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June 2025: vibrant cities

Each month, we break down our topic into four weekly modules. Catch up on previous editions here.​

This week's module: CONNECT

• 🎯 CONNECT | Conversation prompts for climate action that work for everyone
• LEARN | Urban design, solarpunk cities, and streets for humans
• ACT | What you can do towards cities of the future
• REFLECT | Art, poetry, & commitments!

Estimated reading time: 3 minutes

Here's what we'll learn today Reader

Hello friendo!

Happy summer in the Northern Hemisphere, and sad winter (okay fine happy winter) in the Southern one.

This month's topic, vibrant cities, is one of my favorites. I LOVE cities. I will be a dirty city slicker 5ever, thanks.

However, there's a loooottt we need to consider. As we learned in our Climate Migration topic a few months ago, 40% of city dwellers are projected to live in slums by 2030...five years away. But projections aren't reality. WE shape reality, and we shape our cities.

That's why, this month, we'll explore some questions in our CONNECT module that you can (and should, pls) take with you outside your inbox: the role of cities, the role of YOU, etc.

Then, we'll LEARN next week about planet-friendly urban design, safe streets for humans and not cars, plus what it means to build a solarpunk city.

After that, we'll ACT with some things you can do individually and collectively, and wrap it all up at the end of the month with our REFLECT module.

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Your bite-sized action plan Reader

✅ CONNECT with 4 prompts on your role in changemaking

Every CONNECT module, you’ll get up to four prompts to connect with yourself, others, spirit, and systems.

Your mission is to take what’s in these Changeletters and bring it into one of those dimensions.

• In evolutionary biology, you learn that just by looking at a particular ecosystem or biome, you can predict what kinds of plants/animals are present, what they look like, and how they behave. The urban environment is unique because it's the only ecosystem which we as humans have designed and built for ourselves. What are some ways you see the urban environment impact your behavior? Sorry but your urban design is def playing mind games on you.​
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• Imagination is key to unlocking the possibilities we reach for. Many times, traveling into a new environment feeds the examples of what we can bring back. When's a time when you went somewhere new (another country or maybe even another neighborhood!) and saw how the choices that you took for granted were made completely differently? What was better, worse, or neutral?
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• Now that you've pondered your agency in shaping your own environment, what will you do with this power? What are you dreaming of? What's the smallest possible thing YOU can do THIS MONTH to build the city or town you want to live in?

The whole point of today's CONNECT module is to take these out of your inbox and into the world, whether that's through going on a walk and thinking about how you connect with the place you live, posing this question to a friend, or getting to know yourself a little bit better.

Next week will LEARN about some more tactical stuff on the intersections between the urban environment and climate resilience.

But that's it for today, so go forth and ponder your questions in community with other people. And no, your dog doesn't count. Go talk to a human, touch grass, etc.

TEAM EARTH FOREVER,

Nivi

Upcoming Soapbox events

• This Sunday in Seattle, Adam Met from AJR is speaking with Gov Jay Inslee about the intersection of pop culture, music, and activism (last month's theme!) and Soapbox is going to be there as a community partner. Come thru​
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• Every Tuesday in Seattle, we have our usual dinner party, with a new twist! We added community bike rides to our events! Check out our Seattle calendar here.​
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• NYC dinner announced soon! Here's the NYC calendar.​

​Our entire events calendar for ALL locations + virtual can be found here.