The Bureau of Linguistical Reality is a public participatory art work established by Alicia Escott and Heidi Quante recognizing a collective loss for words to describe phenomena and emotions our species is experiencing as our world rapidly changes due to climate change and other anthropogenic changes and events. At The Bureau of Linguistical Reality we work with others to examine the disconnects that we are all experiencing as the world around us rapidly changes. The Mission of The Bureau is to create new words to understand and bridge these disconnects.

 We use the words we create through these conversations as points of connectivity to initiate or further conversations around topics that are currently difficult to discuss or even conceptualize— but essential to have as we move forward.

Join us at Bioneers or at the Invoking the Pause annual Grant Partner Gathering where will will set up our Mobile Field Office to work with you to explore the ways our language is failing to accurately describe the world around us and together create neologisms that seek to identify and correct these gaps.  

Please read about the passage of this important California climate bill.

On the final day of our Pause retreat, members of our SustainUS COP21 delegation took the time to write and then perform our visions for the future and our places within them. These are our #ZeroBy2050 stories: what does it actually look and feel like to reach a fully decarbonized global economy by 2050? We gathered the loving energies and powerful relationships that had been nurtured over days of dialogue and movement and shared our visions for a more equitable, sustainable, and just world. Below, you can find a diverse expression of these Visions for an alternative and better future.  » Read More

By 2016 ITP Grant Partner Ildi Carlisle-Cummins, California Institute for Rural Studies

Climate change can be a polarizing topic in California's San Joaquin Valley. This past summer, however, as San Joaquin Valley communities watched the U.S. Geological Survey drought map turn from ominous shades of "severe drought" orange to "exceptional drought" maroon, the Valley experienced what many believe was a taste of coming water shortages related to climate change. According to the USGS, the Central Valley is home to 75% of the irrigated land in California and 17% of irrigated land in the entire U.S. » Read More

By 2016 ITP Grant Partner Elijah Romulus, 10Power

In the sunny Caribbean, Haiti shares the island of Hispaniola with the Dominican Republic. This country prides itself in being the 2nd country in the western hemisphere for gaining its independence. Unfortunately years and years later many of Haiti’s citizens find themselves dependent on unreliable electricity and insufficient ways of getting it. A country that relies on a lot of dirty technology can benefit from solar energy being close to the equator and can help the environment. » Read More

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By 2016 ITP Grant Partner Magalie Bonneau, Founder, Dancing Without Borders

The Pause retreat we recently hosted was an invitation to explore how we could enroll those who work at the intersection of participatory art, storytelling with those campaigning for a 100% renewable future at policy levels into building a movement that's led by the power of the arts. For a few days, we explored how we could support greater grassroots engagement in shifting the cultural and political narrative around climate change by making the movement irresistible and compelling. » Read More

By 2016 Invoking the Pause Grant Partner Morgan Curtis, SustainUS COP22 Delegation Leader

I’m dancing in a tree, hanging from an overhead branch, feet in the crook between branches. Music is shaking the earth, and my fellow youth delegates from COP21, last year’s UN Climate Change Conference, are throwing shapes with their bodies. The Vermont spring sunshine is awakening the grass, and our souls. » Read More

By 2016 ITP Grant Partners, Lindley Mease & Theo Gibbs, Co-Founders Blue Heart

Climate displacement—or the forced migration of people from their homes due to climate impacts such as sea level rise—is happening across the United States. Entire communities are being displaced from their land of origin due to rising seas, negligent federal aid, and steady degradation of social services. Homes in dozens of Native American coastal communities in Louisiana and Alaska are being washed away by rising seas, land subsidence (sped up by offshore oil and gas development), and coastal erosion due to increasingly frequent and severe storms. » Read More