{"id":632,"date":"2022-06-08T14:38:59","date_gmt":"2022-06-08T18:38:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/webspace.royalroads.ca\/ehunter\/?p=632"},"modified":"2022-06-08T15:25:00","modified_gmt":"2022-06-08T19:25:00","slug":"rethinking-the-question-of-climate-action-leadership-unit-4","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/webspace.royalroads.ca\/ehunter\/rethinking-the-question-of-climate-action-leadership-unit-4\/","title":{"rendered":"Rethinking the Question of Climate Action Leadership (Unit 4)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Famous youth climate activist, Greta Thunberg (soure: <\/span><\/span><\/span>TheEcologist.org<\/a>)<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nearly a year ago, I first joined the Climate Action Leadership <\/a>program at Royal Roads University for a Graduate diploma. It was last May that I first joined my new team in our primary course CALS 501 Leading Climate Action in Society<\/em><\/a>. It was there that we began our year-long journey in a design challenge that took the form of developing a conceptual prototype of an Open Educational Resource (OER)<\/a> for empowering climate action in the public. In the time-span of working on this design challenge, I have been fundamentally changed by the course and related course\u2019s teachings, as well as by my team\u2019s research on this topic. For in attempting to answer this critical question of mobilizing the public in climate action my normative way of thinking and being on this topic has been profoundly shifted in ways I could have never imagined. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the beginning, I had a lot of assumptions and preconceptions in answering the design challenge question. For instance, I was assured that only political action would match the scale of the crisis, with anything else being a mere distraction. \u00a0In the beginning I also would have told you that we need more Greta Thunbergs’ of the world, the famous youth climate activist. Thus, the key was mobilizing youth as they were the next generation to inherit our warming world and we would need to develop their knowledge, as well as skills in addressing the issue. Finally, I would have told you that the climate \u2018apocalypse\u2019 is near, echoing what many scientists and advocates remind us in some of the latest reports by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change<\/em><\/a> (IPCC) <\/a>that we only have the current decade left to drastically cut emissions by half if we have any chance of stabilizing the earth\u2019s climate by the end of this century (Masson-Delmotte et al., <\/em>2018; 2021; Stocker et al<\/em>., 2013). Now fast forward to the present day of this blog post, after a year of transdisciplinary learning and experimenting with the design challenge, my thinking on this topic has significantly changed.\u00a0 \u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First and foremost, my team’s research question asked: what do we mean by climate action?<\/em> In answering this, I\u2019ve come to learn about the power of \u2018everyday activism\u2019 by such scholars as Carlie Trott (2021a) who describes \u2018children\u2019s everyday climate crisis activism\u2019 as a diverse set of ways that children and young people express themselves and take action on the climate emergency. Taking a feminist stance that the \u2018personal is political\u2019 and that our everyday actions are situated in political dimensions, Trott argues that \u2018small individual behavior changes\u2019 matter (Ibid). In her research on a Climate Change Education (CCE)<\/a> after-school program in the United States called \u2018Science, Camera, Action\u2019<\/em> for 10-12 year olds, she explored the implications of \u2018everyday activism\u2019 with young people (Ibid). Everyday activism included \u2018family action plans\u2019 to reduce household emissions, as well as other small-scale actions, such as tree planting and food gardens (Ibid).\u00a0 Trott advocates for \u2018everyday activism\u2019 as she argues that there is a common\u00a0 false duality found\u00a0 in climate action research, specifically between the personal vs. the political change with the former regularly described as mere distraction from the structural change that is necessary (Ibid). Contrarily, her research discovered that there was a \u2018ripple effect\u2019 that occurred in everyday activism, whereby youth inspired their families and even communities to engage in climate action (Trott, 2021b). Additionally, Trott contends that there is long-term culture shifting work occurring in everyday activism that is moving the pendulum away from our fossil fuel-based lifestyles\u00a0 (Ibid). Hence, it is not an \u2018either or\u2019 scenario of the personal vs. the political in climate action, but rather they are two sides of the same coin and that everyday activism by young people contains transformative potential\u00a0 for helping to shift\u00a0 our collective society towards a more sustainable pathway. That is why our team\u2019s design challenge was fundamentally changed by these kinds of notions in no longer supporting\u00a0 dualistic notions of activism but rather including a plethora of forms of activism, from the everyday to the political.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Next, the question then became about how social change is driven by our intended audience, namely youth?