Antoinette Vermilye
on how SHE Changes Climate
“Stand in a room and fill it with balloons. Keep filling it until you can’t move. Keep filling it until you can’t breathe. That is exactly what we are doing with human-generated greenhouse gas emissions!”
Antoinette Vermilye knows balloons are made to fly, just the way humans are not made to stagnate in an overcrowded room feeling suffocated. Both need to move, both need air and space.
A strong believer in the power of reconnection, Antoinette leads us towards re-connecting all the dots: “from the ocean to air and to earth; to our hearts and minds back to positive action in our ecosystem”. A beautifully calibrated ecosystem that now feels like the game of Jenga. If you take a piece out, everything falls down: “That's what we're doing; we're pulling parts away without caring.”
In Antoinette's eyes, action equals hope. Her journey is an interesting mix, as it stands at the intersection of combating the negative impacts of fossil fuel extraction, human health, social justice, gender equality, food packaging, overfishing, sharktivism, and deep seabed mining. She is the Co-founder of the Gallifrey Foundation, an organization with a focus on collaborative paths for ocean protection. However, raising her voice for the voiceless started as follows:
“It all began via fish. If you're a fish in the ocean, now you don't have time to reproduce, you don't have time to hide. Because wherever you are, you're going to get found. If you must migrate somewhere, you're caught by someone else. I realized these creatures have no one speaking up for them, so my mission is to speak for the young, those who cannot speak, and who cannot defend themselves!”
This is the reason why she founded SHE Changes Climate, a campaign organization that helps get more women into top-level negotiation positions at COPs. This means more diversity and inclusivity thinking, which translates into richer perspectives and more solid-rounded solutions. Right now, Antoinette believes we don’t have the right people in power to make the change. We need more decision power for those who are the most affected by the real issues today:
“Where are youth, indigenous peoples, and women in the high levels of decision-making today? We need all these groups present and able to talk without having to conform to the male-business-oriented model we have used for the last millennia!”
Read Antoinette Vermilye’s empowering answers for Inspirators and have a sneak peek into the key messages she will convey as a speaker on the stage of the Climate Change Summit in Romania, the largest event in CEE dedicated to climate change, on the 19-20 October in Bucharest!
Thank you, Antoinette, for making sure SHE Changes Climate!
#INSPIRATORS QUESTIONNAIRE
Name: Antoinette Vermilye
Company / Institution: Gallifrey Foundation + SHE Changes Climate
Title: Co-Founder
Website: www.gallifrey.foundation www.shechangesclimate.org
LinkedIn profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/antoinette-vermilye-she-her-065a67167/
Country of origin: Spaceship Earth
Country you currently live in: Switzerland (mostly)
Your personal definition of Regeneration: Reconnection (re-connecting all the dots from the ocean to air and to earth; to our hearts and minds back to positive action in our ecosystem.)
Main business challenge you face: Encouraging businesses to connect the dots farther down the line than we are used to doing. We must convince politicians and businesses that any actions we undertake must not cause social, environmental, or planetary/ human health harm as we expand geographically and/or over time.
Basically, we must think about the negative externalities that we create in what we do. For example, eating a heavy non-plant-based diet exacerbates overfishing and overproduction of meat and leads to more land being deforested and used either for cattle or cattle food! It’s a longer chain than we tend to think about. One simple solution is just to do a little less more often!
Main driver that keeps you going: Action = Hope! Find joy and give and receive love. I keep connecting the dots and I am a Tiger (shark) Mother for the planet and ocean.
The trait you are most proud of in yourself: No longer afraid of humiliation or being wrong. I would rather ask and venture a different opinion to question existing paradigms (after research and triangulation, of course). It is a learning experience - which is never bad. Don’t be afraid to fail! Be afraid of not trying at all.
The trait you most value in others: Three traits equally - compassion, courage, and humility.
