Declaring a personal climate emergency, with Zoe Cohen

In just under a month, the next wave of Extinction Rebellion protests begin around the UK and elsewhere (w/c 7-Oct). Whether you’ve already been involved or you have other ways of responding to the climate crisis, the question many of us ask is, how can we, as individuals and as owners of small businesses, have any real impact?

That’s why I wanted to speak to today’s guest. Zoe Cohen is a former NHS Trust board member who became a very successful executive coach. Zoe has now pivoted her life to focus as much as she can on activism and peaceful civil disobedience to push for the much needed system change to tackle the existential threat we face from climate and ecological breakdown.

In our interview, Zoe talks about her values and how she stays connected with them; the sacrifices she’s made to stay congruent with those values and how we, as individual citizens and small business owners, can make a difference when in comes to the future of our planet. She also explains why she got arrested and how those of us who don’t want to see the inside of a police cell can still help.

Even if you don’t have a strong sense of ‘calling’ like Zoe, I think you’ll be fascinated to know how she’s combining her two greatest passions: safeguarding the future of our one, shared planetary home with enabling and encouraging people to shine and to take action.

This is a long interview - we cover her transition from corporate life to running her own business to her latest pivot AND we talk about what we can each do to make a difference. I hope you will set aside time to listen to the whole thing and be inspired by Zoe and the work of others like her.

Stay in touch with us on Facebook, Twitter, the Corporate Escapees Facebook Group and of course, the website.

Follow Zoe on LinkedIn and Twitter.

Articles by Zoe Cohen

• Where were all the Coaches when the planet warmed by 3 degrees?
• How to declare your very own Climate Emergency
• An Open Letter to Coaches, the Coaching & Coaching Psychology Professional Bodies and Coach Educators

“Heading for Extinction” with Dr Gail Bradbrook - This is the original ‘Heading for Extinction and what to do about it’ talk from Dr Gail Bradbrook, one of XR’s founder’s from last year. There are now more up to date versions of the talk.

ICF webinar - The first of three webinars for coaches.

IPCC Report - This is a huge 100s of pages thing in full, but there are loads of articles summarising the key messages, etc. Here are two as tasters:

• UN Secretary General’s speech in September 2018
• There is no safe level of global warming