After only a day, it's clear that the event — spanning three-days and attracting like-minded self-proclaimed environmentalists, activists, and those interested in tackling the climate crisis — sits as much at the precipice of positive-change as any other institution or organised gathering I've heard of operating today. The published agenda boasts a gamut of speakers and forward-thinkers in their respective areas, each heralding new and innovative ways to shape a future that proactively tackles the biggest issue of our time: the global climate catastrophe.

With a packed agenda and overlapping sessions, it's tricky for us to do justice in summarising the day. In a some-what crude attempt to simplify my experience, it feels like two common themes have run throughout every session we were able to attend:

1. Firstly, that action — not more rhetoric — must sit at the forefront of change;
2. And secondly that the power to deliver that change absolutely lies with each of us as individuals, but also sits with our global leaders.

Even as I type, I can hear the reaction: "well...obviously!" And it's true, these aren't new things. We've long heard how action is lacking from government and corporations alike. The now annual COP meetings alone are a constant reminder that public pledges do not equate to meaningful action.

But, as Jonathon Porritt CBE, Founder of the Forum for the Future, said in his talk on the need for a shift beyond "growth" alone (a sentiment shared with Kate Raworth's principles of Doughnut Economics), there's something "different" in the air right now. Whether it's the calling out of the current government by the likes of the National Trust, the RSPB and WWF — once heralded as stalwarts of the Conservative party — or the grass-roots movements of lesser-known entities making big waves on a local level — such as the Black and Green Ambassadors — we're seeing a shift take place that simply hasn't happened before.

The outcome of this is both exciting and daunting. We don't have to look far to see how the demise of environmental, biological, and societal structures around the world has proven that we need a new and refreshed outlook, be that to better communicate the pessimistic truth of where we're heading in order to kick-start a sleepwalking Western culture, else a more hopeful portrayal of a future that is still (just) within our grasp.

But we also need that change to take hold at the top, and that means more than just equilibrium between the small disruptors at the bottom of the pyramid who are currently having to play a disproportionate role compared to the governments and big business at the top. Instead, we need our leaders to actually lead, and not just react half-heartedly.

With our current government, that feels like a big ask. But if gatherings of phenomenally talented and innovative people like Blue Earth do one thing, it's to raise hope that collectively, it's possible. And as Hugo Tagholm, formerly (as of today) of Surfers Against Sewage, said, "making that change is simple: we need to vote, vote, vote."