Episode Details

The climate crisis is not only a technological or policy challenge — it is also a crisis of worldview.

In this powerful conversation, Corinna Bellizzi speaks with Osprey Orielle Lake, founder and executive director of the Women’s Earth and Climate Action Network (WECAN), about how climate justice movements around the world are working to transform our relationship with nature, power, and community.

Osprey’s work bridges grassroots activism, Indigenous leadership, international climate negotiations, and legal innovations like the Rights of Nature movement. Drawing from her book The Story Is in Our Bones: How Worldviews and Climate Justice Can Remake a World in Crisis, she explores how systems like colonization, extractive economics, and patriarchy have shaped today’s ecological crises — and how new stories rooted in reciprocity, justice, and stewardship can guide the path forward.

This conversation explores the role of Indigenous knowledge in climate solutions, the fight against fossil fuel expansion, the growing global push for legal protections for ecosystems, and the importance of community-led restoration efforts around the world.

Originally recorded in 2024, this episode remains deeply relevant today as movements for climate justice, land stewardship, and ecological restoration continue to gain momentum globally.

Key Topics in This Episode

• Why the climate crisis is fundamentally a crisis of worldview

• The role of Indigenous knowledge and leadership in climate solutions

• The Rights of Nature movement and legal frameworks that protect ecosystems

• The Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty initiative

• Climate justice and the risks faced by frontline land defenders

• Reforestation projects led by women restoring ecosystems and communities

• Why global transformation requires both systemic change and cultural shifts

About Osprey Orielle Lake

Osprey Orielle Lake is the Founder and Executive Director of the Women’s Earth and Climate Action Network (WECAN), an international organization that works with grassroots, Indigenous, and frontline communities to advance climate justice and a just transition to renewable energy.

She serves on the Executive Committee for the Global Alliance for the Rights of Nature and the Steering Committee for the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty Initiative. Osprey is the author of The Story Is in Our Bones: How Worldviews and Climate Justice Can Remake a World in Crisis and the award-winning book Uprisings for the Earth: Reconnecting Culture with Nature.

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Her work has been featured in publications including The Guardian, Earth Island Journal, The Ecologist, and Ms. Magazine.

Resources & Organizations Mentioned

• Women's Earth and Climate Action Network (WECAN)

• The Story Is in Our Bones – Osprey Orielle Lake

• Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty Initiative

• Global Alliance for the Rights of Nature

• Movement Rights

• Regeneration: Ending the Climate Crisis in One Generation – Paul Hawken

• Green Amendments – Maya van Rossum

Guest Links

Website:
https://ospreyoriellelake.earth

WECAN International:
https://www.wecaninternational.org

Instagram: