When COP Falls Silent, the Earth Still Speaks

“Mother Earth provides me with everything I need so how do I show her my gratitude? (...)So my gift to Mother Earth is my song and my energy.” -Vigil Participant

Another year, another COP

In November 2025 the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP30) met in Brazil over two weeks. Ten years after the signing of the Paris Agreement, representatives were once again gathering to turn previous commitments into action.

With the world failing to limit global heating to a global average increase of 1.5 degrees, it has never been more important for new, bold and just climate action to be taken. And while many of us in environmental activism are likely to be skeptical that the COP process would lead to the kind of change we know is needed, we at Sacred Earth Activism wanted to mark the moment and global attention on the climate crisis in some way.

And there were some seeds of hope with the influence of Indigenous and First Nations on this particular COP, a grass-roots People’s Summit also meeting, and the opportunities for protest at the first COP held in a democratic state for five years.

It’s about more than us

We like to begin the planning of an action and ceremony with some visioning, calling on the wisdom of our guides, helpers, and the Earth herself. (To learn more, join our Ritual and Action course when it returns in 2026). There was a strong message that the voices of the Earth needed to be heard.

Council of All Beings and Opening Ceremony

We began with two online events. A Council of All Beings opened up a process of embodying and letting the voices of the more than human world come through which continued into our first ceremony.

We grounded in meditation, connecting to Mother Earth with a personal item each that represented her (and which would remain on our altar for the two weeks) and prayed for climate action...and further...climate justice. With or without COP30.

Then the vigil began. Each day of the conference, activists would bring through the voice of the Earth and pray for justice—inspired by the themes of COP30 and the People’s Summit. Many of us would also take part in local actions and summits too.

And throughout we shared the messages and prayers and photos of our altars with the Sacred Earth Activism Community. Here are just some of them:

May they hear the spirits of the earth in their hearts, in their minds and in their bodies that come from the earth.
May the magic and mystery of science guide them more than the greed and comfort of capital.
May the earth and her waters be protected, may we adapt to survive and to revive our relationship to the more-than-human world.

I am Earthy Soil

I am full of rich life giving nourishment (...)

I ask for help to remain healthy so that the plants and trees remain healthy, living kind will remain healthy and the climate will stabilise

Voices of the Earth Vigil for COP30

We pray together for climate justice

We pray together for the protection of human rights and the rights of nature, recognising these are the same thing.

We pray for a global transition that is fair and does not burden the most vulnerable and that is shaped by all whom it impacts.

We pray for cooperation and collaboration, for protection and preservation, for everyone, everywhere

We pray for bold alternatives and new ways of being to be recognised, respected and embraced

We pray for the health of the earth, for the rainforests that are her lungs, for the seas and rivers that are her blood, for the sacred lands that are her bones and flesh, for her atmosphere which holds us all as it holds her close. We pray for all that lives.

We pray that change makers around the world hear the voices of the earth and that each dawn of this ceremony is a new dawn for a better future.

Cop 30 Day 10 - Vigil for women

Om tryam bakam yajaamahe
Sugandhim pushtivardhanam
Urvaa rukarmiva bandhanaan
Mrityor muksheeya maamritaat.

I am Mycelium,

I speak from the hidden places, the dark threads under your feet, weaving with the deep time memory of the forest.

I remind you: care for the bonds, not only the bodies. Remember the hidden relationships between us all. What harms one tree harms the whole community. What poisons the soil silences us all.

Leave space for decay and rebirth. Let time slow enough for renewal, for transformation.

Act as if your life depends on the forest’s flourishing,
because it does.

