ENVIRONMENTAL SECURITY
TUESDAY 20 OCTOBER 2020
Workshop Outline
Tuesday 20th October 2020 – 19.00 to 21.00
If you join this workshop, you will start by seeing our Animation introduction: GRAB THE WHEEL! - and the TV Chat Show scene from the Peace Child musical in which young Climate Change Activists argue the case for urgent action to build a Green Economy with Climate Deniers. They raise the issues we want to discuss in this Workshop:
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Our schools are the best in the world! / No – they’re rubbish: they teach us NOTHING about Climate Change;
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Oil is for ever / No it will run out – but Climate change will kill us long before it does…
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Climate Change is good! Great to have Champagne from Shropshire! / Climate change is already devastating;
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The Green Economy isn’t working / We have to make it work: it’s our only hope!
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Nuclear is the best green fuel / It’s an expensive distraction: solar and wind are cheaper and safer;
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Green taxes are unacceptable: they raise prices on essential energy / green taxes are an essential first step in phasing out, then criminalising, the use of fossil fuels;
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There’s masses of fuel out there left to frack or find / we have to stop prospecting for fossil fuels NOW!
The panel of experts will respond to the arguments rehearsed in the scene in a Question Time format, outlining what Action Points they think are the most important; Comments and questions from you, the online audience, will be fed into the discussion. After 30-minutes, experts and Audience will move into 4 x online Break-out groups to brainstorm what actions will be most effective in dealing with the Climate Emergency.
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Group ONE will look at Actions we can all take as individuals;
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Group TWO will explore what Actions we can take at a Community level;
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Group THREE will discuss national policy options to move quickly to a Zero Carbon / Green New Deal.
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Group FOUR will discuss how to improve Actions taken at an International / UN level.
In each group, there will be polls of the online audience to decide which Actions to prioritise over the next 5 to 25 years.
The 4 x Groups report back their Priority Actions and discuss which to prioritise for immediate operationalisation. Final Polls will be taken of the online audience – and the Workshop will close with the Rapporteur(s) summarising what s/he will say to the Saturday report back session. Final Comments will be gathered from the Panel and the online audience.
The Keeling Curve is the dial we have to watch on the Planetary Dashboard to see how well we’re doing at dealing with the Climate Emergency. It measures the carbon parts per million and it shows we have a problem: the Curve has been moving inexorably upwards since records began. All the windmills, all the solar panels – everything we greens have done these last 50 years to stave off the climate emergency have not, to date, made the slightest dent in the upward climb of the Curve.
Carry on like this, and life as we know it will become impossible by the end of this century. Young people have every right to feel enraged that the elder generation has been so reckless in their preparations for the climate emergency that will increase to become a threat to the very existence of Life on Earth in the lifetimes of the children passing through schools today.
