BY THE END OF JULY 2026, THERE WILL BE A DEDICATED EARTH TALK PLATFORM
Earth Talk aims to create Earth Literacy in society, getting more people activated to respond to the Earth Crisis. It does this by developing your capacities to engage and guide your communities to discover what’s wrong, imagine possible futures, and take action for the planet.
Earth Talk is a community of practice
You can learn alone at your own pace, or with others, tapping into a wealth of resources – learning units, audio and video recordings, and graphic tools. They are organised around the Earth Talk framework of five elements, all about moving people from emotional reaction to deeper understanding and imaginative action.
You will have access to hundreds of illustrations, slide sets, posters, postcards, checklists, workshop templates, handouts, and so much more. You are encouraged to adapt and apply these resources to your own practice in engaging people. You might be an artist, educator, campaigner or communicator in any form, committed to Earth Literacy, ecological citizenship and climate action.
On top of self-paced learning, you can form cohorts and study groups in the Earth Talk space in Hylo. You can attend monthly gatherings for mutual support, take part in practitioner interviews, and access mentoring and bespoke training.
Why do we need Earth Talk?
We need better conversations and thoughtfully designed experiences to counteract the powerful messages that pit humans against each other and against other species. These can help people forge bonds, find common ground, and practice kindness as the impacts of the Earth Crisis worsen. They can also spread practical wisdom on how we might cope with these impacts, restore ecosystems and build a more regenerative way of living.
Too often, the Earth Crisis is not acknowledged, so Earth Talk brings the causes, impacts and solutions into all our activities.
Also, too often, attempts to imagine the future are either inflated with ‘hopium’ or buried with despair. Earth Talk activities are ‘possitopian’, helping us imagine futures drawing on evidence-based realism mixed with wide-open creativity about the alternatives we need to create.
Who is behind Earth Talk?
The materials and community of practice have been created by Bridget McKenzie, a regenerative culture leader and ‘artivist’ with 35 years of experience. Since 2006, she has specialised in engaging people with environmental and justice issues through arts and heritage. She is the founder of Flow Associates and Climate Museum UK, and co-founder of Culture Declares Emergency.
Bridget piloted Earth Talk through a series of online group courses in 2024 and 2025. After participant feedback, and with strategic and technical support from Josh Hall of Possible Worlds, this has been relaunched as a self-paced learning platform and a more self-organising community of practice. Here are a few changes:
- The materials have been rewritten and largely redesigned;
- New modules are on the way – The Artivist’s Way and Building Local Resilience;
- Recorded interviews with exemplary practitioners and monthly supportive gatherings have replaced the intensive group courses;
- The joining fee has been streamlined to a one-off lifetime cost of £75.
WATCH OUT FOR THE LAUNCH OF EARTH TALK SO THAT YOU CAN JOIN THE COMMUNITY
I have been delivering training to teachers, artists and museum staff for 35 years. In the past 10 years, most of this training has focused on how to engage the public and young people with critical issues such as environmental injustice.
“We need 1000 Bridget’s doing this work.” Jonathan, Aviva
“Our enormous thanks for your inspiring, motivating and energising presentation last night. It truly felt like a timely ‘call to arms’. The discussion that followed and potential future activity catalysed by your presentation feels very rich and urgent, so a big thank you again…Placing love and emotion at the heart of climate activism feels like the only truly sustainable way forward.” Sara Dudman, Somerset Art Works
“That was fabulous! You are indeed doing what you say…talking about the problem and engaging with both public and peers. I am inspired.” Alison Smith, following workshop at MuseumNext
“Many thanks for your excellent workshop on Friday — you really managed to get everyone talking and thinking about what might be achievable and I hope that we’ll have a good starting point from which things may be taken forward.” Yvette Shepherd, Museum Development Officer for Organisational Health, after a workshop on ‘What can museums & archives do about climate change?’
“The most impressive content from Theme days that ended yesterday was Bridget McKenzie’s keynote speech.”; “It got me thinking about sustainable development in my own work, how we could improve this in everyday work in community section”; “Your performance was the most believable and relatable of them all.” About a keynote at Museum Theme Days in Helsinki
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