All the tools we need

Activism, enter me

Off I went yesterday, me and my little ear robots, to a workshop.

Did I hear every word? Reader, I most surely did. Did I have to ask anyone to repeat themselves? I did not, not one single time.

Ironically, the subject of the workshop was one that prompts many to cover their ears and go la la la, I'm not listening.

Understanding Climate Change - Climate Fresk, Biketober edition was its full title —

• Biketober because this was one of many Bike Auckland events staged this month to raise awareness about the awesomeness of bikes

• Climate Fresk, because it uses an award-winning, interactive workshop that turns the data of the IPCC reports into something you can lay out on a table with postcards

• Understanding Climate Change, because even if you feel familiar with the precepts there’s a whole lot to the science of the thing and the dire ramifications if we don't bloody act

To what end? Let me cut and paste directly from the source:

To help participants understand the 'big picture' of climate science, and translate it into impactful actions that are relevant to their local contexts.

It was free to take part, we even got pizza, delicious and vegetarian naturally.

I was very glad to be there, even without the free food.

The workshops are run by Climate Club Aotearoa who I've mentioned here before - really good people with really good suggestions for something you can do in the next fifteen minutes, in the next few days, in the coming weeks. Their whole ethos is we have all the tools we need, the challenge is to get the word out and use them while we still have time.

So many ways to do that, and so many ways you can run into brick walls. The aim of their workshops is to get people sharing their thoughts and experiences and ideas to come up with plans for doing something different, getting something constructive underway.

Veteran Greens campaigner Susanne Kendrick was there and we shared our frustrations and doubts about the prospects of getting meaningful progress in a political environment that is proving so hostile to the smallest of changes.

Nonetheless, along with the rest of the workshop we explored possibilities for action. That led us into a discussion about the desirability of ensuring that along with densification we might aim for the most possible individual solar power generation - not only for its desirability of achieving more sustainable renewable energy but also to deal with the likely problems of grid failure in the face of weather disasters and other dire problems ahead. So many possibilities to push for, even if they keep pushing right back at us.

And I do remain hopeful even in the face of the intransigence and outright hostility, if only because at a certain point the destiny may force itself upon us when, say, the last ICE car rolls off the production lines.

We were also asked to come up with a specific fresh action we’d do in the next week.

Easy, I said, I’m going to recommend these workshops to the marvellous readers of my newsletter.

So that's that task done. Do please click the link here and consider the possibilities - they really are bloody good.

But you wouldn't want to stop there, would you? I've resolved to get going on various things I've been involved in, or committed to - new things I've been meaning to do in the newsletter; campaigns I was helping with before I went away.

 Readers paying close attention may have noticed that vows I make have a tendency to slip. I'm painfully conscious of that, I am absolutely resolved to make this stuff become real.

The worse things get with this dire government and its dereliction of duty — to the best interests of the people of this nation, to the fate of the planet — the more dispiriting it can all get. But fuck that, I don't want to see them get any more leash than they already have.

By happy coincidence, today I picked up the press release that came with my copy of Force of Nature Te Aumangea o te ao Tūroa, a new history of Forest & Bird by David Young and Naomi Arnold — a fabulous piece of work, I might say, and more to come on that.

 

But it was this quote from Naomi Arnold that I just loved.

After talking to so many of these local and national conservation heroes, I was left with a strong sense of the power of one person standing up and fighting for what they believe in. I heard how their passion drew in other supporters and how over time that collective momentum led to national and international movements to protect or restore some of our most precious wild places.

Damn straight. Never imagine it can't be done. Fight for what you believe in. Make some damn noise, keep it up.