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**MEDIA ADVISORY ** WEEK ONE NATURE ZONE PAVILION – COP27

News Feed
Monday, November 7, 2022

National Geographic Society leaders and National Geographic Explorers to offer a broad programme of events in week one of COP27.   National Geographic Society (NGS) leaders and National Geographic Explorers – the Society’s grantees – will offer a broad programme of events in The Nature Zone Pavilion, Blue Zone at COP27. During week one (6-12 November), NGS panels will focus on the role of storytelling in documenting the global climate crisis; how local communities are protecting some of the most biodiverse places in Africa; and how young Explorers are at the forefront of the youth-led climate movement in their respective countries.    The week one lineup of events includes:    Tuesday, Nov 8 4:00 PM – 4:45 PM | The Nature Zone Pavilion (Delegations Area – Pavilions Hall 5 (Zone c, P128), Blue Zone | Livestream link here   The Storyteller and the Changemakers: A Case for Hope Compelling, science-based stories are critical for raising awareness about how the climate crisis is affecting people – particularly within communities that have not contributed to the problem. Miora Rajaonar, National Geographic Explorer from Madagascar joins Kaitlin Yarnall, Chief Storytelling Officer of NGS, and Sally Fouts, Director of The Climate Pledge, for a conversation about the power of visual, authentic storytelling to document the global climate crisis and the creative solutions local communities are implementing. Miora will describe her work capturing climate impacts on food supply and agricultural solutions to Southern Madagascar’s “kéré,” or period of hunger.    Wednesday, November 9 1:00 PM – 2:00 PM | The Nature Zone Pavilion (Delegations Area – Pavilions Hall 5 (Zone c, P128), Blue Zone | Livestream link here   Protecting the Okavango Basin: A Win for Nature, Climate, and People  While the iconic Okavango Delta is protected in Botswana, 95% of the water that feeds it comes from Angola – which is not protected and faces the threats of climate change, habitat destruction, and water diversion. Protecting the Okavango Basin, which spans Angola, Namibia, and Botswana (an area larger than California) represents one of the most critical conservation opportunities in Africa this decade. Learn how the National Geographic Okavango Wilderness Project is working with local communities and governments to protect and preserve a place that is home to one million people, half the remaining elephants on the planet, and Africa’s second-largest peatland system.    Panelists Bogolo J. Kenewendo, UN Climate Change High-Level Climate Champions’ Special Advisor, Africa Director  Vladimir “Vlady” Russo, Senior Technical Advisor for Angola, National Geographic Okavango Wilderness Project  (Moderator) Ian Miller, Chief Science and Innovation Officer, National Geographic Society   Thursday, November 10  4:30 PM – 5:00 PM  | The Nature Zone Pavilion (Delegations Area – Pavilions Hall 5 (Zone c, P128), Blue Zone | Livestream link here   Elevating Youth Voices: A Conversation with Youth Climate Leaders, The Nature Conservancy, and the National Geographic Society   The National Geographic Society and The Nature Conservancy share a deep commitment to empowering young people to take action on behalf of the planet. Join Jennifer Morris, CEO of The Nature Conservancy, and Ian Miller, Chief Science and Innovation Officer of NGS, for a conversation with National Geographic Young Explorers Sophia Kianni (United States) and Eyal Weintraub (Argentina). These Young Explorers will discuss why elevating youth voices is key to tackling climate change and supporting a more inclusive conservation field. They’ll also share how their environmental education projects are helping to change the climate conversation in communities around the world.    CONTACTS AND NOTES TO EDITORS:   For more information or to arrange interviews, please contact: Steph Miceli, Senior Manager, Impact Communications, National Geographic Society Mobile, Whatsapp: +1 617 943 951,  smiceli@ngs.org   More information about the National Geographic Okavango Wilderness Project is available here.

National Geographic Society leaders and National Geographic Explorers to offer a broad programme of events in week one of COP27.   National Geographic Society (NGS) leaders and National Geographic Explorers – the Society’s grantees – will offer a broad programme of events in The Nature Zone Pavilion, Blue Zone at COP27. During week one (6-12...

National Geographic Society leaders and National Geographic Explorers to offer a broad programme of events in week one of COP27.

 

National Geographic Society (NGS) leaders and National Geographic Explorers – the Society’s grantees – will offer a broad programme of events in The Nature Zone Pavilion, Blue Zone at COP27. During week one (6-12 November), NGS panels will focus on the role of storytelling in documenting the global climate crisis; how local communities are protecting some of the most biodiverse places in Africa; and how young Explorers are at the forefront of the youth-led climate movement in their respective countries. 

