“’Tis the Season to be Jolly”?

If they have not turned away and tuned out from the depressing news about the climate crisis, many young people feel sad or angry, powerless and perplexed about what they can do. As one young person said recently, at a workshop run by Melbourne Climate Futures at the University of Melbourne:

 I found initially when learning about climate change, and everything was very overwhelming, because it was all very big scale global issues. And then I got stuck on what am I supposed to do about all this really bad stuff happening?

The Melbourne University researchers recently invited children and young people (12 to 25 years), via a series of workshops, to (1) identify the resources they want that will help them face the climate emergency; and (2) to name the strengths they can draw on to galvanise them to learn, manage and act on the problem.

The researchers aimed to get the participants to help design a website for other children and young people who are concerned about climate change.

What did they come up with?

What they Want: A Website for Young People with Diverse Interests

Their ideal online resource will enable them to

·       share their own experiences and learn from others’

·       focus on what they can do

·       enable them to choose a particular focus for learning and action

For this generation, the website needs to be visually engaging and interactive. And they were clear that it should be powered by renewable energy, with no hard copies of the information.

The Seven Climate Superpowers

The young co-designers drew on their own experiences as well as those of their acquaintances and others they’d heard of, to identify key “superpowers” that children and young people have, and how they can draw on these in the face of climate change.

The principles and stories offered by the participants resulted in the Your Climate Superpowers website(https://climatesuperpowers.org/) which aims to give children, young people and the adults in their lives ways to deal with climate distress.

Here are the Seven, as outlined on the website. Under each superpower is a list of excellent, positive, manageable ideas for taking action.

1.     Social: this is about building connections or trust with other people - it could be as simple as talking with family and friends when you feel worried about climate change.

2.     Human: these are your own skills, knowledge, experiences and talents and can include creative and technological skills and volunteering.

3.     Cultural: this is about understanding and knowing the world, and how you act within it. This could involve cultural practices and values that help take care of the environment.

4.     Political: this is about influencing governments but also people and communities. It could involve going to rallies, signing petitions or voting a certain way.

5.     Financial: this doesn’t necessarily mean you have a lot of money – it could be shopping sustainably, volunteering, or influencing how others spend their money.

6.     Built: this involves transforming the built environment and things we use so they are more sustainable – it could involve things like riding a bike, or influencing your family to buy solar panels.

 7.     Natural: are activities that help you connect to nature to do something about climate change. It could include gardening, going for a bushwalk, composting and caring for Country.

 Not-so-secret Missions

Via the website, children and young people can take a quiz to find out what their strongest climate superpowers are. Then they can explore the “secret missions” they can choose from, using their particular superpowers. The 120 missions include learning about climate change, taking everyday action, transforming society and self-care. All the missions are based on the stories and ideas shared by the young co-designers. These range from documentaries to watch, to tips on dealing with eco-anxiety, sustainable shopping guides, strategies for ensuring recycled toilet paper is used at school, and tips for engaging with the local council or MP.

Move Over, Three Wise Men!

In these unprecedented times, the old stories and old ways may seem outdated and irrelevant. Through this website, young people are telling their own stories and pointing the way to new ways of helping save our planet.

The research and implementation project was funded by a Climate Research Accelerator Grant from Melbourne Climate Futures at the University of Melbourne.

 This blog draws on the report at https://theconversation.com/what-am-i-supposed-to-do-about-all-this-really-bad-stuff-young-people-identify-7-superpowers-to-fight-climate-change-193620

Submitted by Wendy Morgan