Nearly a year ago, the opening session of the What I Can Do (WICD) About Climate Change Action Programme got piloted at a local high school. The introductory session is designed for really large groups, such as an entire school assembly.
Before even mentioning ‘climate change’, the programme starts by introducing young climate activists, showing the role that the youth play in world affairs. It encourages learners to think at the global scale, rather than just thinking about ‘me, here, now’. Climate change is a global problem and we are world citizens. This introduction hopefully arouses a sense of importance, relevance, empowerment, and capacity: “Look what others have managed to do, we can also do something!”
Climate change has been called a ‘wicked problem’: so complex, with so many interacting causes and symptoms, that it seems impossible to solve – or at least wickedly difficult. ‘Wicked’ means evil, and climate change is that. But in slang ‘wicked’ also means excellent, brilliant. The ‘wicked’ problem of climate change needs ‘wicked’ solutions. The acronym WICD fits perfectly.
So where does one start? We want to start with actions that are easy to do, that have a big impact quickly, and we want to involve as many people as possible. That is the key message of the first session. The second session – with related activities – does just that. It is designed for smaller, class-room sized groups, and involves the learners’ families back home.
We are now planning to pilot the first two sessions with a group of educators, who will then involve their learners and their learners’ families.
Watch this space…
EASTERaction 