Q&A: Reflections on Climate Week with Dr. Heather Tallis
Connecting health, art, and climate action through nature
At this year’s Climate Week in New York, the United by Nature initiative hosted a session that brought together leaders across science, policy, philanthropy, business, and the arts.
The goal was to spark new partnerships and co-develop “companion products” — tools, stories, and resources that help translate findings from United by Nature’s holistic assessment into action across sectors such as energy, agriculture, health, and risk management.
To reflect on the session and what’s next, we spoke with Dr. Heather Tallis, Senior Fellow at UC Santa Cruz’s Center for Coastal Climate Resilience and Chair of the United by Nature Secretariat.
This Q&A has been lightly edited for length and clarity.
UBN: United by Nature links nature to the systems shaping our lives. In the Climate Week conversation you hosted, were those links being made explicitly — and if so, where?
HT: We had an amazing group of partners: David Hassler of Poets for Science, Jess Leffler of Bow Seat Creative Action for Conservation, Rose Hendricks of Association of Science and Technology Centers, Jay Maddock of the Nature & Health Alliance and Texas A&M University, Avery Cohn of Ode Partners, Kate Burgess of the National Caucus of Environmental Legislators, and Diane Pataki of the National Wildlife Federation.
A few key connections stood out. First, it’s now clear that so many aspects of our health are affected by nature, and key findings from the United By Nature assessment that relate to health are likely to be of interest to many. Jay Maddock shared ideas for bringing this information directly to people where they get care: in hospitals. He also spoke about his own practice of prescribing time in nature and training other doctors to do the same in civilian and military hospitals. This sparked conversations about how United by Nature might help spread practices like this based on evidence linking nature and health.
In an unexpected twist (for me), health and art met on stage. David Hassler shared “The Nature of Our Times,” a new anthology of poems inspired by our call for creative expressions of how Americans connect with nature. One of David’s key points was that without expression, we get depression — a beautiful way to describe why art and poetry matter for mental health. They keep us connected to nature, and to one another.
UBN: How do you explain why nature belongs in every climate conversation?
HT: I see two key points here. One, we won’t achieve our climate goals without nature. And two, if we leave nature out, we risk making the climate and our lives worse.
On the first point, natural ecosystems play an enormous role in stabilizing the climate by taking carbon out of the atmosphere. Investments that keep nature in good shape and restore natural ecosystems are proven, available now, and don’t rely on new technologies. Across all the ways we have to invest in nature for climate mitigation, we can achieve at least 30% of our global mitigation goals. If we don’t make these investments, we lose time, and may miss global climate goals entirely.
On the second point, we know that the climate and nature crises are intimately interlinked. Solving for one without the other can cause harm. One example comes from some earlier carbon investments made in Ecuador by another nation looking for climate solutions. They invested in fast growing, non-native pine trees in a high-elevation part of the Andes. That region’s main natural ecosystem is the paramo, a spongy wetland with fabulous plants and a lot of water. The pines grow fast, which is good for storing carbon. But they also demand a lot of water, which is not good for the paramo. The plantations drew water out of the native habitat and the local water supply, weakening native plants, local agriculture, and access to drinking water. What looked like a win for climate caused a loss for nature and communities. It doesn’t have to be this way. There are many examples of climate investments that improve nature, so that dual focus needs to be at the forefront of climate finance.
UBN: In these early days of the initiative, what excites you most about what’s possible?
HT: The energy and investment people are bringing to United by Nature is incredibly inspiring. There was a tangible buzz in the room at Climate Week, and much of that buzz is already turning into action between people who were there and with our own team.
I’m struck by how powerful an open invitation can be. This was brought home to me by the intro to our first companion product, The Nature of Our Times, written by one of the editors, Luisa Igloria. She cites just a few words — our original call for information, stories or art — as the inspiration for their poetry anthology. That brief invitation led to over a thousand people writing poems, spending time reflecting on nature, and sharing their creativity to inspire us all about what’s needed and what’s possible.
If those few words led to so much, I’m energized to see what other invitations we can create, and what more will emerge as our author teams share their actual findings and all our partners bring the Initiative to life.
UBN: Where do you most want people to start listening differently to nature and to one another?
HT: There’s immense opportunity if we focus on how nature underpins the most basic parts of our economy.
The keys I’m typing on started as nature — dinosaur parts, diatoms, and plant bits that became oil, then plastic. The book on my desk came from trees. The glass in the window I’m looking through started as mountains. The coffee I’m drinking came from bushes, hopefully growing under a rainforest. The trees over the city hall in my town keep the building cool and save my taxes for the community instead of electric bills, which also pay for power from nature in one form or another. The wetlands at our water treatment plant — where I first saw a hummingbird nest made with spider webs — clean our stormwater and protect our coastlines.
Anyone can do this. Walk through your day and find touchpoints to nature. There’s almost never more than two degrees of separation between nature and everything we touch in a day. That means every sector of our economy holds power to do better for nature if we start by listening differently, thinking differently, and investing differently.
Governments and investors are already directing billions toward infrastructure that works with nature. They know that nature can do the job of levees, erosion control structures, water treatment plants, or seawalls, or help roads, bridges, ports and railways last longer and work better. Affordable housing can be built more affordably — and beautifully — by integrating green roofs, rain gardens, native plants, and nearby green space with equitable access.
There’s so much possibility if we change how we think about the basics. Let’s start there.
I love hearing about -- and imagining -- how your few words of invitation blossomed into poems and creations. Thank you for connecting it all back to Nature. I cheer for, and learn from, the perseverance of United by Nature, morphing as needed to keep going.