Apple Podcasts | Spotify | YouTube | RSS | Android

Climate action is the new five-a-day for your kids, says Maya Mailer on TEDxLondon’s Climate Curious. The co-founder of Mothers Rise Up and co-director of Our Kids’ Climate shares how parent-led groups are bringing fresh creativity to the climate movement. From Mary Poppins-themed flash mobs to subverted Father’s Day cards and stilt walkers symbolising oil derricks, parents are getting inventive in ways that unite families — kids, grandparents, and loved ones — to take a stand. The love-led creativity is endless, and parents are leading the charge!

Get involved:

Parents letter to world leaders
Check out the #OurOtherMother illustrations
Mothers Rise Up
Our Kids’ Climate

Created by TEDxLondon
Executive produced by Josie Colter
Produced by Ben Beheshty
Curated by Deesha Chandra
Hosted by Maryam Pasha and Ben Hurst
Communications by Tara Cooper and Issey Gladston

Transcript

Introduction to Climate Quickies

[00:00:00] Maryam Pasha: Welcome to Climate Quickies, bite sized nuggets of climate goodness from our TEDxLondon experts in under five minutes.

[00:00:08] Ben Hurst: In this week’s Climate Curious, we’re taking a look at climate protests through the frame of family.

Meet Maya Mailer: Climate Activist and Mother

[00:00:14] Ben Hurst: Our guest this week is the co director of Our Kids Climate and co founder of Mothers Rise Up, [00:00:20] Maya Mailer.

[00:00:21] Maya helps create new ways for parents and caregivers to lead climate action for their kids. In a way that doesn’t necessarily involve marching on the streets. From dances to art installations and flash mobs, Maya shares how she’s creating opportunities for positive protest, all driven from a place of love.[00:00:40]

[00:00:40] Let’s head over to Maya to hear more. Stay curious!

[00:00:45] Maya Mailer: I’m Maya. I co direct a global network of parents, grandparents who are pushing for climate action. It’s called Our Kids Climate. And I also co founded a UK group called Mothers Rise [00:01:00] Up, which pushes for climate action through creative, street protest, and art and culture.

[00:01:08] And I’ve got three kids, age six, eleven, and thirteen. So, yeah, it’s quite busy.

The Power of Family in Climate Action

[00:01:14] Maya Mailer: We’ve been going for, for several years, you know, at least since the youth [00:01:20] strikes, but there have been parent groups organizing around this frame for love and care for, for, for, for many, many years. And I think it’s really powerful because it resonates with a core identity that many people have.

[00:01:37] You know, being a mom, being a dad, being a [00:01:40] grandparent is very important for many people. It’s often their most important identity. And then we’re connecting that with, you know, this huge threat, obviously, to us, to our children, to our grandchildren, the accelerating climate crisis. And we’re trying to tap into it through emotion and [00:02:00] through love and through duty.

[00:02:02] And what we’re seeing in countries around the world is that It’s inspiring people to get involved. It allows us to build a community. And also it allows us to build hope in the face of, you know, Some really, in the face of the [00:02:20] climate crisis, and you know, a lot of dark things that are happening in the world today.

[00:02:24] And I think by tapping into love and care, you can turn some of that despair and that helplessness into a determination to act.

Creative Protests: From Flash Mobs to Art Installations

[00:02:38] Maya Mailer: So in the UK, Mothers [00:02:40] Rise Up has been very much focused on insurance companies. And you might ask, why insurance? What has that got to do with anything? Well, Insurance is needed for any fossil fuel project, so you can’t open a coal mine or, you know, a new oil and gas project without insurance. So by [00:03:00] persuading insurance companies to shift away from fossil fuels, you have a really powerful, often very overlooked lever.

[00:03:08] in the fight to phase out of fossil fuels. So we decided, you know, insurance is quite dry. We need to do this with a lot of creativity to engage people [00:03:20] in, in, in this action. And we focused in particular on Lloyd’s of London, one of the biggest insurance marketplaces in the world. And in particular on the chair of this huge corporate Goliath, who is a father of four.

[00:03:35] And so we did all kinds of things. So, oh, and I should also add [00:03:40] that he’s a huge cricket fan, and as well as being the chair of this insurance company, Lloyd’s, he’s also the chair of Lord’s, the, the cricket grounds. So we did all kinds of things from sending him a cricket bat in the post, saying, hey, fossil fuels are just not cricket, through to subverted Father’s Day cards, and then [00:04:00] we also Brought beautiful, creative performances right into the city of London, into Lloyd’s.

