Haumea Ecoversity

Image Caption: I’m honoured to have been invited to attend this special conference organised by Pope Leo in Italy 1-3 October This conference is celebrating the 10th anniversary of the late Pope Francis’ Laudato Si’ – the holistic environmental and social justice encyclical (letter) to the world, which recognises that we’re “striving in countless ways to guarantee the protection of the home which we share.”
Some of the conference and Pope Leo’s address will be livestreamed. [Please register soon and see more information here ]

Some of the Links on this post were not working when first posted, they should be working now.

Sometimes my work takes me to unexpected places. From tending a small forest in South Carlow, to building an ecoliteracy learning community online, I now find myself invited to the Vatican and later, 7th Oct., I will be hosting an online Global Ethical Stocktake online, through my Haumea Ecoversity community (join my Haumea Ecoversity newsletter here)

But first, next week I’ll join an extraordinary gathering—faith leaders, dignataries, environmentalists, writers, Indigenous elders, and policymakers—brought together by Pope Leo. The focus? A bold (and long overdue) idea: that solving the climate crisis requires not just new technologies or policies, but a deeper cultural and ethical paradigm shift.

Why the Vatican Conference Matters

The upcoming Vatican conference marks a turning point ahead of COP30, the UN climate summit taking place this November in the Amazon.

For the first time, a UN climate meeting will formally recognise that solving the crisis is not only about cutting carbon or advancing technology. It also demands something deeper: an integrated ecological cultural and ethical shift, guided by care, respect, and conscience for the community of life—and for social, economic & intergenerational justice.

That is why Pope Leo’s gathering is so significant. It brings together an extraordinary mix of voices: environmentalists, writers, Indigenous leaders, policy-makers, and faith figures. Among them is Brazil’s Minister for the Environment, Marina Silva, who—alongside UN Secretary-General António Guterres, Mary Robinson, Kareen Gore, Wanjira Matthai and others—are leading the UN’s call for Global Ethical Stocktake Dialogues across different regions of the world (Mary is the Regional Convenor for the Global Ethical Stocktake for Europe).

Importantly: People within communities everywhere are invited to host inclusive dialogues, reflect on their ethical visions for the future, and submit their responses to the UN before the end of October. These submissions, will guide the regional stocktakes and will then help inform COP30.

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Echoes of the Earth Charter

For me, this moment echoes the calls made ahead of the first UN Earth Summit in Rio in 1992 (and even earlier, at Stockholm in 1972) for a Charter of Nature/ Earth ethics (that would respect and extend the UN Declaration for Human Rights 1948).

While the Earth Charter wasn’t adopted as a UN charter in Rio in ’92, its vision of ecological integrity, justice, and peace endured. Fortunately under the then leadership of Maurice Strong and Mikhail Gorbachev, the Earth Charter Secretariat moved to the Global South and found its home at the UN University for Peace, in Costa Rica.

Since then, it has grown into a global movement of new integrated thinking for holistic sustainability education, law and peace (although still better known in non-western countries):

• it is for everyone, as it is translated into 76 languages (including Irish in 2025)
• inspires scholarship especially in integrated sustainability education for development (ESD) and environmental – ecological law
• inspires teachers, policymakers, and communities across the world who have taken Earth CHarter courses (I gained my accreditation in the Earth Charter for sustainability education in ’21, thanks to the Irish Arts Council)
• & has and continues to influence 27 legal instruments for care of the Earth and intergenerational justice

Most recently, distingushed Law Professor and ecological law scholar Klaus Bossleman, at the Earth Charter 25th anniversary conference in the Hague, shared that the Earth Charter’s principles were shaping the historic July 2025 ruling by the International Court of Justice announced a few weeks later, which upheld intergenerational climate justice in a case led by the passion and determination of Pacific Island youth to be heard and who galvanised youth across the world to support them.

Bosselmann also shared that the Earth Charter continues to inspire proposals to develop a new visionary UN Earth Trusteeship body to safeguard Earth’s global commons.

However, despite all of this activity over several decades, ecological ethics and the Earth Charter have often been overlooked in education and politics, particularly when the narrative of economic-growth at all costs remains so dominant. That is, until now. The UN announcing its historic call for a Global Ethical Stocktake, in early 2025. And UNESCO which has twice endorsed the Earth Charter for Education for Sustainable Development (ESD), shared this week at the UN General Assembly how foundational the Earth Charter is for ESD. All of this means, I’m hopeful the Earth Charter and more dialogue around ecological ethics, especially underlined by Pope Leo and other international leaders, will mean these conversations will spread to Ireland (and Aotearoa New Zealand) too.

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My Gratitude

I am honoured to be attending Pope Leo’s conference in Italy alongside:

🌿 US Prof Emeritus Peter Blaze Corcoran – dear friend, mentor, and much-loved Haumea Ecoversity guest. Many of you will remember his wonderful webinar for the County Carlow Environmental Network (CCEN) Summer Gathering at An Gairdín Beo, our community garden in Carlow in June 2025.

💚 Dr Lorna Gold – new CEO of the global Laudato Si’ Movement, based at Maynooth College. Some years ago, my husband Martin invited Lorna to speak at a CCEN event at An Gairdín Beo, Carlow, where she inspired a packed audience with her work on The Letter with Pope Francis. (If you haven’t seen this powerful 2022 film, you can watch it on YouTube here.)

🌍 Earth Charter International – who have generously sponsored my participation in this Vatican gathering.

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Take Part: Host Your Own Ethical Stocktake Dialogue & submit your reflections to the UN by end of Oct.

Former President Mary Robinson, as European Convenor for the UN Global Ethical Stocktake, is inviting people living in Ireland to host their own dialogues—whether in a community group, organisation, workplace, or faith community. Just this week, she and other Elders shared to the world, the publications for this Global Ethical Stocktake, which I believe from others, will unfold over several years.

However, the timeframe for the general public to send in submissions is very soon – you need to host your Ethical Stocktake Dialogue by end of Oct., 2025.

So I’m very grateful for Mary Robinson and her team at the global climate justice Dandelion Project which has produced an excellent open-source toolkit with scripts, case studies, and templates so anyone can confidently host an informal dialogue and submit their reflections to the UN before the end of October.

👉 Access the toolkit here

You can also share your gathering on social media—tagging the Dandelion Project and Earth Charter International—to help amplify the global conversation.

📄 Resources:

• Earth Charter Dialogue Guide PDF
• Earth Charter Dialogue Flyer
• Earth Charter Position Paper for the Global Ethical Stocktake in my last newsletter, ​you can read it here
  
  As I said above, I will be hosting an online Ethical Stocktake via my Haumea Ecoversity on 7 Oct, join my ecoversity newsetter here to get updates.

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From a small forest in South Carlow to the Vatican

From rewilding Hollywood Forest, to building the Haumea Ecoversity learning community, to now being invited to a Vatican conference at the Summer Vatican Palace in the beautiful Castel Gandolfo in Italy—my journey continues to be humbling, surprising, and deeply rewarding.

At heart, it all comes back to one thing:

✨ Creating a more beautiful, wise, and compassionate world—together. ✨

If you have any comments do post below.