Taking Action for Climate
At HUMIFORM we know that taking action on the issues you care about during a pandemic can be challenging. So over the next few months, we’re going to be sharing some resources to help you get started.
TAKING ACTION
🗣 CONVERSATIONS…
Conversations are such a powerful tool for taking action. They challenge the way we think, help us reflect on our values and beliefs and encourage growth and education. Although they can be difficult and sometimes uncomfortable, they can change the world. Here are some conversation starters for opening up discussion around climate action:
What’s your favourite place in nature?
Have you heard of the School Strikers?
What image comes to mind when you think about climate change?
What do you know about climate change?
Have you ever wanted to take part in climate action?
What different things do you do in your everyday life to take environmental action?
🌏 SUPPORT ORGANISATIONS WORKING FOR CHANGE…
Joining an organisation allows you to connect with likeminded people, discuss ideas and take larger action as a group of change makers. Below is a list of a few organisations that focus on moving the needle on climate action. Many of them have local groups that you can join, you just need to do a bit of digging.
✏️ PETITIONS…
Petitions are a great way to get behind an issue and show your support for the change that you want to happen. Here are some climate action petitions you might like to sign:
💚 TIPS FOR TAKING ACTION
At our Youth Taking Action in 2020 - Climate Action event, speakers Ben, from Roots & Shoots Australia and Kelly, from the Australian Conservation Foundation provided a few tips to keep in mind when taking climate action. It’s very easy to feel overwhelmed and a bit helpless in the face of such a huge crisis so it’s important to have tools in place to keep you motivated and hopeful.
Normalise your concern for the environment
We have to make caring for the environment a normal thing that underpins everything we do. Talk about the environment as often as you can with your friends and family. A healthy environment impacts everything we do and the more that we connect with and spread this idea, the harder it will be for politicians and companies to ignore the damage being done.
Ask interesting questions
Never stop asking interesting questions! When you ask a question you can understand and challenge people's beliefs and values. It’s an easy way to start a conversation about an issue you’re passionate about. Make sure you really listen to the answers people share. You should also question your own opinions and ideas and seek out sources of information that might challenge them.
Think creatively
There isn’t one single solution to the climate crisis. It isn’t all solar panels and windmills. We need everyone to get on board and invent, create, design and make lots of different things that are going to support a sustainable future for ourselves and the planet. Be creative and dream big!
Read good news
This one is key. It is very easy to get caught up in the scary news headlines and statistics that we see splashed across our screens everyday. But there are so many people out there doing incredible work to help save the planet! Seek these stories out and keep reminding yourself that change is happening. It’s inspiring and empowering to know that you’re not alone.
Remember why you are working for a better world
Remembering what we stand for is as important as remembering what we stand against. We can often get so wrapped up in what we don’t want (eg. no fossil fuels, no single use plastic, no cutting down rainforests) that we sometimes forget to dream about what we actually do want our world to look like. Ask yourself, why are you passionate about climate action? Why do you care about the planet? What change do you want to see? What do you want your future to look like? It’s much easier to take action when you have a clear picture of the kind of world you want to help create rather than focusing on fighting against what you don’t want.
Team work
No one person is going to save our planet, not even the mighty Greta. Change comes from masses of people working together to achieve a common goal. Surrounding yourself with people who share the same passions as you is motivating and it also makes taking action fun. Finding your community is a great first step to taking larger scale action. We’ve listed a whole bunch of organisations you can get involved with above. People power!
Systemic problems need systemic solutions!
What the heck do we mean by systemic problems and solutions? Oftentimes our activism can focus on our individual impact without addressing the wider systemic issues. So for example, we may focus on reducing our individual carbon footprint but still buy from a brand that emits thousands of tonnes of carbon every year, or support a politician that approves new coal mines.
A great way to explain individual vs. systemic action is by using the bath analogy. If you walked into a bathroom and the bath was overflowing you wouldn’t start scooping out tea spoons of water. You’d turn the tap off. We need to turn the tap off when it comes to a whole range of different issues including climate. While we can still do the work to improve our individual impact, we also need to make sure that we are engaging with those people and organisations that have the power and influence to make greater systemic change happen.
Look after yourself
It’s easy to forget this one, but there truly is no climate movement without self care. Working for climate justice is not easy. It can be tiring and often very frustrating. The kind of change our world needs will not happen overnight, in fact it’s probably going to take a long time, so we need to make sure we’re looking after ourselves. Don’t feel guilty for wanting to tune out and watch Netflix sometimes, rest is important.
🌱CLIMATE JUSTICE
Sometimes people think of the climate crisis as an environmental issue. However, it is just as important to look at climate through a social lens because those people who have done the least to cause the climate crisis are oftentimes the ones who are most negatively effected. Think of communities in Bangladesh who have lost their homes to floods, people in the Pacific Islands who are watching their homeland shrink dramatically as the sea levels rise and farmers in Cambodia who have to contend with unpredictable seasons. We need to include these people in our activism and support their work whenever we can. In Australia, this can mean taking action in solidarity with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities.
Like many Indigenous communities across the world, for thousands of years Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people lived in harmony with the natural world and were key to maintaining the ecological systems that they depended on. Since colonisation, the land has been and continues to be destroyed in the name of so called progress. It is fair to say that if colonisers had listened and learned from the original owners of the land, we wouldn’t be in the climate mess we’re in now.
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders have been at the forefront of environmental and social activism, working hard to protect the land on which we live. Currently, a battle is underway to preserve sacred trees on Djab Wurrung land in Western Victoria. The Djab Wurrung people have established an embassy to protect and preserve sacred trees that are of immense spiritual and cultural significance. Some of these trees are over 800 years old! Currently, the Victorian government wants to bulldoze the trees in order to build a highway. We stand in solidarity with the Djab Wurrung people and activists defending sacred land.
For more information about what is happening and ways you can take action to help preserve Djab Wurrung country check out the links below:
Watch - Sacred trees VS a freeway bypass: The fight for Indigenous land
Sign the petition - Protect sacred Djab Wurrung birthing trees from expansion of the Western Hwy by Vicroads
Always was and always will be Aboriginal land.
LEARN MORE
👀 WATCH…
Fridays for Future - Hilda Flavia Nakabuye (Uganda) United Nations speech
Biggest Little Farm (Documentary available on Stan)
Our campaign to ban plastic bags in Bali - Melati and Isabel Wijsen
📚 READ…
Diary of a Young Naturalist, by Dara McAnulty
There is No Planet B, by Mike Berners-Lee
Factfulness: Ten Reasons We’re Wrong About The World - And Why Things Are Better Than You Think, by Hans Rosling, Ola Rosling, Anna Rosling Roennlund
How to Talk About Climate Change in a Way That Makes a Difference, by Rebecca Huntly
Climate change empowerment handbook by the Australian Psychological Society
Watch Us Rise, by Renee Watson and Ellen Hagan
Hope: 50 Ways to Help our Planet Everyday, by Penguin Random House Australia