us. Rising sea levels, extreme temperatures, and intense natural disasters are displacing people from the places they call home. We must be ‘all in’ for climate justice. How will you show up? Maybe we’ll see you at the next Spring Seminar?