Climactic Live

Today we’re talking online activism and keeping the ledger straight.

We all get our news online - social media is our town square and the news pages are the town criers. I follow a bunch of these pages and while plenty of the articles they share demonstrate great empathy and compassion for the complexities of life lived and a commitment to science and waking the world up to climate change - there is an equally powerful commitment from people who seem to find social justice, equality, fairness and acceptance profoundly threatening. Some are bots, some are astro-turfers and shills, and some are believers - whatever they are, they actively seek out stories of tolerance and climate activism to drown out the voice of the town crier. These are the voices of hatred, discrimination, and frankly, fear. They shout so loudly that your friend who is might be climate concerned but not engaged feels there’s more of a diversity of genuine expertise than there actually is - and might not ‘get’ that the science is in - and might also feel that expressing discrimination is just ‘voicing your opinion’.

Do you want to contribute to the discussion - and risk getting attacked? Possibly not. But there’s a global Facebook movement that’s grown up organically and powerfully over the past three years, and stepped up, little by little, and more and more, to counter that hatred, and open space for other views. It’s a group that sits at the tipping point of civic discourse - It’s the I am HERE movement - and our guest today is the administrator of the Australian arm - Gabriel Morse of #iamhere Australia, welcome!

If you're inspired to join the group, you can find it here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/iamhereaustralia

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Transitions Film Festival brought a film screening to Port Phillip in Melbourne, and Mark from Climactic was able to moderate and record the post-screening panel as a live episode. Featuring two young members of the Port Phillip community, and a marine scientist and science communicator from the Port Phillip EcoCentre, this panel grapples with Australia's vulnerability to climate impacts, the present threats of the climate crisis, and looking ahead from the perspective of young people. 

For more about Kiribati and the advocacy work by former President Anote Tong, check out this episode from The Australia Institute which they kindly let us share. 

 

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Bronwyn Gresham hosts a conversation between four psychologists about facing the climate crisis.

About Sally

Sally Gillespie, PhD, worked as a Jungian psychotherapist for over twenty years before completing her doctoral research in climate psychology. 

Her recent publication, Climate Crisis and Consciousness: Re-imagining our owrkd and ourselves is an intriguing and essential read, venturing into our collective stories and consciousness and guiding us towards a space that has promise even in our difficult reality. Check out her book here

Sally has kindly shared her recommendations for reading and materials.  

 

About Christine

Dr Christine Canty is a clinical neuropsychologist with a passion for climate activism. She is involved in XR Families and the XR Outreach team. 

Listen to her incredible speech from the XR Spring Rebellion (about 20 min into this episode)

And in person here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5kWqlzW7-nw  

 

About Carol

Carol Ride is the founder of Psychology for a Safe Climate after being a longstanding psychotherapist and climate activist. Our friends in Dumbo Feather spoke to Carol in 2017, and the importance of inner work is as relevant now as it was then.

Recommended Reading and Resources

A great place to start is the Climate Psychology Alliance short podcasts on a range of subjects including eco anxiety, climate grief, communication, etc 

https://www.climatepsychologyalliance.org/podcasts. 

Another excellent entry point are information sheets and booklets from Australian Psychological Society: https://www.psychology.org.au/for-the-public/Psychology-topics/Climate-change-psychology 

Also very helpful are writings on https://www.climateandmind.org/ 

For an accessible psychological insights and support for climate communication and action you can download Psychology for a Safe Climate’s booklets: Let’s speak about climate change, Facing the heat: Stories of climate change conversations and Coping with climate change distress, all available on https://www.psychologyforasafeclimate.org/publications 

For an engaging video introduction to climate communication go to Rosemary Randall’s lecture for the Cambridge Climate Lecture Series 2019 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dqXtJt9OoLA. 

Ro Randall’s podcast and blog pieces are also excellent on both communication and the activist trajectory https://rorandall.org/.

Paul Hoggett and Rosemary Randall’s insightful short paper ‘Sustainable activism: Managing hope and despair in social movements” (2017) can be found at https://www.climatepsychologyalliance.org/explorations/papers/201-sustainable-activism-managing-hope-and-despair-in-social-movements

Also many excellent short pieces on climate communication on Renee Lertzman’s website https://reneelertzman.com/essays/ 

For very helpful short pieces on burnout go to https://transitionnetwork.org/news-and-blog/editorial-sophy-banks-on-balance-or-burnout/ and https://grist.org/article/2010-05-12-coming-out-of-the-closet-my-climate-trauma-and-yours/

Per Espen Stoknes identifies psychological barriers to climate action and communication in What We Think About When We Try Not To Think About Global Warming: Toward a New Psychology of Climate Action (Chelsea Green, 2015). This warm and thoughtful book is full of personal stories and strategic solutions for encouraging individual and social responses. Political adviser and climate campaigner Alex Evans gives a short insightful account of how stories and myths hinder or activate change in the The Myth Gap: What happens when evidence is not enough (Eden Project, 2017). 