For All Living Kind, Human and More than Human

May all Living Kind have clean water

May all Living Kind have food free from chemicals, plastics and all other contaminants

May all Living Kind have the right to live in peace, harmony with their environment, be respected and valued

May they hear the voices of the earth
May they hear the voices of the indigenous
May they know that life must come before finance and trade
May they know we share the air. The atmosphere. It belongs to and connects us all

Cop 30 Voices of the Earth

"If the Earth were only a few feet in diameter, floating a few feet above a field somewhere, people would come from everywhere to marvel at it. People would walk around it marvelling at its big pools of water, its little pools and the water flowing between the pools. People would marvel at the bumps on it, and the holes in it, and they would marvel at the very thin layer of gas surrounding it and the water suspended in the gas. The people would marvel at all the creatures walking around the surface of the ball, and in the water. The people would declare it precious because it was the only one and they would protect it so that it would not be hurt. The ball would be the greatest wonder known, and people would come to behold it, to be healed, to gain knowledge, to know beauty and wonder how it could be. People would love it, and defend it with their lives, because they would some how know that their lives, their own roundness, could be nothing without it. If the Earth were only a few feet in diameter."

May we marvel at Mother Earth and declare it precious, so that we don't hurt her.

Blessed are the Protectors of Mother Earth who defend her with their lives and their courage

May we recognise that we are nothing without our Mother and show her now much we love and cherish her.

I am Salmon.
I swim through the deep currents of time.
I follow my rivers home, again and again,
carrying the memory of source within my bones.

But so often I return to find the rivers polluted
and the sacred sources destroyed.
And so have you forgotten your source.
I ask the leaders of the world to remember the flow,
to listen to the waters, and to protect the veins of the earth.

Oceans
May the oceans be free from all pollution so all Living kind can be healthy
May all life in the oceans be recognised, valued and treated with respect
May we take action to stop ocean warming

Water
Thank you water for enabling me, my fellow humans and all living kind to survive
I am sorry for the pollution caused by plastic, especially in the southern oceans around vulnerable islands
I ask that you forgive me and I send my love and gratitude to you by promising to avoid as much as possible to pollute you further

Vigil for forests

May forests be recognised as the lungs of the Earth: Without our lungs we die

May the forests be recognised as being an essential part of what helps keeps us healthy. Without them we become ill

May we preserve and protect our forests so we remain healthy and thrive

May all our actions support the health of living kind
May all our actions support the health of our plants and trees
May all our actions support a healthy environment
and may we understand what 'health' actually means,

I am Fox
I watch the shifting patterns of the earth.
I listen as the winds and waters change their song.
I remind you to stay alert, to move with change, not against it.
To learn again the art of adaptation,
so that you live with the earth, not against it.
May your steps be light, your ears keen, and your hearts open to the turning of the earth.

Closing the cycle of ceremony

The end of the two weeks came, and at the time of our closing ceremony, an agreement had not been made (and what was drafted did not even dare mention fossil fuels).

We shared our experiences of witnessing, of the vigil and our feelings of hope and despair. But there was a strong sense that hope lies outside of the world of brightly lit conference halls filled with lobbyists and that increasingly the voices of the earth would and could be heard.

We had a flotilla of indigenous activists arrive to share their messages, large protests and blockades, and even indigenous leaders pushing their way into the conference. The government of Brazil demarked the lands of 27 indigenous peoples and promised to recognise another 58 million hectares over the next five years. A few days later an agreement was signed, some progress but a big distance from what we might hope.

But the sense of community and relationship with the earth was palpable, and reflecting now, it feels like such sacred activism is not just to sway politicians and fossil fuel insiders. It is for us who work for life on earth. To inspire us and let us recognise our own power.  It is for all of those incredible activists all over the world doing fantastic work and more: it is for the Earth herself. That we not only hear her, but she hears us and our commitment and love.

For now, that is enough.

“Whatever COP does and does not achieve over the next 10 days, the very fact that it happens, that it brings activists, campaigners, and decision makers together to do the difficult work of discussing climate challenges and solutions gives me hope. Hope isn't passive, it isn't magical thinking, hope is active. For hope to be effective it needs to be active. Hope is the daily work of refusing to accept the world order, the small daily acts of change. Hope is people going to Belem. Hope is lighting a candle. Hope is joining a campaign to protect a woodland, river, to clean up the ocean. (...) Live in HOPE.” -Vigil Participant