\u00a0 In researching this question it became quickly apparent that there is no one age demographic that is more influential in affecting change than the other. Despite much of the social movement literature focusing on youth demographics historically and presently with Thunberg’s Fridays for Future<\/em><\/a> movement, there is evidence to support that intergenerational learning plays a critical role in social change (Elsen & Ord, 2021; Howard-Jones, et al.,<\/em> 2021; Ferrari-Lagos, Martinez-Abad & Ruiz, 2019; Trott, 2020; 2021b). In intergenerational learning, there is a crossover effect of learning between the generations. For instance, research shows that young people are often influenced by the views and attitudes of their adult role models such as family members, and as such young people are more likely to participate in a climate action if their role models endorse, support or are actively involved in it (Hodson, 2014). Contrarily, there is also research to show that adults are swayed by their children\u2019s interests, desires and activities, such as certain behaviors, language patterns or popular culture references that are adopted by adults over time in a way that shifts the older generation\u2019s worldviews and lifestyles (Elsen & Ord, 2021: Hodson, 2014). Hence, while \u201cpolitical power rests with adults, children can influence the ways in which that power is exercised\u201d (Hodson, 2014, p. 89). That is why our design concept shifted substantially with this understanding from a youth-centered approach to an intergenerational approach. \u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lastly, the final research question asked: how do our dominant cultural narratives affect climate action?<\/em> In researching this question, there was much literature uncovered on \u2018apocalypse fatigue\u2019 where critical scholars point out that the dominant climate narratives are rife with \u2018apocalyptic\u2019 fetishizing (Jordan, Bernier, Zuiker, 2021; Macgregor, 2014; Whyte, 2018), For there has been an acute bombardment of films, books, scientific reports and other cultural texts in which \u2018fear is the central trope\u2019 of imagined climate futures (Ibid). These kinds of dystopian narratives entail \u2018gloomy\u2019 future scenarios of extreme natural disasters that induce further war, pandemics, social upheaval, political unrest and far-right totalitarianism (Macgregor, 2014). Yet these narratives often work to depoliticize the issue with climate change understood as a universal human threat\u00a0 rather than seen as a political issue with some actors more culpable than others (Ibid). Take for instance the argument by Potawatomi scholar-activist Kyle Whyte (2018), who states that apocalyptic narratives act as a form of setter amnesia that plainly ignores the historical legacy of violence and destruction from colonialism that has performed an ongoing sequence of apocalyptic events to peoples, lands and species (Ibid). Moreover, these narratives also ensue counterproductive responses that can demotivate and demobilize the public to take action through fear-based thinking (Allen & Crowley, 2017). Disciplines such as neuroscience have shown us that emotions play a critical role in learning generally, but especially in learning related to climate change, given it is such an emotionally and politically charged issue (Ibid).\u00a0 For example, emotions can affect how information is acknowledged and assessed, one\u2019s decision-making ability and subsequently how they respond to the issue, such as with action or inaction (Allen & Crowley, 2017, Trott, 2021c). That is why fear-based emotions such as grief or anxiety can be paralyzing for many, while anger and hope are often cited as emotional responses that mobilize people to act\u00a0 (Jones et al., 2021; Ojala, 2016). Hence, \u2018emotional literacy\u2019 is so fundamental to the field of climate action,\u00a0 as it relates to a self-awareness by learners in recognizing their own emotions, while being able to manage their responses (Hodson, 2014). Therefore, again we shifted our design concept\u00a0 to focus on solution narratives that motivate people rather than apocalyptic narratives that demotivate, as well as we focused on fostering emotional literacy and well being to the climate crisis as a way to devise coping skills for the crisis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In summary, the last year has been a profound and transformative experience in reshaping my previously held notions of what public mobilization on the climate crisis can look like. By learning across multiple ways of knowing – including in science, communications, education, psychology, Indigenous knowledge, and much more – we have been able to broaden our understanding of the problem with far more innovative solutions using transdisciplinary thinking. In the end we applied this new thinking to our design concept of a mobile app for climate action. First, the mobile app included a broader range of what climate action and activism mean, including \u2018everyday activism\u2019 which makes change-making on the issue more inclusive and accessible to more people. Second, our mobile app switched from a youth focus to an intergenerational focus, by shifting our theory of change that targets parents as role models in their families and who could then share the app or actions across their household. Third, the app is \u2018hope\u2019 focused with showcasing tangible climate solutions that anybody can take rather than being problem focused. Finally, the app is centered around fostering well being and mental health as a mechanism for developing sustainable and long-term habits in climate action. In closing, answering the question of publicly-led climate action is far too critical a question to be left to old paradigm thinking. Instead, new ways of thinking and acting in the world are needed to empower many more of us to act as change-agents on the climate crisis. Thus, it is about changing the face of climate leadership in ways never seen before. Our conccept is potentially one way of answering this call.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

