10.2.2023 | Motivation Mondays — Visualizing Literature’s History, Mapping Climate & Food Insecurity, and New Opportunity for Latine Fund Managers
This week on Motivation Mondays:
1. LITERATURE: A Visual History of Chicano/a/x Literature
2. FINANCE: ALZAR Program for Latine Emerging Fund Managers
3. CLIMATE: Food Insecurity Index — Mapping & Forecasting to 2080
First, this index's typography and graphic design stopped me in my tracks. I have talked to multiple friends working on multiple efforts to consolidate, organize, and create meaning to the vast canon of literature in Latine communities. I’m a little biased with this one shared by one of my writer friends since it includes some of my favorite books of all time: The Hummingbird’s Daughter by Luis Alberto Urrea, a book I stumbled upon when I was an editorial intern for the Seattle Times writing HTML code. I was lucky enough to sit next to the “free” publishers’ stack of books up for the newsroom to grab. It was finals week and instead of studying and spending nights at the library cramming and writing essays — I spent any extra time reading this 499 page tome of magical realism meets historical fiction. Deeply researched and profoundly moving — it walks through the coexistence of the Mexican-U.S. border and our shared heritage.
Also included is the classic by Sandra Cisneros, A House on Mango Street, which was required reading if you were in U.S. public schools in the 1990’s. This book, was the first time I read literature that reflected my own lived experience as an immigrant, in a refugee family, with prose that was multi-lingual. If you haven’t gotten a chance to read either books — highly recommend both!
Next, I’m seeing a trend in funding and appetite bubbling from community to transform the transfer of wealth not only in capital but also opportunity. The ALZAR program, launched during this Hispanic Heritage Month, seeks to create equal opportunity for Latine emerging fund managers. I wish applicants the very best of luck!
Finally, what does it mean to be a responsible future ancestor? This question haunts me as does Mary Oliver’s popular question for many of my friends, “Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life”? I’m thinking more often about the obligations we carry within this lifetime. Flooding and wildfire skies in Manhattan, fires in Hawaii, constant catastrophic earthquakes around the world. Climate change also creates migration crises and climate refugees are increasing by the millions.
So how do we measure, adapt, take action? The UK’s Met Office and the World Food Programme partnered this year to create this Food Insecurity Index interactive map and video to visualize and forecast our collective futures. A more informed global citizenry of these issues will mentally prepare us for the necessary policies and budget decisions that we’ll have to make as voters, neighbors, and responsible ancestors for this and many lifetimes after us.
Who are we today? I measure the times we are based on the decisions we make for the future. Being clear-eyed on where we stand grounds us in the resources that we have to work with to respond to future challenges. It may be my immigrant mindset and growing up in poverty — always maximize any open door and any opportunity/asset/resources that you have access to for sheer survival. We all might need to collectively take that survivalist mindset as the climate crisis worsens.
If we were to look at the climate crisis and what resources we have to work with, on this planet, and perhaps, others planets one day in the future — we have abundance in decision making and convening power now. Alarmist public stunts are great to wage attention though lacks recommendations and engagement in dialogue, all in approaches are comprehensive and can potentially cancel itself out without prioritization and focus, and the amount of resources and brain-power we’ve been critiquing of ESG efforts is better spent taking action on the actual targets we’re looking to shift. The answer is not in incentives — it is in finding common meaning and buy-in.
Life in 2050 or 2080 seems like the far beyond our present comprehension, however — in seeing the lifetimes of the elders in my life the past few decades and how their lives unfold, our future world, will approach us very soon.
Already, we’re seeing how food insecurity impacts global mobility, from the recent war in Ukraine to the historical famines when crops fail to weather events, the frequency of our systemic food failures will continue to compound. In the near term, here are some clear actions to take to begin our climate adaptation journey from the United Nations:
- Gear up for big changes
- Spending now saves lives and reduces costs later on — vote on things that will increase your community’s chances to adapt
- Priority must go to the most vulnerable — I’ve been to the Maldives, Venice, and Miami in recent years and the impact on coastal cities and island nations are already immediately visible. Prioritizing the most vulnerable — in human life and in geographically-at-risk communities is already necessary. My work with the Van Alen Institute at their Climate Leaders Workshop in Miami taught me how alarming the disproportionality of refugee and immigrant communities are as historical “low-value” real estate in higher ground are now highly prized as the beach communities are at inevitable risk of sinking.
More resources from the UN:
Read up on the science
The IPCC’s report on Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability assesses the impacts of climate change, looking at ecosystems, biodiversity, and human communities at global and regional levels. It also reviews vulnerabilities and the capacities and limits of the natural world and human societies to adapt to climate change.
The World Adaptation Science Programme links researchers, policymakers and practitioners to create and share knowledge that can shape adaptation policy and action. Recent briefs cover issues like adapting across borders and so-called “high-end” climate change, where temperatures climb so high that climate consequences would be even more extreme.
Join the global movement
Check out the Race to Resilience for 4 billion people by 2030. Better yet, be ambitious, create an initiative and apply to join the drive for a safer world.
To help heal the planet, be part of the mobilizing around the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration, which aims to prevent, halt and reverse environmental degradation in the next 10 years. Share the word on climate action with the UN’s digital assets.
More context on food insecurity and climate change:
*This year, the làmdi newsletter will focus on the healing leader — people doing the inner work and reflection to fuel their leadership journey while also creating impact and healing in the world.
Each Monday, I will introduce you to individuals and ideas exemplifying healing leadership and how it’s transforming our humanity and how we work, live, and connect.
lamdi.co is a management consulting and executive coaching studio supporting impactful leaders, ideas, and initiatives to launch, transition, and scale.
Have an idea to scale, someone to highlight, or a story to share? connect@lamdi.co
