Kjell has been passionate about mitigating climate change since he was a teen, and his mission has taken him to many parts of the world and into many spaces and groups, from educating children to UNITED NATIONS summits, research academies, expert councils and forest defenders.

He has spent 20 years with climate science, education and movements in Europe and the Americas with Plant-For-The-Planet Academies and many others. His experiences with what works and what does not led him to form LINGO the Leave It In the Ground initiative as a platform with information helping affected communities and caring citizens take steps to ending extraction, since once fossil fuels are extracted, it is logical that they will get burned and contribute to unnecessary harmful global warming.

– – –  

Further, what usually goes unnoticed in the mirage of CO2 bubble counting is that extraction causes extreme wounds to the Earth, extincts animal and plant species, hurts, destroys ecosystems and eliminates its local inhabitants – and since fossil fuels are extracted far away from cities, these populations are non-industrial forest dwellers, often indigenous people who continue to get dominated, abused, threatened , tortured, raped, murdered, massacred and through displacement their culture gets eliminated, in short industrial invadors continue to wage genocide and cultural genocide.

Besides, as John D. Liu explains, these violent invasions leaving devastated landscapes behind for a brief period of a few badly paid dirty jobs, filling the pockets of a few rich people far away to fuel society while destroying the rich natural assets that nourish society is not a proper economy. 

But this mess can only get solved – like 1800s steam engine tech and horse drawn coal carriages (read Black Beauty) – when we let that outdated dirty tech model behind.

– – – 

Kjell has great interest in empowering young people to respond to worrying information, and know that they can bring about considerable changes at local and national levels, for a good future for their loved ones, communities and the species and lands they love.

His wide scope of knowledge, encounters and relations makes him a great conversation partner and coach for teachers and young people at school and beyond. Do you wish to extend your knowledge beyond brief media articles and guesswork? This is your man to give you an overview and introduction to many climate related aspects, and avenues to pursue.

Grand change begins with understanding of what’s going on, what suffering it causes and what better alternatives exist. Then, human creative genius will always find better ways with less suffering. And if we get smart, we decide to live with no suffering at all. 

Imagine that 2050 and 2090 are futures are islands that you can steer your boat towards. Examples are a burned planet with robots and a few hi-tech cities controlled by AI. Life in a garage without ever feeling air and sunshine, a mountain, lake, forest or animal or your own room and garden (a space station). A green dictatorship. Something … different? What do you call it? 

What island do today’s adult generations steer towards? 

What future do you choose? To which island does your current behavior steer you? To which island does your current education and competence steer you? Observe, formulate and discuss the feelings that move in you, and motivation when you hear that the current behavior leads to (a) a future of hell on Earth, of war, poverty and all grand wildlife dying (on the road to which you sit idle and apathy), and (b) that by learning and realizing solutions you can create a future of better peace, better justice, better joy, where humans and animals live in peace once again (on the road of which you live and act like the teens and adults that you see on the YL website; view top menu About / Life with YL). Observe the feelings. Which one gives you motivation, readi- and willingness to spend some hours per week (like a sport) to make it come true?

How many people in your group choose a burned planet with robots?

In order to reach the future that your heart, mind and body desire to live in … what changes do you have to make to become entirely different from current adult generations? 

What are essential changes in paddling your boat to that future?

What help do you need?

Where can you find it?

Making your region climate crisis resilient – so that when global warming changes climate, weather, rain- and groundwater patterns you can still live with peace, joy and prosperity (abundance of food, income, public swimming pools …) requires a whole lot more than people usually think of.

It is not only about solar panels or food. In crisis, many local people only think of themselves, and when inter/national refugees stream in, it brings tensions and violence, poverty and education become issues, people start trampling fragile spaces in nature, as lakes drop and their water no longer touches land vegetation, birds and fish can no longer have babies and their population can drop by 90% in a single year (like at Seddiner See near Berlin) … “life used to be idyllic here, from one year to the next, we have a mudhole and life is shit. There is no in-between, it’s either Paradise or shit.”

The Climate Crisis Resilient Region cardset shows you over 80 model solutions that are already implemented by communes – which means they are possible. Copy-pasting them to your regional map is a great exercise to gain an eagle eye overview of what needs doing in your town and region and who is to get involved.

This exercise makes your group play changemaker city council, and you will realize that it means that your entire population, every single child, grown-up and senior, becomes part of this collective city council, because they are all constituents and they are all affected, have a right to know, to get involved, and they have skills, resources and relations to contribute, which creates a fireworks of superpowers beyond anything you’ve seen to-date. 

This is where our societies now shift towards. We come from empires of centralized monarchy and dictatorship with minions and morons. Both stink, have zero love and are shit no one wants anymore. We have changed! Yay! We are in decentralized parliamentarian democracies with informed voters, which were a perfect 20th Century model to move towards a life in liberty and dignity for citizens. This is no longer good enough. Now, we shift to the next level GOOD collaborative society, and its citizens need to be Able Active Caring Citizens. Hiding behind experts is not enough. The youth and adults you seen in YL masterfully embody the Able Active Caring Citizen and you see that it is super lot of fun! it’s inspirational which tells you that positive change, and achieving to live as able citizen is all about spirit. And YL is designed to help you make this upgrade fast and fun, to become like them in your own ways, and this means that you’ll also become able to sing Change Generation Music, because unless you can, you haven’t got it. “You have to feel the change to be the change, you have to sing the change to be the change, you have to live the change to be the change,” Earth Guardians, Be the Change, 2013