STORIES
Rowan Ryrie:
Creating a regenerative culture to support parent climate activists in the UK
Rowan Ryrie is a mother, activist, and lawyer living in Devon, England with her husband and two young daughters. Rowan co-founded Parents for Future UK and Parents for Future Global as well as the parent Fellowship program run by Our Kids’ Climate. She has more than 20 years of experience working on environmental protection and human rights. A strategic leader working to grow the power and impact of intergenerational climate movements, Rowan has worked to embed love and resilience in activism as well as to champion female leadership. Rowan recently stepped out of her role as Co-Director of Parents for Future UK and is now working as a freelance consultant. She shared with us some reflections on her work over the last 5 years helping to grow the power of parent and intergenerational climate organizing.
Parenthood politicised me. A strong connection to nature was an important part of my childhood. It was part of the inspiration for studying law and working in environmental and human rights law but nature alone wouldn’t have moved me to activism. My love for my children did that.
2018 was a pivotal year for me. My younger daughter was born and I had to choose a school for her elder sister. My perspective on time shifted – gone was the immediacy of the early years as I looked ahead towards the world my children would grow up into and considered the kind of education they needed to equip them. Also in 2018, Greta started her solo school strike and the IPCC released a report stating that we had ‘12 years left to save the planet.’ That report had a big impact on me and many others. I was struck by the impossibility of making good long-term decisions for our children as a parent when politicians are stuck in short-term cycles. So when the youth climate strike movement came to the UK in early 2019, I felt inspired – and compelled – to stand alongside the young activists. And I wanted to find ways to encourage more adults to join me.
My baby daughter came with me to many early actions. I soon connected with parents across the UK and world who were also organizing support for the youth strike movement, initially through Instagram. I helped establish both Parents for Future UK (PFFUK) and Parents for Future Global (PFFG) in early 2019. Movement organizing quickly took over my life and I started to really feel the need for financial and emotional support for movement leaders, most of which are women. This realization led to me building the Parent Climate Fellowship program with Jill Kubit, co-director of Our Kids’ Climate (OKC), in 2020.
For the last two years, I have focused on strengthening the UK PFF movement, shifting our strategy as we rebuilt post-Covid, and relaunching with a new brand and much stronger communications. PFFUK’s strategy has moved from a focus on street protest to placing much more emphasis on community organizing. In the UK, as in many other parts of the world, protest has become harder as successive governments have sought to prevent climate protest and to engage the parent audience, PFFUK have needed to explore other strategies. I have really enjoyed putting into practice some of the research being done by Potential Energy and Yale into effective climate communications, for example working with Climate Outreach to test different parent-focused messages.
Now, over five years later, PFF UK has 35+ local groups, established working groups, a growing network of over 30,000 supporters and recently launched a new advertising campaign with TV and billboard advertising! PFFUK plays an important role as the largest parent climate movement in the UK in both supporting and activating parents, helping more people step into action and feel less alone with their climate anxiety, and also ensuring the voice of parents is heard in climate spaces. In the last year, we have expanded school-based organizing, delivered training programs on how to have Courageous Conversations, partnered with the Climate Psychology Alliance to expand the emotional support offering, and continued to campaign intersectionally – for example, connecting the genocide in Gaza with the oil and gas industry.
But since September, I am no longer leading this work.
Several years ago a coach working with the Parent Climate Fellowship, the brilliant Akaya Windwood, asked us all to reflect on ‘what work is mine to do?’ And last year I realized that leading PFFUK no longer felt like work that had to be mine. I realized that the work that needs doing in PFFUK now – leading community organizing and communications focused strategies – is work that others can do and that it would be a privilege to hand the day-to-day leadership of the movement on. While at many stages in PFF’s growth it has felt that the movement would stumble without me, that was no longer the case. PFFUK is strong enough now to stand on its own (many!) feet, the brilliant community of parents I have worked with over the last 5 years are continuing PFFUK’s work. Just as my children are not ‘mine’, it feels healthy to support PFF to evolve beyond its original founders. I feel like a proud movement-parent.
Leading movements is hard work. The last 5 years have almost all been a steep learning curve. There are some of the structural barriers to growing movement strength – including the difficulty of fundraising for movements – that I’ve found frustrating and am keen to continue to play a part in addressing. I haven’t stepped away from PFFUK entirely, I am still part of the movement’s governance, but not the day-to-day organizing.
As organizations like PFFUK and some of the other organizations founded in 2018/2019 evolve and grow we are reaching an interesting moment in the intergenerational climate movement. In new campaign collaborations like the work OKC and PFFUK have been doing with Potential Energy and Global Optimism, and in academic research like a recent paper in Nature, we are starting to see more recognition for the value of the parent climate movement. There is interest in intergenerational work alongside youth-led organizing, for example in implementing the outcomes of the Summit of the Future.
Research keeps underlining the power of emotions – especially love – and the future generations perspective in climate communication. At a time when we are seeing radically depoliticised versions of motherhood, like the trad-wife movement grabbing media attention; Trump returning to power despite his blatant disregard for women’s rights; and powerful figures like Mark Zuckerberg calling for more ‘masculine energy’, the need to strengthen women’s voices is greater than ever. Parents are organizing across issues including access to reproductive rights, gun control, the impact of social media and maternity rights as well as climate. Human rights and democracy are both under threat and parents are uniquely placed to add an authentic, emotive and moral voice to discussions about protecting our children – and our planet.
I am happy that my work with OKC on the Parent Climate Fellowship program continues – and continues to inspire me. Getting to know the brilliant Fellows and to see the incredible work being done around the world through the Fellowship feels like a privilege. I know from this program how similar the challenges of movement organizing and climate campaigning are right around the world. I have particularly enjoyed weaving more emotional support, radical imagination and resilience building into the Fellowship program and look forward to getting to know the 2025 Fellows.
I am currently exploring different freelance work opportunities, working out how I can personally have an impact as well as what work will support me and my family. As I do so, I have been listening to the landscape near my home, heeding Bayo Akomelafe’s call: ‘these times are urgent, let us slow down’, and connecting to the rivers, trees, beaches, and moors. I know all too well that in the climate movement organizing it is really hard to make time (or find funding) for the important work of self-care or community-care. And yet I know that to be in this work for the long-haul, we must find ways to take care of ourselves and each other. That is how we build the resilience we need.