Joanna Macy’s work has sustained generations of environmental activists. Her most recent book, highly recommended, is Active Hope: How to face the mess we’re in without going crazy, co-authored with Chris Johnstone, (New World Library, 2012). Watch her videos and podcasts on https://www.joannamacy.net/main#multimedia

Sally's book, Climate Crisis and Consciousness: Reimagining our world and ourselves, is available from Routledge https://www.routledge.com/Climate-Crisis-and-Consciousness-Reimagining-Our-World-and-Ourselves/Gillespie/p/book/9780367365349

 (30% discount code is ADS 19) or get your library to order it in! 

 

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Recorded in November 2019 for Raising the Bar, an event series from the City of Melbourne. 

We're so grateful to the RTB team for allowing us to share this audio, from past guest and collaborator Dr Jen Rae.

Raising the Bar is "for curious minds and lifelong learners. We’re here for those hungry for innovation and inspiration. For the citizens and dreamers of our world. We’re here to make knowledge accessible outside of the traditional classroom and transform our city’s popular culture. We’re Raising the Bar."

According to Margaret Atwood, we’re no longer talking about climate change; we are facing ‘everything change’. There are infinite adjustments to make - so what's the importance of artists in these transitions? Jen Rae has been practicing at the intersection of arts and climate emergency for the past 10 years. Join her as she shares what she's learned from practicing across cultures and disciplines to find the place of artists in the climate catastrophe.

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Organizing member Lizzie Webb joins Mark to bring this Engineers Declare event to Climactic. This podcast is an excerpt from the NSW Region Connect session, where Lizzie and Chris provide an overview of the Engineers Declare movement and Engineers Act strategy development.

The Australian engineering profession has the opportunity to lead a rapid and just transition towards healthy, thriving communities and ecosystems.

Over 160 organisation signatories and 2,300 individuals have signed Engineers Declare, joining a growing number of governments, professional bodies and businesses around the world in declaring a Climate Emergency.

As we move into the next phase of our movement, Engineers Act, we encourage signatories and supporters to continue to champion the mainstreaming of a progressive sustainability paradigm in the Australian engineering profession and join a state-based region group to take carriage of local movement building and sector transformation initiatives ongoing.

Participation in an ED Region group provides a great opportunity to;

- get involved with leading the movement,

- connect with others, and,

- share ideas on how we can act together to facilitate systems change, normalise innovative solutions and fundamentally shift the practice of engineering and engineering leadership in Australia.

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Beth Spencer in conversation with Kit Kelen about his creative practice as poet, artist, publisher, collaborator, academic, mentor, musician and blogger. Kit reads selections from some of his many books intercut with original guitar tracks.

They discuss Holden cars, bushfires, coal-addiction, and the role of place in his work -- as a writer who uses a lot of Australian idiom, colloquialisms and reference to landscape in his poetry, and who has also been widely translated.

The process and benefits of translation, the role of habits and doodling, the disruptive power of humour in creative and political practice, and the importance of community and friendship.

Links: The Daily Kit blog - www.thedailykitkelen.blogspot.com

www.kitkelen.com - art and writing

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Reflections on a recent river trip during the COVID lockdown, from Alice Hardinge. A reminder of the persistence of the natural world, and our duty to it. 

Read her writing here.

Send us a story from our new website: www.climactic.com.au

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Director Mirjam Leuze’s The Whale and the Raven illuminates the many issues that have drawn whale researchers, the Gitga’at First Nation, and the Government of British Columbia into a complex conflict.

The Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) is an independent non-profit which sets a standard for sustainable fishing. Mark and new Climactic member Eav talk to Matt Watson, Senior Fisheries Manager.

Margaret Klein Salamon, author of Facing the Climate Emergency: How to transform yourself with climate truth, and founding director of The Climate Mobilization in the US will lead a panel discussion that explores the emotional challenges of facing the climate emergency.