Hello! Thanks for joining us here at Sunflower News, a community of people and organizations working on mitigating and adapting to climate change. This post is like our site’s guest book!
Our mission is to support the climate movement’s transformation of how societies interact with the planet we’re part of, by connecting organizations and people to one another’s work. Our subtitle is “building connections in the climate movement” and we celebrate each and every connection we’re able to help make.
We hope you’ll sign and read our “guest book” to get to know others in the community:
- Please introduce yourself in the comments section of this pinned blog post
- You might include your name, website, location, and climate projects
- Share what kind of connections would aid your climate work
Welcome to Sunflower News!
Marshall Kirkpatrick, Publisher, Brian Hendrickson, Technical Co-Founder, Sarah Damian, Editor, and the rest of the Sunflower Team
Hi, I’m Marshall Kirkpatrick. I’m the founding publisher of Sunflower News and I live in Portland, Oregon. My professional background is in nonprofits, journalism, and tech startups. I co-founded this site with my friend Brian because I wanted to deploy some of the skills we’d built in the professional world in support of people working on climate change. I’m particularly interested in intersectional approaches to climate and the way that strategic media projects can make an outsized impact on this urgent global challenge. I use Sunflower to track top climate stories and solutions, and I have filtered sections set up for the keywords foresight, indigenous, and Oregon.
What kind of connections am I looking for right now? I’m looking for people who can make great use of what we’re building here at Sunflower News and help spread the word about it to their parts of the climate community. I’m also looking for people who can help us with ideas for more and better ways we can help build connections between the people and groups in the climate movement. I believe those connections are a powerful source of leverage and acceleration. If that’s something you have thoughts about or experience in, please let me know!
I look forward to meeting you!
Hi Sunflowers! I’m an evangelist connecting people, ideas, and technologies to try to make things better, now leading communications and community at [Creative Commons](https://creativecommons.org/). I’ve worked across a wide variety of public and private institutions, focusing on community development, digital communications, meaningful education, open technologies, and sustainable growth. My work touches directly on climate in two ways right now: [The Open Climate Campaign](https://openclimatecampaign.org/), a project Creative Commons cofounded to open up research and data on climate change, and as an early member of the [Climate Change & Healthy Habitats Collective Giving Group](https://oregoncf.org/community-impact/impact-areas/land-and-nature/climate-change-and-healthy-habitats-collective-giving-group/) at the Oregon Community Foundation, which makes grants in areas related to the climate crisis. I live with some other cats and humans as an uninvited settler on lands that are the traditional home to many peoples including the Clackamas, Cowlitz, Grand Ronde, and Siletz, also known as Portland, Oregon, USA. Learn more about me on [my blog](http://xolotl.org/).
Thanks for introducing yourself Nate. I just added Open Climate Campaign to our list of sources we watch for news. That’s such a logical thing for Creative Commons to do, and a great example of doing what you know in ways to help the climate movement. I hope many many more organizations will make that kind of adjacent move into climate!
Hi, I’m Brian Hendrickson. My climate project is working on the technology for Sunflower News.
I live in Portland, Oregon, I have a background in property tech, news aggregator tech and sports analytics.
I co-founded a company that built the official national tournament player ratings system for pickleball, Pickleball Ratings, https://pickleballratings.com.
Recently I co-founded a marketplace for commercial and residential office space, Radious, https://radious.pro, which offers flex space in Portland, OR, Milwaukee, WI and (soon) Oakland, CA.
I made a funny photo which the power of the internet has transformed into a force for joy, Hoverkitty, https://hoverkitty.com.
Nice to meet you 🙂
You’re awesome Brian!
Hello Sunflowers! I am Devin. I’m in Portland, Oregon, where I’m a machine learning engineer at a non-profit working with journalists called Meedan. I also run a sociotechnical security firm called International Persuasion Machines (https://ipm-corporation.com). I’m a long-time fan of Marshall’s work and expertise at building complex, compelling systems for sifting through information and finding the best bits. I’m super excited about Sunflower news and excited to see where things go!
Thanks friend! Real glad to have you in my life and here at Sunflower checking it out. Thanks for all your support!
Hey there! I’m Sarah Damian, the Editor at Sunflower News and outdoor educator living on Chinook land in so-called Portland, Oregon. I have a background in digital advocacy and creative storytelling, supporting a variety of nonprofit organizations and grassroots organizers over the years (including Food & Water Watch, Center for Popular Democracy, Government Accountability Project, and Free Forest School).
