Episode 27: Climate Consciousness with Hilde Fålun Strøm and Sunniva Sorby

Marti and Todd welcome citizen scientists Hilde Fålun Strøm and Sunniva Sorby for this inaugural episode on climate consciousness. They discuss their eyewitness experiences with climate change in the Arctic over 19 months living in a small cabin, as well as their work educating others. Key points include the disproportionate impact occurring in polar regions, the importance of individual action, and the need for people worldwide to reconnect with Nature.

Despite having no modern amenities, Hilde and Sunniva having engaged people globally and inspired action. They share the challenges climate change poses for humanity and biodiversity worldwide, emphasizing our interconnectedness. The isolation of their experience actually better connected them to themselves, each other, and the natural world. Their story underscores how belonging to the Earth and her cycles teaches us about belonging to Life itself.

From the Edge: Inner Development Goals (Todd)
Conscious Rant: Assembling Realities (Marti)

GuestS: Hilde Fålun Strøm & Sunniva Sorby

By collecting data as citizen scientists and sharing real time observations and stories, Hilde Fålun Strøm and Sunniva Sorby are inspiring active engagement around climate change. Their extensive time together in the Arctic has been chronicled by CNN and covered by numerous publications such as Sierra Club Magazine and Much Better Adventures.

With a combined four decades of experience including as naturalist guides, explorers, historians, trappers, zodiac operators, boat captains, skiers, snowmobile handlers, fisherwomen, photographers, firearm handlers, kayakesr, mountaineers, and dog lovers, they are polar ambassadors.

Together, they spoke at Cop26 on the “Importance of polar education to understand climate change,” and have authored a book. Hilde and Sunniva co-created a project called “Hearts in the Ice” (HITI) .Through HITI they have reached over 200,000 youth globally on subjects related to climate change with the goal of turning climate despair into hope and action.

Hilde is a TEDx speaker and owner of Svalbard Expeditions, offering people direct experiences of the Arctic. Sunniva made history in 1993 as part of the first team of women to ski to the South Pole. They are the first women in recorded history to overwinter in the Arctic without men.

Contact Hilde and Sunniva

Series: Climate Consciousness

What role can leaders play in healing our relationship with the planet? Can one person make a difference? What is happening around the globe that brings us hope? Join Marti and Todd for this series on climate consciousness featuring scientists, thought leaders, farmers, and more.

Timeline

[00:39] Importance of climate consciousness

[01:02] Overview of Hilde & Sunniva's Arctic experience

[02:49] Realizations about individual action

[04:46] Hilde & Sunniva's work educating about climate

[05:48] Seeing climate impacts across the planet

[07:37] Rapid changes occurring in the Arctic

[10:43] Communicating from isolation about climate

[12:00] Deepening relationships while isolated

[16:21] Being disconnected to feel connected

[18:25] Disconnecting from distractions

[20:35] Building relationship skills for climate action

[23:10] Psychological aspects of extended isolation

[25:50] Creating space for others in climate conversations

[27:35] Consciousness and action at different scales

[29:44] Reconnecting to our belonging with nature

[32:12] Climate action starts from within each person

[33:29] Learning from indigenous knowledge

[35:29] Going outside to connect with Nature

[37:01] Spiritual and cultural transformation needed

[39:11] Living more in the question

[44:14] Insights from students' questions

[47:41] Poem “Hieroglyphic Stairway”

[50:42] From the Edge (Todd): Inner Development Goals (IDGs)

[54:18] Conscious Rant (Marti): Assembling our realities

[1:02:50] Takeaways

Quotes

“The world seems to be looking for the big solution, which is itself part of the problem, since the most effective solutions are both local and systemic.” — Paul Hawken

“Even elephants in Africa are impacted by what's happening in the Arctic.” — Hilde Fålun Strøm

“We are so much more powerful than we think we are.” — Hilde Fålun Strøm

“We need stories out there and we need people . . . who can elevate our awareness around things that require our active engagement and encourage us to care.” — Sunniva Sorby

“We could create stories and content that inspired people to care. They listened to us because good news and inspiration might be in short supply in the media.” — Sunniva Sorby

“When you're living that closely with the natural world, you are respecting—living in harmony—and you understand that she is not something you tame; she tames you.” — Sunniva Sorby

