Coal Kills: How Young Ghanaians Stopped a Power Plant and Built a Movement with Portia Adu-Mensah

Coal Kills: How Young Ghanaians Stopped a Power Plant and Built a Movement with Portia Adu-Mensah

What does it take to stop a coal plant from being built in your community — when you're young, when the government is pushing it, and when the promises of jobs and opportunity are pulling people the other way? For Portia, the answer was relationships, strategy, and an unshakeable belief that there is always an alternative. A grassroots climate advocate, royal native of Asuom in Ghana's Eastern Region, founder of Dreamhunt, and member of 350 Ghana, Portia has spent over a decade working at the intersection of climate justice, renewable energy, and community empowerment. In this conversation with Sara, she shares the story of the Coal Kills campaign — how a group of young people took on the fossil fuel industry, engaged ten chiefs in their local dialects, used the media as their most powerful tool, and won. But this episode goes far beyond one campaign. Portia talks about what it really means to work with communities — not for them. About why climate finance is failing the Global South. About the women in the Savannah region living without electricity in the 21st century. About why, for an African, just energy transition is not just energy — it's food, shelter, and clothing. And about hope. Not the abstract kind, but the kind you build by showing up with solar panels and staying long enough to see the light come on. In this episode: * The Coal Kills campaign: how young Ghanaians stopped a coal plant through community organising, media strategy, and nonviolent advocacy * Why greenwashing and broken promises made community engagement the hardest part of the fight * What the Global South really needs from climate finance — and why loans are not the answer * The Women in Renewable Energy project and what it means to bring real-time solutions to communities without electricity * Dreamhunt: raising young environmental advocates through tree planting, recycling, school gardens, and climate-smart agriculture * What indigenous and royal identity means for grassroots advocacy — and why you never enter a community without meeting the chief first * Why putting people before profits is not a slogan but a survival strategy * "Just energy transition to an African is not just energy — it's food, shelter, and clothing" About Portia:Portia is a climate justice advocate, founder of Dreamhunt, and member of 350 Ghana. A royal native of Asuom in Ghana's Eastern Region, she works at the intersection of renewable energy, community empowerment, and climate finance advocacy. With a background in banking and finance, she brings both grassroots experience and policy-level understanding to the fight for a just and sustainable future. Available on: ⁠Spotify⁠ [https://open.spotify.com/show/1IjMS36vYYn0nsnmR4o1zR?si=34c37c4c9d0a4e04] ⁠Apple Podcasts⁠ [https://podcasts.apple.com/pt/podcast/we-need-to-act/id1710550410] ⁠YouTube⁠ [https://www.youtube.com/@WeNeedtoAct] ⁠www.weneedtoact.org ⁠ [www.weneedtoact.org]

There Is No Environment: Māori Philosophy, Interconnection, and the Roots of the Ecological Crisis with Carl Mika

What if the environmental crisis is really a crisis of worldview? In this episode, Sara sits down with Professor Carl Mika — Professor of Māori and Indigenous Philosophies, and Head of School of Aotahi: School of Māori and Indigenous Studies, University of Canterbury — for a conversation that goes straight to the roots of how we see ourselves in relation to everything else. Carl challenges some of the most taken-for-granted assumptions in Western thought: that the self is separate from the world, that knowledge is something to be accumulated, that sustainability is "out there" to be managed. Drawing from Māori philosophy and his own work at the intersection of indigenous thought and academia, he invites us to sit with what we can't fully know — and to find that discomfort deeply instructive. Together, Carl and Sara explore how colonization didn't just reshape land and bodies, but also language, academic structures, and the very way we relate to each other and to the Earth. They talk about the Māori concept of te kore and te pō — nothingness and darkness — not as absence or failure, but as vital and ever-present dimensions of existence that our optimism-obsessed culture desperately tries to escape. This is a conversation about what sustainability could mean if we stopped treating nature as "out there" — and started recognizing, as Carl puts it, that "the environment is not the environment. There is no such thing as environment." Expect philosophy, provocation, and a reminder that the most radical act might just be to sit with someone over coffee — no agenda, no formal structure — and simply get to know them. In this episode: * Why cultural appropriation of the haka and Māori symbols misses the most important thing: the lived daily experience they come from * How colonization wounded the colonizer too — and why that question rarely gets asked * The limits of the word "sustainability" and why one indigenous leader said "today it is sustainability, yesterday it was life" * Two (or three) forms of interconnection in Māori philosophy — and why the most radical one unsettles the foundations of Western institutions * How academic writing is itself a colonized form — and what it would mean to write differently * Te kore and te pō: why Māori cosmology holds nothingness and darkness not as the past, but as permanently present * What Māori relational practices can teach us about connecting beyond formal collaboration structures About Carl Mika:Professor Carl Mika is a philosopher and Head of School at the University of Canterbury, Aotearoa New Zealand. Of Tūhorangi and Ngāti Whānauapiti descent, his work sits at the intersection of Māori philosophy, indigenous studies, and the philosophy of language. He holds a background in law and a PhD in German Studies, and his writing explores how indigenous thought can fundamentally challenge — and enrich — Western intellectual traditions. Available on: Spotify [https://open.spotify.com/show/1IjMS36vYYn0nsnmR4o1zR?si=34c37c4c9d0a4e04] Apple Podcasts [https://podcasts.apple.com/pt/podcast/we-need-to-act/id1710550410] YouTube [https://www.youtube.com/@WeNeedtoAct] www.weneedtoact.org [www.weneedtoact.org]

Nature’s Last Dance: Falling Back in Love with the Natural World with Natalie Kyriacou

