The Path to Resilience: A Talk With Our CEO and Co-founder, Gaya Roshan
At Dashboard.Earth, we have a pretty unique take on how best to address climate change. To get to the bottom of where our optimistic, adaptation-focused approach came from, we talked to our founder Gayatri (”Gaya”) Roshan.
Gaya Roshan, CEO and Co-Founder of Dashboard.Earth
A lifetime activist and environmentalist, Gaya’s climate journey began at age 7, when her step-dad produced one of the first films on climate change. Following in his footsteps, she started working on films in her 20s, eventually writing and producing Call Of Life (2005), which explores mass extinction. She went on to write, produce, and direct numerous TV specials and feature-length documentaries on deep ecology, climate change, and the natural world in twenty countries across four continents.
Gaya is a respected voice in the climate space, advising on resilience in such forums as the Department of Energy and United Nations.
Here’s what she had to say. We hope you feel as inspired by her answers as we did!
Why did you create Dashboard.Earth (DBE)?
I created DBE because after 20 years in the climate space it was apparent to me that we have all the solutions we need to adapt to our changing climate, ample local and national budgets dedicated to climate resilience, and most importantly, so many people who want to do something about it. The problem is that no one knows what to do, and most of the time can’t afford the costs of upgrading homes and communities!
No one wants to feel powerless in the face of an existential threat—and I don’t believe anyone should. Adapting our world for climate change represents win-win-win scenarios for our health, our communities, and the diversity of life we depend on. As I said before—we have the solutions, we have the money, now we just need each other!
My hope is that DBE provides everyone with the agency they need to create the thriving future they know (at least in their heart of hearts) is possible.
What do you want people who engage with DBE to feel after their first interaction?
I want people to feel they can find the solutions to a bright future. That it is a place where their actions have real environmental impact and financial benefit —and where there is a community of people working every day to reach their municipal objectives. They should feel relieved, inspired, and empowered.
Why did you choose LA as DBE’s pilot city?
I have lived in LA on-and-off since 2001. I’d live there now if it wasn’t for COVID taking me back to my roots in NorCal. I love LA. It raised me, was my teacher, mentor, and healer. It birthed and raised my children. AND…it is the most climate vulnerable city in North America!
As one of the largest and wealthiest entertainment cities, LA is the engine for content creation on the planet, and I believe it can drive the culture shift that humans need to adapt to climate change, too. Moreover, if we can mainstream climate adaptation for the diverse and distracted population of LA, then I think we have a chance of doing it everywhere.
“My hope is that DBE provides everyone with the agency they need to create the thriving future they know (at least in their heart of hearts) is possible.”
What makes DBE unique among climate action organizations?
Climate change represents an opportunity to turn a world that is currently working to the benefit of a very small percentage of humanity into a world that supports the health and regenerative capacity of all species on Earth.
We believe that adaptation, not carbon counting, needs to be the key focus of the climate movement and that people are the real solution to climate change.
For the vast majority of people, climate has become a blanket short-hand for clean energy and renewables. Carbon has been demonized as a dangerous pollutant. But we are all carbon-based life forms. When seen in that light, there is no such thing as pollution—only a misplaced resource.
At DBE we are working toward developing an awareness for our audience that we inhabit of holistic system that is complex and durable enough to hold the human species, no matter how many of us there are. Our journey back into the embrace of our ecosystem is an immersive narrative that we believe can be spun one action at a time. Telling that story in a technological framework is the overarching mission of DBE.
What would you say to people who are overwhelmed with climate anxiety?
For many of us, the grief of the horrendous loss that climate change represents requires shedding tears. On the other side of those tears is a well of energy that needs to be channeled into a future we can believe in. Otherwise you get stuck in a grief-terror cycle.
Today, I’m not afraid of the feelings that come up and I believe I have tremendous agency in how the future can unfold in a way that works for 100% of living species on the planet. That feeling of agency is the real key to overcoming anxiety. Luckily we actually have all the solutions we need to thrive and all of them are win-win-win for people, place, and planet.
What frustrates you the most about how people talk about climate change?
I am frustrated when people only associate climate change with carbon “pollution”. Carbon isn’t a pollutant—it is literally the basis of life. We need carbon. We just need it in the right places; places like soil and trees.
Plus, people need to understand that the effects of climate change are happening now! Here are some thoughts I have related to the urgency of climate change:
California experiences the full spectrum of climate change. Hotter hots, wetter wets, dryer drys, colder colds and the resultant fires, mudslides, droughts, freezes etc.
Long before we suffer from sea level rise we’ll experience massive food shortages. No one ever talks about that.
We have only about 30 harvests left because we’re pulling carbon out of the soil at such a fast rate. We need the carbon in the atmosphere pulled back into the soil.
The solution to climate change doesn’t come only from renewables; they are just a very crucial part of the picture.
Why structure DBE as an app-first organization vs. a website resource?
I spent much of my life making climate-related content. Theatrical documentaries, factual television, shorts, and industrials. Lots of it sits on a website.
My mission with DBE is to get people paid for climate adaptation in their homes and communities. There is value in every climate-friendly choice. I’m convinced that if we pay folks, we can adapt in time to survive the onslaught of climate crisis we’re facing.
With an app, you can verify that an ecologically-relevant action has taken place. Since there is value in the action, we can get you paid for it. Right now we’re not focused on verification, but we are working to get there. Plus people spend more time on their phones than their computer!
What gives you hope every day?
My children, who experience the world each day with a sense of wonder and curiosity. There is no problem too big, no challenge that cannot be countered with creativity and persistence.
Want to put Gaya’s ideas into practice? If you’re an Angeleno, you can start making a difference today on the Dashboard.Earth app.