The Future Has Arrived Facing the Reality of Climate Change

The Future Has Arrived

• Facing the Reality of Climate Change

• Part 3

Part 3: What Must I Do?

• Science and technology are what we can do;
• Morality is what we agree we should or should not do.”

Me Mum’s Sick

• Me Mum's sick .ppt

Re-Vision

• There’s plenty more where that came from”

• More Oil
• More Forests
• More Land
• More Houses
• More Water
• More Electricity
• More Food
• More…everything!!

Complete a Personal “Eco-Ethic”

• What are my beliefs about what it is to live a worthwhile life?

• What are my beliefs about my responsibilities towards the rest of creation?

• What do I understand about my place in creation?

• What “footprint” do I want to leave behind?

• Will I have taken more than I gave?
• Will it be neutral?
• Will the earth be better off because of my being alive?

• When am I a consumer; a steward; a co-creator an eco-criminal?

• A Personal Eco-Ethic.doc

Take Action

• At a Personal level

• At local School level

• At a wider community level

• Audit 2006 Revised.ppt

Personal Action 1: Develop your Eco- Spirituality

• Identify your values and church teaching and equate them with a sustainable lifestyle Catholic Earthcare Australia Resources.htm

• Re-connect with the earth:

• Plant, grow, revegetate, regenerate
• Watch nature videos- e.g. Planet Earth; Anima Mundi; An Inconvenient Truth
• Pray with and for the earth

• Vision a new, changed future for you and the world and begin to live it

• A “Carbon Neutral” lifestyle
• Resource use
• Consumption patterns
• Lifestyle
• Understanding of “happiness”
• Move from “Stewardship” to Eco-centred ethics

•  Personal Lifestyle

•   “We all moan and groan about the loss of the quality of life through the destruction of our Ecology, and yet each one of us, in our own little comfortable ways, contributes daily to that destruction. It’s time now to awaken in each one of us the respect and attention our beloved mother deserves.”

• Ed Asner (Actor)

• GreenNet for kids

• www.gn.apc.org/kids/energy.thml

• ENN Quiz

• www. enn.com/quiz/

• Best Foot Forward

• www.bestfootforward.com/

• WWF Fun and Games

• www.worldwidelife.org/fun/index.cfm

• Europa Environment

• http://europa.eu.int/comm/dgs/environment/index_en.htm

Personal Action 2: Change, Without Waiting for Others

• Begin to make personal changes based on your values.

• Take to heart the challenge to live simply that others may simply live.

• Make choices to create and live in the sort of world you dream about

• Audit every aspect of your life for eco-justice

• Be prepared to pay extra for ecologically responsible living

• Be a “compassionate consumer”

• Impose limitations on your resource use: home, travel, food, profession

• Ignore fashion trends and home renovations

• Critique consumerism at every level; home, work, society, world

• Be a friend of the earth

• Voluntarily conserve and preserve for the future

• Respect your grandchildren’s rights

• Slow down: walk, slow food not fast food; slow lane not fast lane

• Become self- sustaining: water, power, food

Personal Action 3: Educate Yourself

• Distinguish between “spin”, propaganda and fact:

• Seek out programs which intelligently explore the issue and highlight role models. (Radio, TV, Cable)
• Read newslatters articles and books e.g SustainaBulletin
• Read letters to the editor- e.g. on water- to know you are not alone
• Check out Websites e.g. Richard Rohr Resource page.htm
• Attend conferences, meetings Denis_Edwards_climate_change.doc; Melbourne, Perth Climate Change Conferences

Personal Action 4: Educate Others

• Educate your students- connect it to learning

• Educate the families of your students- via info sent home, but also by choices you offer students and requests you make of parents.

• Educate your family

• Educate your friends and associates

• Model life choices and changes

• Explain to the community why certain choices are made- e.g. passive air conditioning in classrooms; green spaces

• Google images of creation into prayer/ reflection experiences.

Personal Action 4: Get Political

• Write/email letters to companies which are revealed as eco-criminals.e.g. Eating the Amazon.doc

• Let your local member know that you are an eco-activist and are watching his/her responses to the issues.

• Join environmental groups.

• Donate money to environmental groups.

• Highlight environmental heroes. Environmental Heroes - Environmental Success Stories.htm; Heroes for the Planet Heroes Galleries.htm; Environment Victoria - Environment Heroes Crowned.htm

School Community Action 1

• Audit your resource use- at classroom, office and whole school level (Audit 2006 Revised.ppt)

• Recycle as much as you can and favour sellers who will refill, recycle and accept returns.

• Reduce excess packaging and tell sellers you will favour them if they do so.

• Remove all plastic packaging from your life!

• Buy locally, from local producers if possible

• Reject resource-wasting “boutique” items such as bottled water. Did You Know Bottled Water.doc

School Community Action 2

• Re-connect your community to the earth- gardens, orchards, tanks, recycled water, composting, worm farms.

• Aim to become an energy and water self-reliant community

• Encourage/reward walking rather than use of vehicles. (Make life hard for car users by relocating car parks, favouring greenspace over asphalt)

• Install tanks and pioneer responsible water and power use. Investigate alternative energy sources. (Solar, wind)

School Community Action 3

• Pioneer

• E.g. A school Ecological Vision Statement/Officer

• Promote

• E.g. Declare school a nature reserve, car-free zones; wildlife corridor etc.

• Publicise

• E.g. Significant ecological achievers and innovations

• Produce

• E.g. aim to give back more than you take of the earth’s resources.

Wider Community Action 1

• Liaise with other local schools to influence suppliers in terms of reduction of waste and throw-away products

• Write to all suppliers informing them of your ecological vision and ask them to inform you of their ecological responsibility actions so you can make a choice about who will be school-favoured suppliers.

• Create a list of “favoured” companies based on replies and inform your local community of results.

Wider Community Action 2

• Commit the school to local land rehabilitation schemes, and seek co-operation of other schools in these projects.

• Become the conscience of the district: agitate, inform, challenge.

• Offer assistance- e.g. space, share resources and offer help with distribution and publicity to community action groups committed to conservation.

Wider Community Action 3: Participate in the Conversation

• Respond, as a school to surveys- e.g. Qld Govt Survey on Climate Change

• www.thepremier.qld.gov.au/climatechange

• Make statements in local community papers about climate change issues

• Keep the issue before Church, government, industry.