I enjoyed Wednesday’s visit with Will Bates; you all had many good comments during the class. Let’s see what ideas you all may have for them: some next steps — strategies or tactics — for the 350 crew? Please us the comments section here to share your ideas.
Hey everyone-
This idea cam from talking to Will after class, I ran it by Professor Isham and he liked it so I figured I would share it with everyone. If you are interested maybe we can even incorporate it into the class.
So the concept is basically centered around Will’s 350.org idea. What it consists of is raising awareness about the number 350 in pairs of groups (specifically youth groups) from two places that wouldn’t normally connect. We could pair up a two environmental groups- one in a less developed country which wants to start raising Global Warming awareness in their area (like in India, which Will mentioned) with a group that has more formal knowledge of the situation (such as our class). My idea was basically to try that out, either with our class or the Sunday Night Group, and another organization (I e-mailed Will to ask about possible suggestions).
We could start off our connection with something like a photo exhibit- taking black and white photos of people in our group and theirs doing identically wacky things, with the center being the a large paper with the number 350. We could then turn to the exchange of ideas, trying to figure out how our conventional knowledge and their fresh ideas can fit into each others’ cultural contexts. My end goal would be to create some sort of written model for this joint-group that we would try in order for Will to maybe take it and run with it.
I have been thinking a lot about movement building, and how we are confronting a new frontier in a lot of ways because we, for the first time, need a global movement. What better way to start creating that then by connecting youth on a grassroots level to other groups they wouldn’t normally be connected to. The boom in industry and technology is our age is the reason for global warming, but why don’t we use it to create a movement that is potentially widespread enough to actually beat it?
Thanks for taking the time to read this, let me know what you think- comments, critiques etc.
As I stated in class, I really feel that in order to spark this movement, we will need to get our voices heard. Many people, in all parts of the world, have yet to learn and truly grasp the dire effects of global warming, and thus, I believe that this is one way in which all of us can make a difference. Therefore, rather than proposing an idea that would be very time consuming or costly, my idea is simple. If each of us were to go and have the “elevator conversation” with three different people, we could essentially get three individuals to become activists in this cause; something, which does not seem like a lot, however, if we were to tell those three people to each tell three more people, the numbers could begin to add up.
Consequently, in a matter of months, we could have thousands of people who are each taking there own steps and doing their own research on websites such as http://www.350.org and http://www.stepitup2007.com. We would see the start of a widespread movement, which hopefully will now lure the media in as an ally. Therefore, just as events in the civil rights movement were documented and covered on the first page of newspapers across the nation, we too could have that spotlight shine on the fight against global warming. Our protests and demonstration would now be considered “top stories” in the eyes of the media, and consequently, our demands would have to be addressed by our government officials, because now, we would have evidence that millions are onboard and are demanding change on this pressing issue!
I agree with the ideas expressed about spreading the word, getting the information out there, and starting new international grassroots programs. Branching off of Jacob’s idea, I think that it’s really important at this juncture to connect the different organizations and movement in the international community. Will spoke to this when he talked about traveling to India, and opening forums for discussion and activism there, and I also really like how the animation cuts across language barriers.
I would propose that an international forum be set up, online, in which people can talk to eachother, articles can be posted, ideas spread, and connections made. This can also tie into Mr. Isham’s great idea of the online Global Warming Wiki, where new technologies and ideas can be shared. There is no shortage of sall and growing movements at the grassroots level, but they are still mainly occurring in hotspots of environmental concern and activism, such as Vermont. I think that a great way to reach other–not so environmentally inclined areas–is to join forces as an international community, and as we read about in Ignition, open our movements up more fully to people who don’t know what they can do to help.
Hi all.
Many thanks for the chance to join you all in class last week. What an exciting start to college to jump right into the thick of the climate movement. And already you all are providing some excellent ideas pushing new boundaries.
Stephanie, yes, the more people willing to communicate this issue to everyone they know the better.
Now on to Jacob’s idea. Amazingly enough, Jacob came up with an idea that took our 350.org team months and months to arrive at. We have actually been considering a similar idea for some time now…how to link up groups in different parts of the world as “buddies” or collaborators in the 350 movement, sharing ideas and resources, and connected their action plans. Originally we hoped to launch a web-tool facilitating this sort of linking up this fall. But due to strategic purposes and trying to narrow our focus to a few key areas, we’ve put this idea off until 2009. This means we could absolutely use help in devising precisely how to make this sort of effort actionable. We have some basic ideas, but nothing is truly concrete. If you all, as Jacob suggested, were able to offer a written proposal or plan for how to actualize and execute a “buddy system” effort within the context of project 350 that could be both exciting and very helpful.