Passions & little things that bring you joy: The sense of wonder when I see a child’s genuine joy and fascination when they come across a creature they are not used to seeing. I look at their faces. If I could bottle that emotion and joy and release it in governments and business boards, I think it would make a huge difference for the planet! I feel by losing that emotional connection we forget our ecosystem connection to nature.
The #inspirators who determined you to take the regenerative path:
Ocean Ramsey, One Ocean – her work is education on shark behaviour (you swim with sharks and learn to understand their social behaviour) – not the fearsome ‘man-eating’ stereotype that the cheap daily newspapers like to promote! They are fascinating.
Cristina Zenato – another shark woman who has spent her life educating on sharks AND removing all the hooks from their mouths – fishing really does hurt sharks – even catch and release.
Robert Bilott – PFAS lawyer portrayed in the movie Dark Waters – who took on Dupont and is a key player in our awareness of the massive damage that PFAS and perfluorochemicals.
Robin Wall Kimmerer – author of Braiding Sweetgrass. She is an amazing and humble ethnobotanist who taught me that humans are as much a part of the ecosystem as every other creature. We can play a constructive role in planet stewardship. (That would be indigenous wisdom!)
Suzanne Simard – Finding the Mother Tree. She describes the incredible symbiotic ecosystem between trees (and different species) and mycorrhizal root systems to connect and help each other. It is a working template for how we should be living. Whenever I see a tree planted alone in a city on a sidewalk I now sadly understand they have been put in eternal solitary confinement – they need contact with others!
My daughter, Josephine, for her power;
My son, Maximilian, for his kindness;
My husband, John, for his total Gaia emotions and support for me;
And about 2000 or more other inspirators – we are an ecosystem of positive neurons bouncing against each other in upward feedback loops. That is the action that leads to hope that drives me.
A hint or starting point for companies or professionals that are taking the first steps in the regeneration journey: Be brave, be bold - but monitor your impact.
As changes take place, ensure you are not doing more harm than good.
For example, many companies are switching to single-use compostable items instead of single-use plastics. So where are the compostable recycling bins? And what harm are these doing? Perhaps it would be better to promote reuse over exchanging one material for another (which puts pressure on other resources). This is the learning journey we must all undertake and keep asking questions about our impact. One step is not a journey.
Most used and abused clichés in sustainability that bother you:
Anything with the word green! Just beware the moment you see that – unless it is the colour of paint or crayon you are using. (Also same applies to blue nowadays!)
The recycling logo on plastics. The symbol with the number in the centre identifies the type of plastic resin used in producing plastics. Many people mistakenly think the symbol means the plastic product is recyclable. In truth, it just indicates what type of resin it is and doesn't always mean recycling.
ESG. There are over 600 ESG ratings for companies, so companies get to choose the one with the values that suit their narrative. Instead, we need integrated accounting that benchmarks environmental, social, and natural impacts. The current scenarios enable big oil and tobacco countries to feature as top ESG companies despite having an incredibly negative impact on human health or the environment. How crazy is that?
Quick fixes and investments. I am now triggered by investors in ocean or conservation projects. The idea that selling conservation as an ‘investment’ opportunity with financial returns can be misleading and adds unnecessary pressure to cut corners. The ‘ROI’ is the air we breathe and the water we drink. Instead, I worry that the shiny technical solution will trump the more solid and slower indigenous wisdom or nature-based solution. My advice is always to dig deeper into these promised riches. Mass-scale projects are usually worrisome because what worked in one area using one methodology rarely works with the fine-tuned calibration of Mother Earth’s working in another. An example would be mass tree or mangrove planting exercises (often done in complete ignorance of pioneer and mixed planting in areas). We are learning - but we have to be smarter and understand either philanthropic donations or patient capital.
An honest piece of advice for young people who lose hope:
Take a step, any step, forward. Moving forward is action and action =hope.
Connect with like-minded individuals (online or around you) to create your community.
Triangulate your knowledge and learning from at least three independent sources that are reputable. Always investigate who is behind the source of information and if they are ‘editorializing’ facts - or just stating them – lean to the latter.
