“This needs to be an inclusive, global conversation,” said Shambhalian film animator Cyndi Levine. “People are already suffering from environmental degradation. Those who are suffering the most right now are the ones who have not had any voice. We need to understand the ways in which we have failed to listen deeply to their voices and know that with a conscious effort it is still possible to do that.”

Cyndi, the former Practice and Education Coordinator in Halifax, who is now planning a documentary about green spaces in cities, was speaking this month at a two-part conversation spearheaded by the ​Shambhala Touching the Earth Collective​ on Shambhala Online. Everyone’s mind was on the global environmental emergency.

“The people I would love to see leading a global, inclusive discussion,” she said, “are black, indigenous, and people of colour. There are people who have been living in harmony with their environment whose wisdom we can learn from. There are people who have been considered disposable when corporations are looking for a place to build a dump or a mine or an oil refinery. “We need to hear their voices, and the voices of young people whose future is determined by what older generations are doing today.”

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