COP30: Prayer for the Earth
- Jan 22
- 9 min read
Updated: 7 days ago
Laura Dent
January 18, 2026
I’ll get into what COP30 means in a moment. First I’d like to explain the subtitle: Prayer for the Earth.
Many decades ago, I made a compilation tape (remember tapes?) called “Prayer for the Earth. The song “Throwing Stones” by the Grateful Dead, was the first song and the key to that theme.
I’d like to present the opening of that song now, in memory of Bob Weir who died just over a week ago.
Picture a bright blue ball just spinning, spinning free
Dizzy with eternity
Paint it with a skin of sky, brush in some clouds and sea
Call it home for you and me
A peaceful place, or so it looks from space
A closer look reveals the human race
Full of hope, full of grace is the human face
But afraid we may lay our home to waste
Now, what does COP30 mean? COP, C-O-P, stands for the Community of Partners, the countries who are parties to the agreements addressed by the annual United Nations climate negotiations. The 30 means these talks have been going on for 30 years – actually 31 since they skipped the pandemic year. One of my friends said these are the most complex negotiations in human history. The Paris Agreement in 2015 set the standards for curbing the worst effects of climate change. This year COP30 where I went happened in Belem, Brazil in the Amazon rainforest, the lungs of the Earth, with a strong Indigenous presence.
When my friend here at Harrisonburg Unitarian Universalists, or HUU, asked me to give this service, they requested that it be about my spiritual journey at COP30, not just a lecture. I would add not just what I’ve already said in interviews. The HUU newsletter has a link to my 15-minute interview with WMRA, our local NPR radio station, and that link will be on the website when they post this talk. I’ll give a brief overview here, and you can listen to that interview for more on All About COP30.
The gateway that drops me down deeper into my spiritual journey is what another interviewer asked me (that’s not published yet):
He asked, “What would you say to someone who’s in despair?”
“I understand,” I replied.
He said, “That’s powerful in itself.”
That gateway takes me back to the day after the election, November 6, 2024, right here in this sanctuary. HUU held a post-election vigil that I am so grateful for now, looking back.
On that day I joined the circle, right over there, and promptly burst out sobbing, venting and spewing my rage and despair. I was living my worst-case scenario: I had been re-elected, and so had He Whose Name I Shall Not Utter in THIS SPACE.
One of my fellow congregation members said, “Laura, we need you.”
I spat back: “But I don’t need this … <stuff>.” (language sanitized for this sanctuary)
So yeah. I understand despair.
That despair is real, and it is global. We are “afraid we may lay our home to waste,” as the song says.
And now I’d like to trace my spiritual journey through that despair into JOY, in three stages:
· my coach
· my leadership program, and
· my calling to Brazil and beyond.
First, my coach. I’ve been working with a life coach, not quite a therapist, more dynamic and proactive, since 2012 when I was laid off from Rosetta Stone. She promotes Heart-Centered Leadership, and encouraged me to create a value statement. Mine is “Calm heart, inspired mind.”
She has a wonderful practice for New Year’s: not just a resolution you forget about in a month, but a word for the year. Each letter of the word or phrase becomes the first letter of a word for each month, so you’re working through it the whole year.
The phrase that came to me intuitively for 2025 was “Thrive Joyfully.” I didn’t actually come up with it until March of that year. I balked at that. I didn’t believe it. I said, “How the <bleep> am I supposed to ‘thrive joyfully’ will all this <stuff> going on?!” (sanitized again)
Because at that time, the first three months or so after the election, I went almost catatonic. (Maybe that’s why it took me a while to even come up with a word for the year!) I opted out of anything optional, and did the bare minimum for City Council: show up, vote on things, that’s it.
One image that helped me through that dark time was from The Lord of the Rings, our modern mythology:
If Sauron has the Ring, and we’re all doomed, I thought, at least I can be Galadriel, the elven queen of the woodland, protecting our forest sanctuary here in the beautiful Shenandoah Valley.
The next stage of my journey was when I was called to the Council of the Fellowship, so to speak.
Last May, I attended a summit weekend hosted by Elected Officials to Protect America (EOPA). At this weekend in Washington, DC I learned about a Leadership Certificate that EOPA offers in conjunction with the University of San Francisco (where I lived for a few years).
I was struck by what one of the graduates of the program said:
“It will change your life for the rest of your life.”
At the time I didn’t see how that could apply to me, since I barely wanted to be in this country, and felt ambivalent about serving on City Council at all, but I figured as long as I’m here I might as well level up my leadership skills a little bit.
HAH. Little did I know that it was about to change my life – for the rest of my life!
When I joined that Leadership Certificate program, and returned to DC, I heard about COP30 in Brazil and said, “I want to go to that!” One of the EOPA leaders said, “If you can get yourself there, we’ll get you a ticket.”
Then, in November, I got myself there – and that itself was a saga: during the government shutdown when the flights were being cancelled. Sure enough, my flight was cancelled, then rerouted, delayed and delayed, until finally I said <bleep> the planes, I’m taking a train! So I took the train to New York to get the flight to Brazil. Fortunately international flights weren’t being cancelled. I was that determined to get there.
I was astounded to find that my badge to COP30 was from Ukraine! That badge got me into the inner circle of the Blue Zone, where the official country delegations hosted their pavilions. EOPA partnered with the Ukrainians who ran their country’s booth.
I’ll pause here to explain a bit more about EOPA: Elected Officials to Protect America – now expanded to: Protect the Earth – is an interesting coalition of military veterans, state and local elected officials, climate activists, and Ukrainians. The military veterans know that climate action is necessary for our national security, and that we MUST support Ukraine in the fight for democracy worldwide. EOPA sponsors the Ukraine Energy Security Marshall Plan, to support Ukraine’s energy resilience under attack and to rebuild in the future.