 

The week one lineup of events includes: 

 

Tuesday, Nov 8

4:00 PM – 4:45 PM | The Nature Zone Pavilion (Delegations Area – Pavilions Hall 5 (Zone c, P128), Blue Zone | Livestream link here

 

The Storyteller and the Changemakers: A Case for Hope

Compelling, science-based stories are critical for raising awareness about how the climate crisis is affecting people – particularly within communities that have not contributed to the problem. Miora Rajaonar, National Geographic Explorer from Madagascar joins Kaitlin Yarnall, Chief Storytelling Officer of NGS, and Sally Fouts, Director of The Climate Pledge, for a conversation about the power of visual, authentic storytelling to document the global climate crisis and the creative solutions local communities are implementing. Miora will describe her work capturing climate impacts on food supply and agricultural solutions to Southern Madagascar’s “kéré,” or period of hunger. 

 

Wednesday, November 9

1:00 PM – 2:00 PM | The Nature Zone Pavilion (Delegations Area – Pavilions Hall 5 (Zone c, P128), Blue Zone | Livestream link here

 

Protecting the Okavango Basin: A Win for Nature, Climate, and People 

While the iconic Okavango Delta is protected in Botswana, 95% of the water that feeds it comes from Angola – which is not protected and faces the threats of climate change, habitat destruction, and water diversion. Protecting the Okavango Basin, which spans Angola, Namibia, and Botswana (an area larger than California) represents one of the most critical conservation opportunities in Africa this decade. Learn how the National Geographic Okavango Wilderness Project is working with local communities and governments to protect and preserve a place that is home to one million people, half the remaining elephants on the planet, and Africa’s second-largest peatland system. 

 

Panelists

  • Bogolo J. Kenewendo, UN Climate Change High-Level Climate Champions’ Special Advisor, Africa Director 
  • Vladimir “Vlady” Russo, Senior Technical Advisor for Angola, National Geographic Okavango Wilderness Project 
  • (Moderator) Ian Miller, Chief Science and Innovation Officer, National Geographic Society

 

Thursday, November 10 

4:30 PM – 5:00 PM  | The Nature Zone Pavilion (Delegations Area – Pavilions Hall 5 (Zone c, P128), Blue Zone | Livestream link here

 

Elevating Youth Voices: A Conversation with Youth Climate Leaders, The Nature Conservancy, and the National Geographic Society

 

The National Geographic Society and The Nature Conservancy share a deep commitment to empowering young people to take action on behalf of the planet. Join Jennifer Morris, CEO of The Nature Conservancy, and Ian Miller, Chief Science and Innovation Officer of NGS, for a conversation with National Geographic Young Explorers Sophia Kianni (United States) and Eyal Weintraub (Argentina). These Young Explorers will discuss why elevating youth voices is key to tackling climate change and supporting a more inclusive conservation field. They’ll also share how their environmental education projects are helping to change the climate conversation in communities around the world. 

 

CONTACTS AND NOTES TO EDITORS:  

For more information or to arrange interviews, please contact: Steph Miceli, Senior Manager, Impact Communications, National Geographic Society

Mobile, Whatsapp: +1 617 943 951,  smiceli@ngs.org

 

More information about the National Geographic Okavango Wilderness Project is available here.

Read the full story here.
Photos courtesy of

Confronting the Unbelievable

A photograph that dramatizes the power of nature

Photograph by Irina RozovskyWhen the photographer Irina Rozovsky moved from Boston to Athens, Georgia, she began taking walks around her new neighborhood. She’d push her daughter’s stroller to a nearby wooded path, trying to get the baby to sleep, and photograph what she could along the way. One day in 2018, after a storm, the path was flooded. A young girl stood in the bright sun at the edge of the murky water, observing the strange new scene before her—“confronting the unbelievable,” as Rozovsky puts it. The image reminded Rozovsky of the fairy-tale trope of a child getting lost in the forest. “It’s both a romance and a nightmare,” she told me.Rozovsky’s untitled photograph will be on display this fall at the High Museum of Art in Atlanta, as part of the exhibition “A Long Arc: Photography and the American South Since 1845.” In an introduction to an accompanying book, the Atlantic contributing writer Imani Perry reflects on the 21st-century photographers who capture the region’s distinctive landscapes with compositions that evoke a 19th-century sense of the sublime. In the South, Perry writes, “nature takes over everything that humans create and destroy.”Rozovsky insists that the work is not making an environmental statement. As a mother, she worries about the role that humans have played in warming the world her daughter will inherit. But as a photographer, she told me, she was drawn to this particular scene for its “serene and surreal” beauty, its unsettling scale.A relative newcomer to the South, Rozovsky has been struck by the high drama of its nature. “It can be so wild,” she said, even just down the street in Athens. She’s not religious—but when trees fall, or a path floods like this, Rozovsky said, it can feel almost biblical. “There’s something larger than us.”This article appears in the October 2023 print edition with the headline “Confronting the Unbelievable.” When you buy a book using a link on this page, we receive a commission. Thank you for supporting The Atlantic.

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