What does it actually take to make someone fall in love with nature? Not lecture them, not overwhelm them with data, but genuinely make them fall in love? That’s the question driving everything Natalie Kyriacou does. Environmentalist, author, storyteller, and founder of My Green World, Natalie has spent over a decade building games, education programs, and now a sweeping new book - Nature’s Last Dance: Tales of Wonder in an Age of Extinction - all in service of one mission: helping people feel the wonder of the natural world before it’s too late. In this conversation with Sara, Natalie brings her trademark blend of warmth, urgency, and radical honesty. She talks about the 12-year-old forest defender who made a promise to an endangered owl. She talks about the economy as the root cause of our ecological crisis - an incentive structure that “make more money off humans and nature being sick.” She talks about the alarming rise of AI as an amplifier of destruction, the need for better models of human behaviour and leadership, and why the degrowth movement just needs a better name. But beneath all of it runs a single thread: the belief that most people are fundamentally good, that they care, and that what’s missing is not willpower but connection - to nature, to community, to each other. This is an episode for anyone who has ever felt the weight of environmental news and wondered whether hope is still a reasonable thing to feel. Natalie’s answer is a clear, grounded, and deeply human yes. In this episode: • How a childhood spent camping, reading, and running around with frogs shaped a lifelong environmentalist • Why Natalie wrote Nature’s Last Dance for people who would never pick up a nature book, and what makes it different • The story of Gracie: the 12-year-old who made a promise to an endangered owl and is now dedicating her life to protecting them • Why our economy is fundamentally incompatible with human and environmental health, and what changing it would look like • Natalie’s frank take on AI: not a tool for good, but an accelerant of destruction, and why she’s deeply alarmed • The rise of toxic masculinity and its ripple effects on people, politics, and the planet • Why degrowth is brilliant economics with a terrible name, and needs a rebrand • Simple first steps to reconnect with nature: go outside, look up, watch a bird About Natalie Kyriacou: Natalie Kyriacou is an environmentalist, author, and the founder of MyGreen World, a wildlife and environmental charity that has reached hundreds of thousands of young people through award-winning apps and education programs. She is Director at the Foundation for National Parks and Wildlife and an Ambassador for the Australian Conservation Foundation. Her debut book, Nature’s Last Dance: Tales of Wonder in an Age of Extinction, is out now in Australia and launching in the UK and Europe.

Goldman Prize 2026: defender el agua desde el corazón de Colombia con Yuvelis Morales Blanco

Yuvelis Morales tiene 25 años, creció pescando en el Río Magdalena y hoy es la voz más joven y potente de la lucha antifracking en Colombia. Ganadora del Premio Goldman de Medio Ambiente 2026, el reconocimiento más importante del activismo ambiental en el mundo, Juve nos habla desde el corazón del Valle Medio colombiano. En este episodio descubrirás: → Qué significa ser "gente del río" y por qué el Magdalena no es un recurso sino una madre → Por qué Colombia es el país más peligroso del mundo para los defensores ambientales, y cómo Juve convirtió el miedo en herramienta → El papel de América Latina y del Sur Global en la transición energética justa → Qué está en juego en las próximas elecciones colombianas para el medioambiente → El rol de las mujeres en la defensa de la naturaleza: rebeldes, fieras y con voz propia → Un mensaje de esperanza para las juventudes del mundo Una conversación sobre resistencia, comunidad, territorio y la construcción del nuevo mundo libre de combustibles fósiles. weneedtoact.org @weneedtoactpodcast Apóyanos mostrando tu interés de las siguientes maneras: 🎧 Escucha y suscríbete al podcast We Need to Act en Spotify o Apple Podcasts. ☕ Apoya a nuestro trabajo comprándonos un café. 📲 Únete a nuestra comunidad en Instagram, LinkedIn, y YouTube 📬 Suscríbete a nuestro boletín informativo en nuestra página web.

We Are Kapwa: How We Forgot to Belong and How to Remember with Lana Jelenjev

What does it mean to truly belong - not as an individual seeking acceptance, but as part of an interconnected whole? In this episode, Sara Rego speaks with Lana Jelenjev, a Filipina facilitator and systems thinker based in the Netherlands, whose work sits at the intersection of nervous system literacy, belonging, and organizational transformation. Lana introduces us to kapwa - the Filipino value of seeing our shared humanity - and pakikiramdam, the practice of deep sensing and empathy. She explores why so many of our modern systems were built on trauma responses, and what it would look like to build for flourishing instead. Together, Sara and Lana discuss: • Why belonging is not something we need to find - it's something we need to remember • How ancestral grief and intergenerational trauma shape our nervous systems and our institutions • The "sandwich generation" navigating between hyper-individualism and collective roots • Healing-centered responses: stop, soften, flock, flow, and surrender - as alternatives to fight or flight • What the Filipino concept of kapwa can teach us about building life-centered organizations If you've ever felt the weight of living in a world that moves too fast and connects too little, this conversation offers both a diagnosis and a path forward. "Settled bodies settle bodies." - Lana Jelenjev If you want to learn more about Lana's work, please visit her website [https://www.lanajelenjev.com/]. Please show us your support by... * Tune in and subscribe to the We Need to Act podcast via Spotify or Apple Podcasts. * Support our show by ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠buying us a coffee⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ [https://buymeacoffee.com/weneedtoact]. * Join our page on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ [https://www.instagram.com/_weneedtoact/] and ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠LinkedIn⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ [https://www.linkedin.com/company/weneedtoact/] * Subscribe to our newsletter on our ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠website⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ [www.weneedtoact.org]