It’s 2025! No doubt many of you are thinking of what this year means for you, what you want to let go of that hasn’t served you, what you want to embrace to make your life more fulfilling and meaningful. Perhaps you are seeking ways to get involved with personal, political or social action to make a difference in the world. 
 
We want to offer you a perspective on one of the most important realms of action facing us all, the growing, intensifying climate crisis. Severe weather patterns are causing disruption and devastation throughout the world. 2025 is the middle year of what scientists have called the “decisive decade” for climate action. In a number of international climate accords, goals were set to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, scale up renewable energy, stop deforestation, and protect biodiversity, oceans and marine ecosystems. We must meet goals set to be accomplished by 2030 or lose critical momentum.
 
I have just returned from a week in the Amazon rainforest, and my heart is overflowing with love for this extraordinary place, one that is crucial to our climate future. The Amazon has been called the lungs of the planet, but it is also the hydrological heart of the world. Ongoing deforestation, destruction, and pollution there pose grave threats to biodiversity, water cycles and the global climate.
 
Sara Vetter and I make several trips a year to the Ecuadorian Amazon with the Pachamama Alliance, and we are privileged to be working with Indigenous people who have been dedicated for decades to preserving these precious forests not only for themselves but for the future of life. They model for us the kind of consciousness and commitment, vision and action it will take to protect and regenerate this vast and vital ecosystem. They have formed the Amazon Sacred Headwaters Alliance, an Indigenous-led movement aiming to create an extraction-free sanctuary in one of the most biodiverse places on earth. The regenerative model they have created can be replicated in critical bio-regions throughout the world.
 
We encourage you to have the Amazon in your consciousness this year, and to find ways to find be involved with climate action. Connecting with the Pachamama Alliance and its programs is one path, and there are many other organizations doing great work. Committing to examining your own life, curtailing your consumption, and reducing your carbon footprint is challenging but necessary. Signing up with Carbon Crew can make the process way easier and more rewarding than you think!
 
Most importantly, do not lose faith that we humans can end the climate crisis. We have the solutions we need to reverse global warming and to regenerate our natural systems. We have to remain stubborn optimists; giving in to despair is not an option. Even with some strong headwinds from a new U.S. administration, 2025 can be a seminal year for turning around the climate crisis. Nothing is so powerful as an idea whose time has come, and it is time to secure the future for ourselves and for generations to come.
 
With love and appreciation,

Lynne & Sara