What do you do when you’re gripped by climate change anxiety and simultaneously frustrated with modern dating? Well, if you’re Rozina kanchwala, you channel those feelings into a theatrical comedy performance called “Love in the Time of Climate Change.”
What started out as a creative outlet, and a joke among friends, launched Rozina to found Eco.Logic, an education, arts, and community building nonprofit that makes environmental education and action more accessible and inclusive.
What Rozina learned through producing her play at two theater festivals at seven out of seven sold out shows in Washington, DC is that there’s a true appetite for climate education that is entertaining, educational, and actionable. Using humor to talk about climate change and then
presenting ways to take direct action was appreciated by audience members who came to view the play.
So much environmental news is characterized by despair and gloom, leaving people unsure of how they can take action in any meaningful way. Further, people are busy and have limited time to engage in environmental action, even if they believe it’s important.
In a speech at the Aiglon College in Switzerland in 2014, His Highness the Aga Khan spoke of the potential of hope in times of uncertainty, saying, “And you will be asking yourselves how, as nano-players on the global scene, you could cause positive change to happen for yourselves, your families, your peoples. My answer is: hope. Fortunately, just as fear can be infectious, so hope is infectious. When individuals and families and communities, or even nations, come together around new found hope… that new momentum can be unstoppable. The smile replaces the frown. Conversation replaces silence. Fear of the future is replaced by confidence to respond to its challenges” (Cited at The.Ismaili).
Through Eco.Logic, Rozina seeks to meet people where they are, provide environmental education in creative ways like the play and subsequent podcast. She also believes environmental issues need to be understood intersectionally. We can’t address the climate crisis if we ignore social justice issues (see Kanchwala’s post here on that topic). And ultimately, the environmental movement needs to be inclusive. For too long, major environmental organizations have been dominated by white voices and white leadership and it’s essential that these leading organizations create space for everyone because the climate crisis affects us all and needs all of us on board.
Rozina has contributed to a number of jamati initiatives bringing her passion and expertise of environmental issues to various institutional projects. She hopes more people will join the movement and invites you to learn more about Eco.Logic here: https://www.ecologicprograms.org/
Rozina Kanchwala
Rozina is an energy and environmental professional with 15 years of global academic and work experience in the environmental sector. She is a Fulbright scholar. She spent a year in India studying agrarian distress and then completed her Master’s degree in Environment and Sustainable Development at University College London. In addition to her role as the Executive Director at Eco.Logic, she currently serves as the Director of Energy Justice Partnerships at the Clean Energy Leadership Institute.
Ismailimail 