Uplift in the News
By Brooke Larsen
“We opened the 2018 Uplift Climate Conference with a song, lyrics so familiar to me they feel like an anthem or an old friend: “People gonna rise like the water / We’re gonna calm this crisis down / I hear the voice of my great granddaughter / Saying climate justice now.” I have sung variations of this movement song originally crafted by the Peace Poets at direct actions and organizing meetings, mass mobilizations and intimate gatherings. Singing it with over one hundred budding climate activists at Uplift carries a distinct power, though. For many attendees, this was their first time singing the classic song. But by the close of the conference, it was one of many tools participants gained to build a movement. […]
“The sun set over rolling plateaus of piñon-juniper forest as Louise Benally, a Diné elder from Black Mesa, Navajo Nation, guided over 100 Millennials in ceremony. As the participants took turns gifting cedar and water to the fire they encircled, Benally asked other elders to share wisdom. Daniel Tso from the Greater Chaco region announced, ‘We are uplifting our spirits so we can take on the challenges we face.’ […]
"Monday, President Trump signed an executive order gutting Bears Ears National Monument by 85 percent and cutting Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument in half. This has been marked as the largest elimination of protected land in U.S. history, second of course to the taking of millions of land from indigenous people over the past centuries.
Despite the grief and rage that fills many hearts, the people’s response should also inspire hope that the future of these lands doesn’t rest with Trump, but rather in our creative, committed [...]
By Eva Malis
"On Monday evening, the White House hosted a panel promoting fossil fuels at the UN Climate Change Negotiations in Bonn, Germany. They brought in an executive from Peabody Coal, NuScale Power, and other fossil fuel representatives to promote coal as “clean energy.” Unavoidably, they were proven wrong.
With our hands over our hearts, around 200 people from across the globe rose in song to stand against the US administration’s message. I was one of the core team of 15 people that organized [...]
By Melissa Sevigny
"The United Nations’ climate change conference wraps up today in Germany. It’s an opportunity for world governments to negotiate ways to implement the Paris Climate Accord and slow the planet’s warming.
Eva Malis is a 22-year-old youth delegate from Flagstaff attending the conference. KNAU’s Melissa Sevigny spoke to her about her concerns for the future of the Colorado Plateau. [...]
By Jon Kovash
"The Uplift gathering took place on a scenic mesa in Canyonlands that is threatened by oil and gas development, and it was periodically interrupted by the drone of scenic helicopter and airplane flights from the Moab airport.
Among the Native American firebrands was Yolanda Badback, from the Ute village of White Mesa, who for years has worked to shut down the nearby White Mesa uranium [...]
By Joy Martin
"The day after the Fourth of July, 25-year-old Brooke Larsen was somewhere between Flagstaff and Tuba City, pedaling as hard as the relentless sun would allow. The temperature read 106 degrees. Hot water sloshed in her bottle. She was alone. This was the moment - over a month after she'd started her 1,500-mile bike tour across the Colorado Plateau - when it finally struck her how crazy of an idea it was.
The trip started on May 24 in Price, Utah, and ended in Torrey, Utah, on July 14. Supported by grants from the University of Utah and other donations, Larsen used her summer break from graduate studies to set out on a sweltering passion project to raise awareness about climate change by collecting stories about environmental injustices in Colorado Plateau communities. [...]
By Molly Marcello
"More than 150 young people will converge on Moab’s surrounding public lands this weekend to discuss their role in climate justice and conservation on the Colorado Plateau during the third annual Uplift Climate Conference.Coordinator Eva Malis says Uplift focuses on future action and community building among youth in the Colorado Plateau because younger generations have more “at stake” when it comes to [...]
"The battle over Bears Ears is far from over. Since former President Obama designated the Bears Ears National Monument at the end of December 2016, the Utah delegation continues to threaten the future of this sacred landscape in southeastern Utah.
On Feb. 3, Gov. Gary Herbert signed HCR 11, a resolution urging the president to rescind the monument. In response, the Outdoor Retailer show is leaving Utah, and Native American tribes, conservation groups, and outdoor businesses have promised to litigate if [...]
There’s something in the air, and it’s better than Mary Poppins. It’s a fresh breeze stirred by a group of young climate change activists setting up camp for the Uplift Climate Conference, Aug. 18 – 20 at Chris Park.
These aren’t hippy harbingers of environmental hopelessness, mind you. Rather, they’re “Uplifters,” named for the geologic occurrence that led to the rise of [...]
By Maia Wikler
“Look at all of these young people! This is amazing!” An older protestor exclaimed, as our large group of Power Shift t-shirt-clad youth activists emerged from the subway stairs onto the street. Thousands had gathered at noon by City Hall in Philadelphia to march for a future with clean energy and without the toxicity of fracking. We carried our handmade signs, banners and hopeful hearts [...]
Do young people care more about climate change than old people? That’s part of the premise of a new outreach effort by the Grand Canyon Trust.
Back in 2014, the Flagstaff-based Grand Canyon Trust launched an experimental new program called “Uplift.” The idea is to create a regional conservation movement specifically aimed at young people[...]
What do a Washington DC nonprofit, a hunting and angling organization and an outdoor adventure app have in common? They, and thirty other initiatives, are all official selections for The 2016 SHIFT Awards[...]
Dear Editor, On May 17, I walked into a Bureau of Land Management (BLM) auction at the Salt Lake City Public Library with fellow organizers of Uplift, a climate action community for the Colorado Plateau. I witnessed police dragging powerful young women out of the room for [...]
By Lara Gale
On Friday, May 6, young activist leaders met with a roomful of Moab residents at the Grand County Public Library to discuss their vision of the future, given what they know about current human and environmental conditions, and sustainability issues on the Colorado Plateau[...]
By Claire Martini
No place has enticed me to ponder more than the front porch of Kane Ranch. This vista never fails to inspire, particularly in optimistic company. For two years now, I’ve spent early November here with fellow young idealists, dreaming up , an independent for-youth-by-youth conservation movement that meets twentysomethings where they are and sets its own priorities.[...]
As a young person, Utah native, red rock enthusiast and wilderness advocate, I am dismayed to read Representative Rob Bishop’s draft Public Land Initiative (PLI) bill. On Jan. 20, Congressman Bishop released the draft PLI, the result of an over-three-year effort to reach compromise on public land issues in eastern Utah. The PLI is described as collaborative, but the draft PLI disregards[...]
