Camp House, Jenkins Creek fires have burned more than 54 square miles of forest — an area larger than the city of Minneapolis

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On Minnesota Now, Ashley Fairbanks shares her hopes for the upcoming UN Climate Change Conference (COP26) in Glasgow, Scotland. She is an Anishinaabe artist and organizer and the creative director for 

 in Minnesota. Next week, she’ll be at COP26 as a 

“We need people all over the world to really be coming together to take collective action ... we don’t need people just depressed and laying in bed,” Fairbanks told Minnesota Now host Cathy Wurzer. “I’ve been in that place frequently, and it’s hard not to be in that place sometimes.”

She also referred to a “brick wall of data and science” that can lead people to feel disconnected from the effects of climate change and noted that younger generations have a different relationship to climate issues than previous generations.

“The folks who are leading right now — who are young, even under 21 — they’re going to see things in this climate crisis that the boomers of today will never see,” she said. “They feel tremendous impact, especially on their mental health.” 

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Ashley Fairbanks is a delegate to the upcoming UN Climate Change Conference in Glasgow, Scotland.

Ashley Fairbanks talks about climate change activism and her role as a delegate to the COP26 meeting in Glasgow, Scotland.

Ashley Fairbanks heads to Glasgow for UN Climate Change Conference

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