We would certainly need to maintain considerable communication between any of you working on that and our team — and there’s always the possibility that what we work on won’t be implemented (part of our recognition that we have to always stay nimble when doing this work) — but I leave it to you all to discuss ways that your class be involved in this.
On another note, and as a sort of word of caution, I would just comment that I’d be wary to say that youth groups in the US have any “more formal knowledge” of the subjects we’re addressing than groups in India. I don’t mean to criticize, Jacob, but again, it’s important to be mindful of how we’re communicating our efforts. I learned a tremendous amount from the groups I met in India, and many of them have “formal knowledge” of these subjects that far outweigh my own. And that’s a big reason why I think this idea could be a huge help. Groups would be able to mutually learn and work together, addressing the great diversity of perspectives and issues intertwined in this most urgent challenge and opportunity.
I’ll look forward to hearing how you all want to proceed with this. Thanks,
Will
P.S. I’ll hope to see all of you on the 27th. More info here: http://www.350vt.org.
Will,
Thanks for your support and criticisms- I totally understand what you mean by that, the phrase “more formal knowledge” was a poor choice of words. Maybe I can re-phrase that, based on your comment, of having two groups who are coming from two totally different perspectives because of their cultural contexts, and using that as the basis of transfer of knowledge and bridging of small local movements into a global one. Hopefully, if people are interested in the idea, there can be a lot more exchanges like that one to help refine the potential project.
I also wanted to let you know that I am planning on proposing it to the Sunday Night Group and I wanted to see if I could mention your willingness to let us potentially write a proposal for 350.org.
Thanks again,
Jacob
By the way, Stephanie and Noah’s ideas are pretty awesome. Maybe there is some way to combine the three?
Hey,
Just to build on the Jacob’s idea (I hope I understood it correctly) on how to manage the initiative on the logistical side. We had executed a very similar plan after an Initiatives for Peace Conference which I had helped facilitate, hosting Pakistani and Indian students at my old school in India. After the conference we had emailed schools in India and Pakistan and asked them to provide us with the email addresses of their high-school students and then from within our email bank, we paired off one Pakistani student with one Indian student for the purpose of breaking biases and fruitful discussion.
As Will pointed out, in the case of climate change awareness, this process of pairing up needs to be more carefully done as it can not simply decided by nationality. I am not from the US, but is there any definite manner in which localities in the US may be classified on the lines of their general commitment to overcoming climate change in comparison to one another?
While working with this project, we realized that merely establishing contact was not enough, but the students would require a set of guidelines alongside which they could direct their conversation; towards sharing and creating small-scale projects done or that can be done to contribute to the movement in their homes, schools or neighborhoods.
I hope that is helpful, Jacob.
I would say that the website is a good idea, however I think Steph’s idea is one that can get the ball rolling sooner. I will say however that I think we should all try to have “elevator conversations” with at least two people from back home. Middlebury is generally pretty familiar with the global warming issue, so I think that the most effective step would be for us to take advantage of the diversity of our class and try to make a difference back home. It doesn’t need to be hard either, a simple facebook phone call could easily include your thoughts on the issue in relation to the upcoming election and who you think will be more responsible in cutting our carbon footprint. I think we should all try spreading the word this week, and see what happens. We may get laughed at, we may spark some interest from our peers, but either way we will at least be able to say we took a first step.
While reading last night about how important media was to raising awareness to the public about the serious effects of global warming, I was thinking about possibly attempting to involve the media more. One quote that really caught me was “The environmental movement, which had taken up only an occasional interest in global warming, now took it up as a main cause” (156). This grabbed my attention because it made me feel as though we are back to the mindset of people in 1981. Although we have learned so much more and have more people aware of the issue then we did in 1981, I also think that through the media we could get a lot more people educated. In 1981, global warming was all over newspapers, televisions, magazines, etc. and because of the attention the media was giving it 41% more people were aware of the issue and attempting to conserve energy. If we can once again get the media very involved so that the large issue of climate change is all over news stations and magazines, I believe that a lot more people will become aware of the situation, similar to what happened in 1981.
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