Always ask yourself "Does this make sense?" Keep researching until it does. If it doesn’t, keep asking questions and don’t be afraid to be persistent.
I am always hopeful because I know at any one time there are at least 2000 people I am connected to (directly or indirectly) that are really working for the good of the planet and ocean.
Books that had a great impact on you:
The End of the Line by Charles Clover on the terrible impact of overfishing leaving fishes no more spaces to rest, reproduce or thrive.
The Nutmeg’s Curse by Amitav Ghosh on the enormous role of colonialism on climate change
Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer on Indigenous wisdom and the role it has played in understanding our ecosystems
Exposure by Robert Billot on exposing Dupont’s duplicity in PFAS in our water and our bodies. 99% of the human population now has PFAS (forever chemicals in its blood)
What a Fish Knows by Jonathan Balcombe – fishes are social and intelligent creatures, yet we harvest fishstocks – creating a language barrier to our compassion in any treatment of them as a food resource without any regard to their ability to survive.
Must-reads for any regenerative professional:
Finding the Mother Tree by Suzanne Simard
The Ministry of the Future by Kim Stanley Robinson – a science fiction book about climate that holds some very feasible solutions and a feasible scenario to get us out of this climate crisis.
Corporation 2020 by Pavan Sukhdev - new approaches to measuring the true costs of business and the corporation’s obligation to society.
Consider the Lobster by David Foster Wallace – bottom line – lobsters feel sensations and we should not be boiling them/or freezing them alive.
Count Down by Shanna Swann – human fertility is being dramatically affected by endocrine-disrupting chemicals, particularly in plastics – this is a sobering and alarming book that is worth your time to read – we need to reconsider our ‘free lunch’ consequences with chemicals in our daily lives.
Movies or Documentaries you would watch all over again:
Kiss the Ground
My Octopus Teacher - Waterbear
Dark Waters
Sharkwater
Sharkwater Extinction
The Cove (warning – very disturbing images)
Coded Bias
Eating Our Way to Extinction
Any David Attenborough documentary
Blogs / Websites / Podcasts you visit frequently: Waterbear (my go-to for social and environmental documentaries and films); Food Packaging Forum.
Music that makes you (and your heart) sing:
Running up that Hill – Kate Bush (and I was a fan of hers when this first came out!)
Interstellar soundtrack by Hans Zimmer
Lovely Day (cover of the Bill Withers song) by Alt J – just the best sublime song I know!
Happy by Pharrell Williams – dancing happy and in love
I gotta feeling by The Black Eyed Peas - joyous
Places you travelled to that left a mark on you: All places! I have now come to realize you can find beauty, drama and peace in almost any place. Just take the time to stop, take it in and find it – it will come to you.
Global Regenerative Voices you recommend us to follow:
Most of my LinkedIn contacts! The list is endless, but I want to prioritize primarily women from the Southern Hemisphere who are extraordinary. I have also added some other must-haves. Some may not be as ‘famous’ as others - but ALL of them are amazing and doing incredible work – but I won’t say what they do as half the excitement should be about finding out about them. But take my word they are incredible.
Trends in Regeneration we should keep an eye on:
The shift away from plastics but, instead of swapping out the materials, look for systemic change. For example, SodaStream is a tight closed loop that eliminates plastic bottle production, water overuse and environmental destruction. This system could be scaled up for campuses such as offices, universities, and government buildings.
Composting – removing methane (80x more potent in the atmosphere than CO2) from the equation would be a huge step towards reducing the amount of GHG emissions in the atmosphere.
Plant-based diets or lab-grown proteins – the shift from animal and fish farming must happen sooner rather than later. We treat cows as walking steaks and fishes as a “stock”. Pigs are stored in 20-story buildings that never see the light of day and are kept in cruel conditions to satisfy a manufactured demand for meat. 100 years ago, many diets were plant-based and meat was reserved for special occasions (like the Sunday roast). We need kinder methods for both the animals and fish we consume – and we can consume a lot less. The supermarket blinds us to the cruelty and environmental impacts of mass food production such as this.
