Sustainable Solutions to Climate Change. Member Spotlight: Charalee Graydon
Charalee Graydon is a dedicated member of the MBBI Climate Change Policy Project (CCPP) and has attended the Conference of Parties (COP) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) twice, the COP 23 in Bonn, Germany, and the COP 24 in Katowice, Poland. She first joined as a member of MBBI 5 years ago when she was working on a collaborative group focusing on climate change. She is also active in the Children & Youth Alternative Dispute Resolution Working Group, and United Nations Multilateral Working Group. She considers it important to work with young people to develop peaceful models for climate change dispute resolution.
Publishing Prolifically on Climate Change
Charalee is most interested in climate change as a global issue. Her advocacy in finding solutions revolves around her wide academic expertise; She is a part of the faculty at Euclid University and focuses on international law, climate change, and dispute resolution. Further, she has authored multiple articles on the legal structures of the Paris Agreement, the US’s decision to leave the Paris Agreement, international law in fostering cooperation on the Paris Agreement, and international piracy,
One of her largest selection of articles is about the combination of creative arts and climate change. Whether to engage in debate or change opinion and behavior, the arts can play a key role in the cultural awakening of the masses to the perils of climate change. To highlight this intersection, she is a featured writer for EnvironmentalJusticeTV, which explores transitions to a just and sustainable future on a finite planet. Her most comprehensive article focuses on the creative arts and climate change, specifically international indigenous art and culture.
Her first article discusses the necessity of art for climate change. This leads to her new several articles highlighting specific artists focusing on climate change and environmental justice at large. The first major artist Charalee spotlighted was Cameroonian artist Barthélémy Toguo, whose October 2016 exhibit in Montpellier, France, focused on human rights issues especially the relationship of fossil fuels, exploitation of oil resources, and climate change. Charalee then spotlighted Marshallese poet and climate activist Kathy Jetñil- Kijiner at a Rhodes Climate 1.5 Intergenerational Workshop. Lastly, she showcased South African artist Tanisha Bhana works in an online contemporary art gallery entitled “Guns and Rain.”
The Judgement Game, Let’s Play the Game, and Can We Save the Human Race?
In 2013, Charalee published her first novel, The Judgment Game, which discusses the criminal justice system by allowing the reader to become the decision maker in how and what punishments the fictional country of Torcia will use. This interactive book provides the reader and an opportunity to play a role in the justice system and see how it truly functions. She has also translated this book into Spanish entitled El Nuevo Camino: Casos Legales in order to allow this interactive process to have a wider readership.
Soon after, she wrote a second book, Let’s Play the Game, as a companion to The Judgement Game. This book uses collaboration to address problems in human relationships through a series of activities and games, groups gather and share ideas in decision-making and conflict resolution. Diversity of opinion and creativity are rewarded! Lastly, Charalee has recently written her third book, Can We Save The Human Race?, as a science fiction novel about a journalist reporting on a hospital creating clones in order to relocate humans to a new planet as Earth is on the brink of climate destruction.
Each of Charalee’s four books revolves around her mantra of “We need to build a peaceful world. We must work together to solve the world’s problems because we are sisters and brothers on this planet. We have the organization, people, and tools to resolve disputes peacefully and to address the issues that threaten life on Earth. It is now just a matter of using them!”
Upcoming for Charalee, she is currently writing an article and thesis on conflict resolution and climate change. She will also be collaborating with Ken Cloke in the Fall Mediation Training in Santa Monica, California October 28—November 1, 2019. This event is a private mediation training workshop if interested register here!.
Further, Charalee is collaborating with the CCPP leadership and MBBI’s Webinar Coordinator to organize a webinar showcasing the work of the Climate Change Policy Group. The first webinar in November will be about the development and activities of the Climate Change Policy Project with speakers Tom Fiutak and Gregg Walker. More details will be available soon to our Webinars’ page.
Article by Ben Lutz, MBBI Writer