[00:04:07] It’s right in the heart of London, you know, it’s one of these iconic skyscrapers. So, a couple of examples, we organized a Mary Poppins themed flash mob where we had kind of these [00:04:20] really corporate looking people in suits walking around who then burst into song and dance. Earlier this year we organized a climate dance set to really dramatic classical music.

[00:04:33] It was choreographed by a leading opera choreographer again with professional dancers. We had [00:04:40] stilt walkers. representing oil derricks, and then there was a child in a Zorb ball, and it told a story. So it was all very carefully thought out. It told a story of the insurance employees joining forces with the mothers to protect the planet and protect this child from big oil, the [00:05:00] Stiltwalkers.

[00:05:00] As is often the case, there was, it was a hugely windy day and that That area where we often do these actions is a wind tunnel. So there were gale force winds and we were worried that the stilt walkers were going to fall off their stilts. It was all, like, very dramatic. And it was just brilliant and we saw lots of the Lloyd’s employees [00:05:20] had come to the windows, you know, and they were filming the action.

[00:05:24] And, like, the mums and kids and parents had such a brilliant time. And it, what was, you know, great about it is it got a huge amount of media coverage. So it was covered from, you know, the Financial Times to the Times, Guardian, Business Press, you know, so the press that [00:05:40] our targets read over their, their morning coffee.

[00:05:43] And I think it just shows another form of protest. that is, you know, rooted in joy, in creativity, that tells a really powerful story. And I think there is a huge power in being able to collaborate with, with artists [00:06:00] around this love led message.

Engaging Parents Digitally and Through Art

[00:06:07] Maya Mailer: I think not all Parents are able to get out onto the streets, I know, and that’s something we’re very mindful of, you know, partly because they’re just too busy, they can’t manage it, but also, of course, as we know that in some, some [00:06:20] countries, some contexts, it’s, it’s very dangerous to do street protests, or it can be.

[00:06:24] So we also think about how we can engage parents digitally, you know, just it. Knowing that, that mums and dads are often, often very busy and that also lowers the barrier to entry. So one art project we ran in collaboration with a whole bunch of [00:06:40] groups as Our Kids Climate was cherishing and honouring Our Other Mother.

[00:06:46] So Our Other Mother being Mother Earth, the ultimate. ultimate mother and provider and we worked with children’s illustrators who depicted different images, [00:07:00] pictures, scenes of our other mother and it really took off. So we had some illustrators do kind of initial images and then it just sparked something and there were artists and illustrators just.

[00:07:14] Kind of there was this outpouring of creativity and I think what we found really heartening is that [00:07:20] in some of our Organizers in countries like I don’t know like in Vietnam is one example that comes to mind where it might be quite difficult to have conversations around climate It can often be very polarizing or that you know, as I said, you know, there’s a lot of hostility towards climate activists.

[00:07:38] They found that by hosting [00:07:40] art exhibitions with these scenes that were really like, you know, you couldn’t help but be captivated. They were able to then have conversations with government officials and with fellow parents, you know, firstly about the artwork, what it symbolized, and then to start really opening up that conversation about climate and [00:08:00] environmental issues.

[00:08:01] So again, I think it shows how this strategy can Open up the conversation and bring people into the movement who might otherwise feel Yeah, a bit alienated, or a little bit intimidated by climate activism.[00:08:20]

Global Parent Movements and How to Get Involved

[00:08:20] Maya Mailer: In the global movement Our Kids Climate, there are parent groups, there are grandparent groups, there’s grannies in Finland, there’s dads in parts of U Uganda, it’s very diverse. But what unites us all is this intergenerational frame and this love led climate organizing. So one way is to check out [00:08:40] Our Kids Climate.

[00:08:41] So that’s the global network that’s providing support to national and sub national parent groups. And then here in the UK there’s many groups. Mothers Rise Up, Parents for Future UK, Mothers Can and there’s also Parents for Future Global, there’s Mothers Rebellion, there’s a European [00:09:00] Grandparent Network.

[00:09:01] So I really think it’s about like, you know, what speaks to you, but if you start with our kids climate, that will give you a good flavor of this expanding, dynamic parent climate movement.

Final Thoughts and Call to Action

[00:09:12] Maya Mailer: And the thing I want to say is that. Just get involved in any way you can. Like, there’s no such thing as a perfect activist.

[00:09:19] And if [00:09:20] you can only do a little bit, that’s better than not doing anything at all. And even just having that conversation with your friends and with your family is really important so that we can break the stigma around talking about the climate crisis.

[00:09:34] Ben Hurst: Thanks for listening to This Quickie.

[00:09:36] Maryam Pasha: This podcast team at [00:09:40] TEDxLondon.

[00:09:40] Until next time,

[00:09:41] Ben Hurst: stay curious.