Action

Building Bridges

Increasing polarization and fragmentation has seriously undermined the capacity for collective action and coalition formation which is urgently needed to tackle ecological emergencies. Simultaneously, different forms of environmental degradation—from climate change to biodiversity loss to pollution and freshwater access—have been treated as isolated incidents, the purview of narrow specialists, further exacerbating silos which stymie action across disciplines and issue areas. 

How can we bridge concern for humans and nonhumans as we ratchet up decisive actions to address the climate and biodiversity emergencies? How can a holistic approach to these and other ecological challenges contribute to reducing societal polarization as well as individual and species loneliness?

MOTH works to build bridges across issue areas, disciplines, constituencies, and geographies, with the understanding that a holistic, integrated approach will facilitate stronger action on ecological emergencies.

MOTH, for example, bridges the human-nonhuman divide as well as the fragmentation between different areas of environmental governance, like climate change and biodiversity loss. With respect to climate change, the MOTH Program works to inject more-than-human rights and a ‘MOTH’ perspective into ongoing climate debates to help unlock stalemates in climate governance and politics and offer a way forward to better protect the more-than-human world and the people within it.