Jul 23 2009
The earth is ours on loan
By Kate Hennessy
As Ric Morante from the NSW Department of Education (DET) explains the Climate Change video conference series he is planning for schools around the state, I am vividly reminded of an episode of TV series, The West Wing.
Extremely V.I.P: The West Wing cast
In the episode, a delegation of be-suited school children file into an White House meeting room to be greeted by somewhat baffled presidential aid, Toby. You get the impression Toby’s got (literally) bigger things on his mind. Until one precocious tween presents his case for lowering the voting age in the U.S. with surprising persuasion.
Among other arguments, the youth says: “I’m gonna be breathing the air and drinking the water after you are long gone. But I can’t vote to protect the environment?”
The kid has a point. And Ric Morante couldn’t agree more.
“Kids are the ones at most risk with climate change, yet they’re also the ones with no voice at the major forums,” he says.
While it’s not in Ric’s power to lower Australia’s voting age, he is passionate about the role education plays in informing kids everywhere of the realities and risks of climate change.
A series of four video conferences will be beamed out to school students during National Science Week. Schools in areas such as Gosford, Doonside, Dubbo, Blaxland and Cessnock will be included through DET’s Connected Classroom video conferencing facilities.
Byran Gaensler speaks at a previous DET video conference
Top scientists such as Professor Tim Flannery, Professor Lesley Hughes, Dr Ben McNeil, Dr Charles Warren and Associate Professor Ian Goodwin will discuss their research and its relationship to climate change. Students will have the opportunity to then ask the scientists about their work.
“I am also trying to confirm Greg Retallack from the University of Oregon, an expert on hard field science and climate catastrophes, and Peter Ward, a leading paleontologist and expert on ancient atmospheres,” says Morante.
Gregory J. Retallack (paleobotany, paleosols). Image: Department of Geological Sciences, University of Oregon
Meanwhile, on August 21st from 10:00am- 2:00 pm, a seminar at Macquarie University invites high school students to engage in-person with leading climate scientists.
The seminar is designed to:
• Provide an insight into exciting scientific research being undertaken by leading Australian researchers
• Demonstrate to teachers and secondary students how the basic scientific disciplines underpin different research areas, and
• Encourage discussion on study and careers in science research
• Build an understanding of the issues around climate change.
As for the kid in West Wing, if you want to know what Martin Sheen – I mean President Bartlett – said when the kid piped up at a press conference later in the episode, you can see the script here.
Or, if you’re in the mood for something more bite-sized, let me remind you of that well-worn yet wonderful native American Indian proverb:
“Treat the earth well: it was not given to you by your parents, it was loaned to you by your children. We do not inherit the Earth from our Ancestors, we borrow it from our Children.”
Find out more about the Climate Change conferences and seminar here.
“The kid has a point” – how true! I recently hosted a group of teachers Ric had invited to the Australian Museum in our Climate Change Exhibition (http://www.australianmuseum.net.au/event/Climate-change-our-future-our-choice). Talking to them about the exhibition as a tool for teaching was enlightening but nowhere near as surprising as what their students had to say on the matter….
One of the best part of my job is that I sometimes get to spend a day listening to what our audience think about what we do. Audience research sessions tell us what people expect, when we’ve delivered and when we’ve disappointed. The reward is usually in something unexpected that comes from our listening experiments – the Kid’s College that we held for our current Climate Change was an eyeopener.
Kid’s College works by having students from different backgrounds and communities across NSW spend a day with us letting us know what they think about our plans for exhibitions. This time last year, a dozen kids from the Coalition of Knowledge Builging Schools came into tell us about what they thought should be in a Climate Change exhibitions.
We started with what they knew – they knew ALOT. Most of them could outline the processes of the greenhouse effect and the relationship between CO2 emissions and climate change. They may not have had the technicalities down, but they knew what they were taking about, and, as they pointed out to us they needed to – Climate Change as their problem.
That’s not to say that they caused it: quite the opposite. These kids – aged from 8-15 – knew who was responsible for climate change and they had firm ideas about who should be addressing it- adults. They wanted the government to take action (what the government would consider radical action) they also understood the reasons why that would not happen.
Unlike the adults in the room, the participants in the College were not despondent. Asked to provide policy responses, to create news from the future, and to report to each other about what messages were useful they all had something constructive to say. A 14 year old girl in her school uniform fronted the group with a post-it note in her hand. What had she done about climate change? She’d been to the UN and petitioned governments in Europe and South America.
That was the unexpected bit.
Parrys Rianes, it transpired was the WWFs youth ambasador for climate change. She liked making films and she liked the environment, she combined the two and decided that she wanted to produce a DVD for other kids to let them know what action they could take to address climate change. She had approched different gorups for sponsorship because she know the DVD would cost money. She got a small grant from local business to do a pilot to attract more funding.
Standing at the back of the room I mentioned to the woman next to me that the kid was a dynamo. “We don’t know where she gets it from”, she responded, “certainly not me or her dad.” Parrys is not the result of pushy parents. There’s no svengail. Just a young woman who knows that she can do something and is prepared to try. Although her colleages at Kid’s College might not have all had her drive they knew that we – the adults in the room – weren’t going to get them out of this mess.
Parrys (http://www.australianmuseum.net.au/blogpost/Introducing-Parrys-Raines), it transpires is one of a heartening number of kids who are doing something. From her example we have sought out others to tell us what they think, post a blog and let us know how we can help them.
That was a particularly rewarding day of audience research. Delivering an exhibition on Climate Change is a step in the right direction, they told us, it’s not enough. Ric’s initative for National Science Week is also the kind of thing they were asking for. I hope his speakers do as much listening as they do talking.
We have borrowed the earth from our children – and they are asking for it back.
Agreed on all counts. It’s funny isn’t it? Our work ethic and acquisitional impulses are often motivated by the desire to provide for our kids and leave them better off than we were (at least, this is the Baby Boomer mentality my parents were part of). Yet that doesn’t quite carry over to leaving the planet in a better state. Not in the same urgent sense anyway.
Same issue with our protective impulse for kids … often doesn’t carry over to protecting them from a “harmful” future.
Was very much reminded of this theme reading this article:
http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/raising-children-extends-to-caring-about-what-sort-of-world-theyx2019ll-inherit-20090731-e4gm.html?page=-1
“The whole point of parenting is to eventually let our children go. We can’t build a wall high enough to protect them from the currents running through the wider society.”