So there I was in Brazil, trying to find my way around this massive gathering of 70,000 people from all over the world, including my fellow delegates from EOPA and Ukraine.
I was also in a very real way representing America, since I was appointed as the unofficial ambassador from the National League of Cities of the US.
Everywhere I went, I was spreading the message: We are with you. Americans care about climate, even if our national government has abdicated its responsibility. The current administration has tragically pulled the US out of the Paris Agreement, and didn’t even send a delegation to COP30 in Brazil.
On the other hand, I told people, I was having a much better time than I would have if the US government had been there, bullying people into using more fossil fuels! One German observer remarked that I had much more agency on my own.
People from all countries were thrilled and grateful to hear my message that Americans are taking bold climate action, especially at the local level. I had a great time bragging about us here in Harrisonburg: all the steps we are taking to reduce our climate impacts, and our diversity as an immigrant and refugee community. I described how the famous sign, now worldwide, “No matter where you’re from, we’re glad you’re our neighbor” came from Harrisonburg, from a Mennonite church. One of my friends said, “It sounds like Harrisonburg has the secret sauce.”
I spoke in Portuguese with the Brazilians, as best I could since I had just started learning it on Rosetta Stone, and Spanish to the Mexicans, saying “esperamos de continuar y volver a ser amigos en la clima” – we hope to continue and return to being friends in the climate. One Mexican parliamentarian said “[mis] palabras eran ¡muy importantes!” – my words were very important!
I became an honorary Ukrainian! I deeply admire the Ukrainians’ resilience and innovation in surviving the onslaught of the Russian invasion. In a roomful of Ukrainians, somehow I was always the one to shout, “Slava Ukraini!” and they would respond, “Heroyam Slava!” Glory to Ukraine! To the Heroes, Glory!
https://1drv.ms/v/c/b855e64b37da7a07/IQCNbRgAawWXTIWPu07_f57XAf81PSNwkRqxDvDviCUbfN4[Iguaçu Falls – play video]
In the middle of the two weeks of the Brazil COP30 I took a side trip to Iguaçu Falls on the southwest border with Argentina, about a 6 hour flight away. Brazil is a big country! One of my National League of Cities staffers said Iguaçu Falls makes Niagara look like a leaky faucet. I said this I gotta see! Sure enough, Eleanor Roosevelt said, “Oh my poor Niagara!” At Iguaçu Falls, the most spectacular nature I had ever seen, I felt in LOVE with Life, with Nature, with the Earth!
I came back to COP for the final week. On the next to last day, I was about to give a presentation on the Town Hall COPs, local versions of the UN climate negotiations, when the fire broke out! I saw thousands of people running down the hallway. At first I froze, thinking, is it an active shooter?! Interesting American bias! Someone told me, “Ma’am, it’s a fire, we have to leave.” I could see the fire briefly down the hallway. It was scary because there were tens of thousands of people trying to evacuate in a stampede and we didn't know how fast it was going to spread. Part of the huge tent was melted, and they got it under control pretty quickly. So, I didn’t get to give my final presentation!
After I returned home, I realized in retrospect that I had found, or rediscovered really, my true calling as a citizen diplomat on the global stage. I had experienced a hint of this calling in college at Harvard on a summer program in the Soviet Union at the height of the Cold War – I felt then, even behind “enemy lines,” we are all just people.
And now, after COP30 and at the beginning of 2026, the word or phrase of the year that came to me is:“I’m determined.”
I thought, uh-oh, now what?! I’ve got to step up and be the “champ” they see in me!
One of my friends at COP30 called me a “champ.” I love that! Both as something to live up to and as an acknowledgment of what I already am. The “champ” became a theme – I found myself as a champion for climate, for my community, for my country, and the world.
I felt like the world was saying, “Laura, we NEED you.”
Only this time I am determined to step up to meet that need. I can find JOY in the midst of the despair because I find meaning and purpose in my calling. I am inspired (January’s word) to respond to the urgent need to shine what light I have into the darkness.
I have a strong image of that. Recently in a zoom meeting with EOPA friends in the US, UK, and Ukraine, the woman in Ukraine was in the dark because of blackouts. At the end of the meeting, I could barely see her hand in a thumbs-up. She said she was holding her hand up to catch the light from my image on her phone. I got the strong image that I was literally shining my light into Ukraine!
Now I am determined to amplify that light, literally and figuratively. I’m donating and fundraising to send battery storage units to Ukraine to help them survive the cold and dark of the winter, under fierce bombardment. I said the first priority is to keep Darka in the light. Darka is the name of the woman whose thumbs up I saw.
Recently Noel told me he appreciates my engagements, that I seem to be thriving.
Against all odds, here I am thriving joyfully, and determined to shine my light into the darkness.
I’ll conclude with a couple of songs:
First from Djavan, a Brazilian singer I fell in love with – in a Rockstar crush kind of way:
Vou andar, vou voar
Pra ver o mundo
Nem que eu bebesse o mar
Encheria o que eu tenho de fundo
I will walk, I will fly
To see the world
Not even if I drank the sea
Would it fill what I have deep inside
and then full circle to the closing lines of the Grateful Dead song I opened with:
Picture a bright blue ball just spinning, spinning free
Dizzy with possibilities.
Links:
Grateful Dead, “Throwing Stones”
Djavan, “Seduzir”
To donate to Ukraine energy security through battery systems:
Go to the website for Elected Officials to Protect America.
Click Donate.
Make a screen shot of the amount you donate and send it to Laura Dent at lauraworkdent@hotmail.com and indicate that you are contributing to Ukraine energy security. Priorities include providing light and heat for children in shelters.
Thank you!
