Do you worry a lot about climate change and want to do something that really makes a difference? If yes, then I invite you to join us this month for an information session about our new climate initiative.
A team of us has been meeting weekly for months to design a program that brings to the climate movement what we believe has been missing: the synthesis of powerful solutions with powerful fellowship.
This initiative was sparked by the book, Don’t Even Think About It: Why Our Brains Are Wired to Ignore Climate Change. The author, George Marshall, asserts that cognitively we are mostly passive in the face of the climate crisis. After 16 years of being a full-time climate activist, I find that Marshall’s book makes complete sense.
Climate change is a wicked problem with no straightforward solution. Many variables create the problem, risks are mostly in the distant future, no one specifically is at fault, we don’t notice it on a day-to-day basis, and the crisis progresses slowly.
If we were rational, we’d consider the evidence and then act. But we are not solely rational. In fact, Marshall explains that our rational brain has a much smaller role in decision-making than our emotional brain. This is why statistics, graphs and information are ineffective for converting climate-change deniers into climate-change believers.
Fortunately, Marshall offers ideas for what we can do. We’ve used his ideas in designing our initiative dedicated to nothing less than ensuring the future of our children and all life.
If you’re curious, please join us for an information session at which we’ll describe our initiative, including the prototype training program that starts in September. Participants of the training program will build knowledge, hope and resolve; connect with like-minded folks, take action and have an impact; review the basic science of climate change; practice how to speak and listen in an engaging, inspiring way and learn about real solutions and how to make them happen
Information sessions are Aug. 17, 24 and 31. To sign up, go to climateprotection.org/climate-action-training.
Ann Hancock is co-founder and executive director of the Center for Climate Protection.
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