References:<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

1. Allen, L.B., Crowley, K. (2017). Moving beyond scientific knowledge: leveraging participation, relevance, and interconnectedness for climate education. Global Warming, 12(3-4)<\/em>. DOI: 10.1504\/IJGW.2017.084781<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

2. Elsen, F. & Ord J. (2021). The Role of Adults in \u201cYouth Led\u201d Climate Groups: Enabling Empowerment. Front. Polit. Sci.<\/em> 3:641154. doi: 10.3389\/fpos.2021.641154 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

3. Ferrari-Lagos, E., Martinez-Abad F., & Ruiz, C. (2019). Education to mobilize society for Climate Change action: The Climate competence in education. TEEM’19: Proceedings of the Seventh International Conference on Technological Ecosystems for Enhancing Multiculturality, pp.966\u2013970<\/em>. DOI: https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1145\/3362789.3362853<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

4. Hodson, D. (2014). Becoming Part of the Solution: Learning about Activism, Learning through Activism, Learning from Activism. In: Bencze, J., Alsop, S. (eds) Activist Science and Technology Education<\/em>. Cultural Studies of Science Education<\/em>, vol 9. Springer, Dordrecht. DOI: https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1007\/978-94-007-4360-1_5<\/a> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

5. Howard-Jones, P., Sands, D., Dillon, J., & Fenton-Jones, F. (2021). The views of teachers in England  on an action-oriented climate change curriculum. Environmental Education Research, 27:11, 1660-168<\/em>0. DOI: 10.1080\/13504622.2021.1937576<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

6. Jones, L. et al. (2021). 2020-Vision: understanding climate (in)action through the emotional lens of  loss. Journal of the British Academy, 9(5), pp. 29\u201368.<\/em> DOI https:\/\/doi.org\/10.5871\/jba\/009s5.029<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

7. Jordan M, Bernier J, Zuiker S. (2021). The Future Is Open and Shapable: Using Solar Speculative  Fiction to Foster Learner Agency. Literacy Research: Theory, Method, and Practice.;70(1):309-329.<\/em> doi:10.1177\/23813377211028263<\/p>\n\n\n\n

8.  Masson-Delmotte, V., et al.<\/em> (2018). Special Report: Global Warming of 1.5\u00b0C<\/em> (Summary for Policymakers). Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). In Press. Retrieved from: https:\/\/www.ipcc.ch\/sr15\/chapter\/spm\/<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

9.  Masson-Delmotte, V. et al. <\/em>(2021). Climate Change 2021: The Physical Science Basis <\/em>(Summary for Policymakers, Working Group 1). Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, United Kingdom and New York, NY, USA. Retrieved from: https:\/\/www.ipcc.ch\/report\/ar6\/wg1\/#SPM<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

10. Macgregor, S. (2014), Only Resist: Feminist Ecological Citizenship and the Post-politics of Climate  Change. Hypatia, 29: 617-633<\/em>. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1111\/hypa.12065<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

11. Ojala, M. (2016). Facing Anxiety in Climate Change Education: from Therapeutic Practice to Hopeful  Transgressive Learning. Canadian Journal of Environmental Education, 21, pp. 41-56. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

12. Stocker, T.F., et al. <\/em>(2013). Climate Change 2013: The Physical Science Basis <\/em>(Summary for Policymakers). Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).  Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, United Kingdom and New York, NY, USA. Retrieved from: https:\/\/www.ipcc.ch\/site\/assets\/uploads\/2018\/02\/WG1AR5_SPM_FINAL.pdf<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

13. Trott, C.D. (2020). Children\u2019s constructive climate change engagement: Empowering awareness,  agency,  and action. Environmental Education Research, 26:4, pp. 532-554,<\/em> DOI: 10.1080\/13504622.2019.1675594<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

14.  Trott, C.D. (2021a). What difference does it make? Exploring the transformative potential of everyday  climate crisis activism by children and youth. Children’s Geographies, 19:3, pp. 300-308,<\/em> DOI: 10.1080\/14733285.2020.1870663<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

15.  Trott, C.D. (2021b) Youth-Led Climate Change Action: Multi-Level Effects on Children, Families, and  Communities. Sustainability<\/em>. 2021; 13(22):12355. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/su13221235<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

16.  Trott, C.D.(2021c). Climate change education for transformation: exploring the affective and  attitudinal dimensions of children\u2019s learning and action. Environmental Education Research,<\/em> DOI: 10.1080\/13504622.2021.2007223<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

17. Whyte, K. P. (2018). Indigenous science (fiction) for the Anthropocene: Ancestral dystopias and  fantasies of climate change crises. Environment and Planning E: Nature and Space, 1(1\u20132), 224\u2013242<\/em>. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1177\/2514848618777621<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Famous youth climate activist, Greta Thunberg (soure: TheEcologist.org) Nearly a year ago, I first joined the Climate Action Leadership program<\/p>\n

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