Dr. Elizabeth Sawin
@bethsawin.bsky.social
27K followers 1.4K following 3.1K posts
Director Multisolving Institute. She/her. Systems thinking, climate justice, and multisolving, with a sprinkle of gardens and the odd puns. @bethsawin on X
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Reposted by Dr. Elizabeth Sawin
vanessagillings.bsky.social
My thirteenth piece for my solo show @gallerynucleus.bsky.social! LA people — only 3 days left to see the show in person if you’re interested! ☺️💛

#illustration #kidlitart #watercolor #watercolour #gouache #fantasyart #cozyart #cozyfantsy #storybookillustration
watercolor and gouache painting of a witch looking up at a birds perching in a tree on a calm autumn afternoon
Reposted by Dr. Elizabeth Sawin
mongabay.com
In northern Thailand’s Ban Pong village, a group of women has spent nearly two decades restoring and guarding their community forest to prevent dry-season wildfires. From the restored forest, residents now harvest forest products to sell in markets and feed some of Ban Pong’s 7,100 residents.
Women firefighters in Thailand restore community forest
In northern Thailand’s Ban Pong village, a group of women has spent nearly two decades restoring and guarding their community forest to prevent dry-season wildfires. From the restored forest,…
news.mongabay.com
bethsawin.bsky.social
Kinda like paying for the harms from air pollution and greenhouse gases would kill the fossil fuel industry. Wait...isn't that how the invisible hand of the market economy is supposed to makes our lives better and better?
bethsawin.bsky.social
There is a carbon price, it's just that the polluters aren't the one to pay it.
michaelwara.bsky.social
This is a good thing from a risk-based pricing perspective. But also so hard for people that are now paying $12k + difference in conditions. This is one of the true costs for Californians of wildfire.
lvulis.bsky.social
CA FAIR plan seeks 35.8% rate increase.

#climaterisk

www.latimes.com/business/sto...
Reposted by Dr. Elizabeth Sawin
drhelleal.bsky.social
Late capitalism, with no effective regulation of the most powerful and monied interests (and boy are they monied) is gonna break all hell loose.
bethsawin.bsky.social
Climate change disasters as a matter of personal responsibility. "The advisories emphasize the importance of increased personal responsibility in preventing wildfires" www.newsweek.com/wildfire-ris...
Warning issued as entire state faces wildfire risk
National Weather Service meteorologists have issued warnings for Maine amid dry, windy weather.
www.newsweek.com
bethsawin.bsky.social
Climate change disasters as a matter of personal responsibility. "The advisories emphasize the importance of increased personal responsibility in preventing wildfires" www.newsweek.com/wildfire-ris...
Warning issued as entire state faces wildfire risk
National Weather Service meteorologists have issued warnings for Maine amid dry, windy weather.
www.newsweek.com
bethsawin.bsky.social
That set of chains we hardly know is there..."Imaginary lock-ins." You fight them by getting specific about your dreams.
bethsawin.bsky.social
I'm always looking for examples of people and teams doing this in creative effective ways!
bethsawin.bsky.social
A current project is producing lots of "how to" guides for groups to build connection and navigate complexity together and I'm thinking about the "forms" for that. I guess maybe there will be several, including a low-bandwith online form and a printed or printable one.
bethsawin.bsky.social
I think about this and also about internet access during tumultuous times. E.g: post disaster, struggling to charge devices, can you download that guide for how to run a participatory meeting?
ziibiing.com
i went to a tech/social change conference in late Nov 2016, and we spent so much time talking about what “safer” organizing could look like under tyranny

we talked to folks from the Philippines about how all data could be compromised, how we’d have to pass notebooks and encode church sermons
jenlucpiquant.bsky.social
Another effort to track ICE raids was just taken offline www.technologyreview.com/2025/10/06/1...
bethsawin.bsky.social
I have heard of half-baked claims but never fried.
grousehollow.bsky.social
I don’t get uptight or upset about typos. Our menu at a little VT restaurant today (which was very good) had “FRIED CLAIMS” on the menu and that was awesome. Also our server said “lagoony” instead of “linguini” and again, awesome. It’s fried claims and lagoony for me from now on.
Reposted by Dr. Elizabeth Sawin
tbessias.bsky.social
Beautiful. See subsequent post, too.
bethsawin.bsky.social
The path between here and a just and livable future is not a smooth curve of managed transition any more (if it ever was). It's white water, surprises, confusion, advance, retreat, learning, messing up, grieving, celebrating, experimenting, truth telling, pausing in the beauty.
bethsawin.bsky.social
It's stumbling along unsure. It's not being validated, not being resourced. It's making it up. It's triage. It's trusting the earth and each other and it's life finding a way.
bethsawin.bsky.social
The path between here and a just and livable future is not a smooth curve of managed transition any more (if it ever was). It's white water, surprises, confusion, advance, retreat, learning, messing up, grieving, celebrating, experimenting, truth telling, pausing in the beauty.
bethsawin.bsky.social
There's fierce love in action on this planet, today and every day. Not knowing if it's "enough" doesn't make it less beautiful.
Reposted by Dr. Elizabeth Sawin
smashfizzle.bsky.social
The conversation between Klein and Coates showed me that a lot of people who screech about “infighting” on the left aren’t aware of the fact that marginalized people have been forced to learn how to regulate their emotions during conflict, and so, are better able to hear what’s actually being said.
bethsawin.bsky.social
hmm I think I meant more "experience it as a result and a teaching"
bethsawin.bsky.social
More and more it seems to me, as the polycrisis becomes a mainstream frame, people speak about managing risk, not learning, not rethinking, not reimagining. What do you think?
bethsawin.bsky.social
I might still need to manage (get a loan, take an inflammatory) but the consequence frame seeks me to make actual fundamental change to habits, actions, and beliefs.
bethsawin.bsky.social
Do I have a crisis of a low savings account, or a consequence of continuing to spend more than I earn?

Do I have a crisis of a sore back or a consequence of too many hours seated and neglect of my exercise program?
bethsawin.bsky.social
When you recognize something is a result of your own actions and beliefs that calls forth different responses than when something is a crisis that needs to be navigated. One calls for a reckoning the other for managing (or for pushing consequences onto others, the worst kind of managing).
bethsawin.bsky.social
What would change if people stopped framing what we are experiencing as a crisis (or even as a polycrisis) and instead began to experience it a result and teaching?

Vanessa Andreotti writes and speaks of the polycrisis as a poly-consequence and I think she has identified something important.