“We need to stress the importance of being disconnected. That can mean turning off the phone, or going into the woods somewhere. I think that taught me to be closer to myself, to be closer to everything around me . . . We were so disconnected and further away from everything. And never felt more connected.” — Hilde Fålun Strøm

“We are two women coming from different parts of the world, coming together with a shared purpose and a shared passion for letting people know how amazing our world is through the lens of the Arctic.” — Sunniva Sorby

“For us it was never about us. This was much bigger than us. We had a greater purpose in life by being there and talking about our love for the Arctic.” — Hilde Fålun Strøm

“To be conscious is to be in relationship. Relationship skills are required at all levels. If we're going to be in relationship with the planet, we have to know who we are because we have to know what we're bringing to that relationship.” — Marti Spiegelman

“This is the depth of being that we're seeking in order for people to start to feel that they make a difference. What we do day by day makes a difference. It's not about threat or good or bad, it's simply being part of the living system of life.” — Marti Spiegelman

“If we realize that we ARE nature, not just part of nature—if we really take that in—maybe we also realize that we should take less. We have all the knowledge to create a healthier, richer, or purposeful and more fun way of living.” — Hilde Fålun Strøm

“I thought I was going to go out there and help solve problems. But at the end of the day, it was really about how do we hold space for others in conversation around the very divisive issues in this world that will impact our entire current population?” — Sunniva Sorby

“We belong to the earth and the rivers and the mountains and the deserts. We belong to the wind and the sun. And we belong to one another.” — Don Manuel Quispe

“Maybe that feeling of belonging will require that people actually are outside, Go into the woods, or up in the mountains, or down to the sea, or somewhere in the park where you can have a feeling of life beyond yourself.” — Hilde Fålun Strøm

“I used to think the top environmental problems were biodiversity loss, ecosystems collapse and climate change. I thought that with 30 years of good science we could address those problems. But I was wrong. The top environmental problems are selfishness, greed and apathy… and to deal with those we need a spiritual and cultural transformation and we, (Lawyers) and scientists, don´t know how to do that.” — Gus Speth

“Nature always reflects to us our true nature.” — Angeles Arrien

“Our [dominant] worldview is that if there are not other people around you are isolated. When you are deeply immersed in Life—even in a place that is way below freezing—you are not isolated at all.” — Todd Hoskins

“The world is changing from being oriented towards what we must do together to how we must be together in order to get things done.” — Todd Hoskins

“How are you assembling your reality? Are you doing it by collecting data bits and matching yourself to the measures they dictate? Or have you discovered a reality that assembles through your direct experience of life as you live it?” — Marti Spiegelman

“I'm ranting about becoming our data instead of being ourselves, but I'm also ranting about using data to create a fixed one- or two-dimensional idea versus using data to guide us into dynamic action—dynamic experience where we gain multi-dimensional experiential knowledge. I'm ranting about our reliance on external measurements to tell us what's true and our continual loss of the core human ability to know the world precisely through our sensing intelligence.” — Marti Spiegelman

“When we use our data collection properly, we can map our coordinates, track our impact, and perhaps find ways to our evolution. But the data by itself—even the data explained through analysis and logic-based discussion—that's not enough. All the data in the world will never replace the knowledge we gain through the direct experience of living as part of the big system of life.” — Marti Spiegelman

“In the days before modern scientific technology appeared, humans knew everything required to maintain a healthy place in the big scheme of life. They knew through their awareness and their senses—through the direct experience of the universe around them. They knew when the seasons would come, when the salmon would return, when the crops needed to be rotated, when large changes in natural cycles were occurring. They knew more than we know now because they participated in life through the magic of human consciousness.” — Marti Spiegelman

“When we become dependent on the numbers alone, we only see the world in one or two dimensions, and even worse, we end up only seeing the past and we lose our ability to see what is arriving. If it doesn't look like what we already know, we tend to reject it, and in many cases we just don't see it at all. We spend too much time facing backwards on our path. As the elders would tell us, we've ended up living claimed by that past.” — Marti Spiegelman

“Do not become your data. Become who you're here to be. Become aware of your environment and experience it through your senses so Nature can reflect to you your true nature. Discover the power of being informed directly and precisely by the living universe all around you. Who you be is already written in your soul. But who you become is your choice and only the universe will tell you this, not the data.” — Marti Spiegelman

“Don't wait for some amazing leader, or politician, or hero to hopefully show up to introduce solutions that can possibly save us. It's really about each of us.” — Sunniva Sorby