In a recent Substack article, Jonathan F.P. Rose, co-founder of the Garrison Institute and chairman of the board, shares some reflections on Climate Week NYC. Its strength, he suggests, lies in its resemblance to the very forests the movement seeks to preserve: rhizomatic, decentralized, and rooted in collective action.
There is no single institution that sets the agenda, no central convention center that serves as its headquarters, and no one group that dictates the ideas, organizations, or approaches that shape the week.
Like a forest, where trees, plants, fungi, and microorganisms interact through vast networks of exchange without any central authority directing them, Climate Week thrives through the connections among thousands of independent participants.
Organizations and individuals organize themselves around shared goals, finding their own spaces, and inviting their own networks, with the result being a well-distributed, adaptive, and continually evolving ecosystem.
For Jonathan, this is nature-based thinking in action. As he writes, “When we model our actions on the way nature works, connecting diverse local efforts into emergent networks, the result may prove more durable, more adaptive, more regenerative, and ultimately more effective.”
