Hi,

In this post I am sharing the combined results that came out of both of our workshops earlier in March.

Visions of the future we want:

Workshop 1

– Crisp, clean, strong sense of community (like in Cheers), working together for something, different kinds of people, clean vision of the Earth, crystal colours
– Cleanliness and vivid colour
– Respect and regard for nature, coexistence between man and nature, recycling, individual steps leading to collective to international steps, people knew had role to play and doing their roles, nature shining, trees greener, sun shining, nature appreciates our actions
– A slower pace of life; a city that does not flood when it rains; a sense of pride in what we had done as a human species.
– In our streets and towns, we didn’t visualise cars and technology, but rather people interacting in person, not mediated by screens.
– Tension there – thinking what might a sustainable future really look like e.g., the cars, the technology?

Workshop 2
– People have more time, are more creative, they have more time to be creative. Time to connect through joy, as opposed to struggle.
– No cars.
– Shared visions of things being green, great fresh air, no air and noise pollution, birds and insects dominant noises.
– People talk to each other more, come together and share more than now.
– Imagine far fewer things in our houses than today – less consumption.
– More colours, less pollution.
– More sustainable packaging.
– Much better public transport – don’t need 1 or 2 cars to get places.
– Generally happier more relaxed people.

^{The problem(s) – what are they and how do we see them showing up?}

Workshop 1
– Climate anxiety in children
– Seeing mounds of rubbish on the streets around where I work – it really makes my cross
– Seeing people not recycle items that could be recycled!
– Severe natural disasters happening more often
– Economic system – generating wealth for some whilst creating problems for others
– Lack of commitment from everyone although we are all in the same situation
– I think there should be more high-level investment in research on renewable energy and of course not forgetting the recycling and waste from renewable energy equipment
– The fact that plastic products are always cheaper and more available than sustainable alternatives
– I work as a secondary supply cover. Invariably when I ask students about climate change they focus on, as Alf put it, the meteorological issues, a biophysical discourse. In honesty, until I recently started the climate change in education course at Bristol Uni, I probably came from a similar, hard sciences perspective, thinking STEM could solve all. I realise now how woefully inadequate that and the current teaching in the curriculum is. Why is it these issues are trusted to adults and uni students, but not to school children?
– I see a lot of disconnection between people and nature playing out on various scales and in various contexts. And between different groups of people across the world.
– Personally, a big problem I see is social inertia. People are afraid of change, people believe that their actions alone cannot account for big change and that leads to cultural trauma. In reality, it is these small steps that amount to the big change we all need.
– Land grab and pollution in poor areas
– We have to reduce consumption in the first place
– Climate education in schools not addressing the multifaceted nature of the problem or giving ways of meaningful action
– Also education in how to change in ways that make a difference
– Can be hard to challenge culture of progress based on unending growth, has impact on many facets of life
– Exam specifications need to change to reflect the above in including climate change education
– Can be difficult to understand and ‘see’ the extractive processes that our lives are tied into
– As a Geography teacher educator, I see many teachers wanting to tackle climate change but feeling hampered by the way schools are measured re exam results so the comment re: exam specs from Michelle is very pertinent…
– Abstractness of communications about what is happening e.g., 1.5 degrees, market forces, people feeling it doesn’t matter to other people, loss of sense of natural cycles as meaningful and sacred
– But also, we are up against opposition at a higher level – see the article published today in the Guardian about government action in process to raise concerns about tackling ‘political’ topics (https://www.theguardian.com/education/2022/feb/17/guidance-on-political-impartiality-in-english-classrooms-confusing-say-teachers-unions)

Workshop 2
– Embedded unsustainable practice of food, transport etc
– Human relations disconnected from other beings – our sense of the world as ‘objects’ separate from us
– Lack of connection and attention between humans and between humans and non/more-than humans
– Capitalism!
– In terms of education, curriculum overhaul is needed and is still so far off – why are we not training new generations with the skills they need for the future that awaits them?
– The careless and all consuming attitude of society, unsustainable approaches and habits have become so normal they’re ignored
– Finance systems investing in planet unfriendly practices
– Overconsumption, transport , lack of community bonds, lack of education
– Technology and modern world has increased expectation. Need to slow down lots of things. Feeling of burning out with the planet.
– Convenience and consumption driven habits and culture
– Loss of space for more-than-human nature and loss of quality environment for humans (especially those most disadvantaged economically and socially and globally)
– Too much trash generation, leading to high product demand and heating generation
– Disconnect from our food – what it is, how it grows, how to grow it with the natural world rather than destroying habitats for agriculture

^{What systems and cultural norms need to shift to take us from the problems to the future we envision?}

Workshop 1

– Changing things e.g., like how and where I recycle. There is a difference between home and work. At work under pressure and buy packaged lunches and not so conscious of recycling. Want to be sustainable at work.
– Cut down use of car for short journeys – walk more for short journeys
– At society level – I come from Nigeria and want to see a shift from generalized solutions and conversations about climate change and sustainability, where focus can be on irrelevant things for Nigeria like emissions. We need proper recycling, waste bins for different things.
– Personally, I have to shift doing my little things e.g., taking reusable bags to shop, to educating others. Then they end up helping others and we end up with a bigger change.
– Group of geography teachers, we want to shift to a two-way process – from university to school and from school-youth to university. Need to hear student voices. Develop networks where there are two-way process between schools and universities.
– Local (personal) scale – From single-use coffee cups TO using reusable coffee cups
– From biophysical –> integrative discourse at curriculum level. Empowering teachers to educate from a holistic and cross-curricular perspective, also to deal with climate anxiety experienced by students. Acknowledging that this conversation is currently limited to particular social groups.

Workshop 2
– This! – this group we have now is creating this change – we are already changing. Have support. Ambassadors in school. Maybe it will be greater than the sum of its parts.
From individuals to building supporting structure around interest that exists.
– Waste, food waste, focus on the university and things that can change at university policy level. Heard that the zero waste shop (a service reusing furniture has been around for 10 years). Do we need promotion to improve awareness of these things? From things being invisible to communicating what exists, the success stories.
– Thinking about glass milk bottles – leads me to remember that there were systems in place that we can recover. Don’t have to invent these systems from scratch.
– Talking about the university, there is a policy. Bristol Uni was the first to declare a climate emergency. The culture has to come from the top. Personally, felt a bit frustrated that things aren’t going as fast as they should. But Maria reminded me that Bristol seems to be a lot more proactive. We talked about the School, we have quite a lot of plants. We made the decision to change the catering to no meat. But we have a building that uses a lot of energy that goes out windows because of the age and nature of the building. I experience tension and frustration, because individually you can make small changes but not counteracted by bigger things not resolved.
– Education, HK campus – We found it quite tricky to think about structural change and possibilities for it but we discussed things like milk in the school, also curriculum change, integrating thinking about climate change, climate justice and ecological justice into everything we do – mainstreaming it into decision making (though nothing specific).
– Not to mention – the Hong Kong campus and flights associated with this

^{Values that are important for us:}