I’m also an avid reader and always looking for hopeful, solutions-oriented climate fiction that reimagines what’s possible. I believe that the quality of the storytelling that’s readily available can transform societal thinking, so if folks have intriguing podcasts, poetry, or other creative media that inspires action, feel free to send them my way. Looking forward to building community with you all!
Well said! So glad you’re here, Sarah.
Thanks for working on Climate Issues… And especially thanks for referencing my forest protection work in a recent post. We have so very much more work to do!!
Thanks Deane, and big big thanks for all you do! We’re so glad to get the opportunity to support your work – and I’m thankful for your friendship. Looking forward to doing much more work with you!
Hello, All! I’m Janet Weil, the outgoing (end of April 2023) editor of XRPDX’s newsletter and blog. My activist background going back to the ’90s includes work for Peace Action in the SF Bay Area, about a decade of intense involvement in codepink.org including several years on national staff, and my current commitment to serve on the Veterans For Peace Climate Crisis and Militarism Project: https://www.veteransforpeace.org/take-action/climatecrisis
My home for now is outer NW Portland (Kalapuya Land) in Washington County, where because it’s unincorporated, I do not get to vote for the city government of Portland! (Or Beaverton or Hillsboro, for that matter.) I do however enjoy the public libraries of all those cities. My home some months from now will be in the austerely beautiful Coachella Valley, California, and I am looking forward to the change. Photographing desert flora is my passion, and I love hummingbirds, little lizards, bighorn sheep, and other amazing creatures of the arid realm.
I’m an FOM (Friend of Marshall) and sometimes experience FOMO. I’m an angry former Twitter enthusiast (I used to run XRPDX’s Twitter account, now de-activated) and I’m looking forward to what Sunflower News can teach me, and also to turning other folks on to SN. Lots more to say, but I’ll say “catch you later” for now. Be well!
Janet, thanks so much for all you do and stopping in here to say hi. I really want to make sure you get some good Sunflower filters set up to track things like militarism, XR, and your new home!
Hello everyone!
My name is Oscar and I’ve been a part of the Portland tech community for over 15 years. My professional experience includes working in government, enterprise, and fintech startups. For most of my career, I’ve primarily focused on fintech. I’ve been contributing to Sunflower News because I truly believe in the platform’s potential and because Marshall and Brian are awesome individuals.
Sunflower News has caught my attention, particularly because for a long time, I felt powerless when it came to environmentalism. It was like watching a car crash in slow motion. However, in recent years, I’ve learned more about the impact of agriculture and how small changes, like switching to a vegan diet, can make a difference. Animal agriculture is a significant contributor to greenhouse gas emissions, with estimates suggesting it accounts for up to 18% of global emissions. The production of meat, dairy, and eggs requires vast amounts of land, water, and other resources, leading to deforestation, water depletion, and soil degradation.
I’m excited to connect with other individuals who share similar values and lifestyles through Sunflower News and work together for a greater good.
Thanks Oscar! Great to hear from you here and wow are you helping Sunflower a lot with your technical skills. I’m very very excited about what’s coming next! Welcome!
So great to see you all here – my activist roots date back to S.E.A.C. in High School, my Env Sci and Public Policy degree included publishing in Env Justice and on Soil Erosion, but mostly worked as a tech evangelist.
I launched enough.co to evangelize the climate economy, with the goal of scaling solutions faster and mobilizing capital more equitably. It’s a pleasure to consult with the SFN team on telling the story of what this site can do for the movement!
Thanks for introducing yourself Laura. We’re so thankful to get to work with you on launching the site.
Hello! I’m Luke. I worked with the Sunrise movement a few years ago and have since been more involved in mutual aid work in Brooklyn and Queens. I work in technology, with a background in engineering and product, and had the good fortune to meet Marshall a few years ago, and have been following Sunflower with great interest.
I’m most keenly interested in creating effective networks between organizations, be they climate orgs, neighborhood associations, or any other team working for systemic change. Currently I’m working with a couple of community organizations to establish a kind of stack for mutual aid groups—something non-technical people can use to create effective, low-investment web tools for fundraising and organizing. I’m always interested in connecting with groups local to NYC.