Externalities in ESG reporting - we need to think wider and further down the line on our environmental, social and health impacts of business and account for them.
Blue carbon projects that are socially just towards the projects they purport to support.
Best places for business networking (online or offline): LinkedIn is my best way of reaching out and connecting.
Reading articles and reaching out to people who have research or stories and telling them I am interested in asking questions or further learning about their work. Most are so gracious and generous with their time and expertise!
Events we should attend: It is time, energy, and money (and GHG) to get to events unless they are local.
I always consider if we can communicate virtually first. Sometimes, an event is just too big to have an impact. I tend to carefully evaluate each event on a case-by-case basis with pre-determined targets. Is it worth going if you can learn something that you could not do online? Or meet someone, or a group of people, in a central place? But first, ensure you and they have the time to do this or else it is a wasted opportunity.
Associations, business clubs, tribes you belong to – and why: Not my thing. I have communities but they are like Venn diagrams and sometimes there are ‘red lines’ between them. I apply compassion to conflicts when two ideals clash. For example, there is a clash between the No Plastics movement and the Vegan movement: Vegan leather satisfies vegan values but not plastics as it is most usually made of plastic to avoid animal skins. I appreciate both views and will help further both targets (i.e., help vegan leather become non-plastic), but not pit one against the other.
Sustainable Development or Regeneration courses, trainings, or certifications that really teach us how to have an impact: Decolonialization courses that teach us how the power of our narrow lens of thinking needs to open up to a new perspective in solving our climate and biodiversity issues.
Gender and inclusion courses that showcase how the inclusion of women and other minority groups can lead to more robust and sustainable decisions for the climate and businesses (McKinsey report shows that women on boards can yield up to 5% more profit)!
ESG training or metrics that incorporate the negative externalities of companies for a more realistic picture of the good and harm they are generating (and thus a true balance sheet).
Reasons to feel optimistic about our future in 2030:
Action = hope. I see more indigenous, women and youth represented at Climate negotiations and on the scene. They are being platformed. Now we must ensure they are given the power.
For true transformation, those in power must yield their responsibility. Right now, we don’t have the right people in power to make the change – we need more of their decision-making power at the top by those who are the most affected by the issues facing climate impacts today. Where are youth, indigenous, and women in the high levels of decision-making today? We need all these groups present and able to talk without having to conform to the male – business-oriented - model we have used for the last millennia!
Reasons to feel pessimistic about our future in 2030:
Governments are being lobbied by big oil, petrochemicals, and the agro-industry who don’t want to change so they keep alternative representation sidelined. This year’s COP is hosted by a country that is a big oil producer and expanding its oil extraction, the US and UK are expanding theirs (and coal!).
Stand in a room and fill it with balloons. Keep filling it till you can’t move. Keep filling it till you can’t breathe. That is what we are doing with human-generated greenhouse gas emissions. And we are fast hitting a tipping point. The ocean has absorbed our excess heat for the last 30 years, which has kept our surface temperature tolerable. (without the ocean we would have been facing 50 degrees centigrade average). But it looks as if the ocean is reaching its tipping point sooner than any scientific model predicted - which is very worrisome.
Regenerative Leadership qualities much needed today:
Gaia qualities: Compassion, Empathy, Courage, Wisdom, Love, Determination, Humility, and Inclusiveness.
The #inspirator you are endorsing for a future edition of the newsletter is:
Pavan Sukhdev - my friend and superhero author of the TEEB and Corporation 2020, who gave me hope and a pathway for an economic framework to protect and restore human and natural systems. He understands one cannot put a price on nature because nature does not present us with an invoice for its services - but we can incorporate the value of its services in our accounting - it will then help direct more educated and inclusive decisions regarding externalities that our businesses are creating.
The quote that inspires you:
"The Definition of Madness is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results."
(Albert Einstein)
(Predominantly male-led COPs, Governments and Religion. We need more biodiverse perspectives if we are going to output robust and productive solutions for the challenges we are facing today!)
Your own quote that will inspire us:
