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One of my happy places is below the ocean's surface, floating deep underwater to witness everything in its depths.
I've been scuba diving for nearly a decade now, and it's taught me so much about my relationship to the natural world, about the beauty and majesty of our oceans, and how they sustain life around us.
But it has also shown me the reckless impact we as humans have had on the environment.
It's there in front of me, as plain as day.
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It's been heartbreaking to witness the seas change over the years.
And not for the better.
The climate crisis has undeniably impacted our oceans.
But how we tell this story, and who tells it, is vitally important.
Not just for remembering what has happened, but for imagining what comes next.
I'm Madhu Paekinola.
This is TED Business, a podcast from TED.
Our speaker today, Fenton Lutonatabua, is here to remind us of the power of storytelling.
Fenton is part of a community of Pacific Islanders who have built their way of life around and amid the ocean.
And in this era of climate crisis, they're taking control of their own narratives.
They're centering themselves not as victims, but as active participants in solutions for a better future.
Then after the talk, I'll reflect on what narrative leadership can look like.
But first, a quick break.
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Fenton Lutanatabua now takes the TED stage.
age. Long ago, when I was maybe 10 or 11 years old, I remember my grandfather took me out fishing.
We were standing out by the ocean on some rocks and my pa had a spear in his hand and a smile in his eyes waiting for dinner to swim by.
To pass the time, my pa would tell me stories about his old people.
That day, he told me that we come from a long line of boat builders and fisher folk, and that the ocean would always be kind to us.
This was my past truth, his story, and his story was what put food on the table for my mother and her siblings.
Growing up, the stories that I was surrounded by taught me that I was linked to the ocean and that the ocean was linked to me.
Over the years, as I've come to learn about a warming ocean, sea level rise, and runaway climate impacts, I've realized that the very same thing that had nourished my family for generations could now potentially destroy us.
This realization has shaped my dedication to building out a truly Pacifica -led climate movement.
My name is Fenton Utunatumbua, and I'm from the Fiji Islands.
Today, I have the absolute privilege to be able to talk to you about the Pacific Climate Warriors.
The Pacific Climate Warriors are an incredible network of young Pasifika people from across the Pacific region and in diaspora communities in Australia, Aotearoa New Zealand, and the United States.
States. The Pacific Climate Warriors and the communities that they represent contribute less than 1 % to global greenhouse gas emissions, yet they are among the most vulnerable to the threats of the climate crisis.
Our story as the Pacific Climate Warriors began over over a decade ago, at the Youth Climate Conference, the global power shift in Istanbul, Turkey.
It was there that we realized that the only stories folks from outside the Pacific knew about our people was that we were mere victims to this climate crisis, waiting to be saved from our drowning islands.
This was, of course, untrue.
Collectively, right then and there, we decided to break this trend in climate storytelling and instead of only focusing on climate impacts in the Pacific, also show the world what we were doing to fight.
We are not drowning.
We are fighting became our slogan, our mantra.
The shared identity of the Pacific Climate Warriors was born, and less than a year later, at the largest coal production port in the world, in Newcastle, Australia.
We paddled out in our traditionally built handmade canoes and blockaded that coal port for a day.
In a first -of -its -kind demonstration of that magnitude, we were able to break this victim narrative and build one that reflected the full dignity of our people in the face of this climate crisis.
us. We refused to just be the canary in the coal mines, ready to be sacrificed for the valuable lessons.
We knew that we had to be the heroes our communities deserved.
And we also knew that we had to retell the world our stories and build our climate narratives.
So many of us are being defined by narratives that do not serve us.
So many of us let these stories take away our power, rob us of our agency, and strip us of our fullest, most authentic selves.
That has to change.
We are who we are because of the stories we tell ourselves and each other, and we need to get Get better at telling stories and driving strategies that are bold enough to build a new vision of the futures that we can co -create.
In order to do that, we need two things.
Climate leadership and narrative leadership.
Climate leadership is specific communities continuing to say no to fossil fuels and yes to climate solutions in whatever spaces we find ourselves.
from village town halls all the way up to the United Nations climate talks.
Climate leadership are partners, allies and collaborators across the majority world, creating the conditions necessary for us to voyage towards a Pacific beyond fossil fuels.
Climate leadership are our friends in the Philippines teaching us over Zoom zoom, how to build backpack -sized portable solar modules so we have the option to be able to charge our mobile devices, medical supplies, as well as turn on a light after a Category 5 cyclone has made landfall on one of our islands.
Climate leadership is about our communities learning about keyhole gardens, gardens built above the ground to mitigate saltwater intrusion so our people can grow, consume, and redistribute our local and traditional foods.
Narrative leadership, on the other hand, is this.
It's a community organizer from the Pacific standing here telling you stories about our people at the front lines of this climate crisis.
It's a willingness to articulate an alternative way forward that puts people and communities before anything else.
Narrative leadership is about telling fuller, more nuanced stories that enable us to become the future ancestors that our children can be proud of.
Love. Climate leadership and narrative leadership built and shaped by the most vulnerable communities can and will unlock the futures we all deserve.
A future where climate solutions support and empower us indigenous communities to be our our most dignified selves, a future where our communities can own and have access to renewable sources of energy and a future that is ultimately fossil free.
It takes all of us doing what we can to be able to co -create these futures.
And in order to co -create these futures that we deserve, we need to break the stories and the strategies that don't serve us anymore and build the ones that do.
Beyond just being stewards of our stories, we can also be stewards of our solutions.
Thank you very much. This episode is brought to you by Square.
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That was Fenton Lutanatabua speaking at TED Countdown 2024.
I love Fenton's concept of narrative leadership and the importance of being a steward of your own story.
I think Fenton's point about nuance is an essential one.
Do our narratives about the climate crisis center the voices of people most immediately impacted?
Or is the media often telling stories about them in a way that renders them silent, even when they themselves might know know how to create an alternate way of life that isn't so reliant on fossil fuels.
The climate crisis is as much a local issue as it is a global one.
For Fenton and his community of Pacific climate warriors, there's nothing abstract about the climate crisis.
It's a present threat to their way of life, and as a result, they've thought deeply about solutions.
Fenton reminds us that narrative leadership can have a profound impact on future generations.
It's a way to co -create a new future where we empower those living under the threat of the climate crisis to make decisions for their own communities and to speak out on the global stage.
That's it for today.
TED Business is part of the TED Audio Collective.
This episode was produced by Hannah Kingsley Ma, edited by Alejandra Salazar, and fact -checked by Julia Dickerson.
Special thanks to Maria Ladias, Farrah DeGrunge, Daniella Balarezo, Tansaka Sangmanibang, and Roxanne Heilash.
I'm Madhu Paginola.
Thanks for listening.
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