Stayed tuned to CASSC for details about an important upcoming event - Climate Change Despair and Empowerment Roadshow - coming to the Sunshine Coast in late March. The presenters were trained by Al Gore during his recent visit to Australia, and aim to encourage local groups into action in their local areas.
The roadshow aims to:
* catalyse, invigorate and support grassroots climate study/action groups across Australia
* Address the hopeless despair that many people feel and provide tools to transform despair into empowerment and effective action.
* Unveil the false, "business as usual", solutions being touted by the major political parties.
* raise awareness and inspire political action towards the real solutions that we, the people, must insist upon. (eg. end Australia's $6.5 billion a year in subsidies to the fossil fuel industries, support energy efficiency, solar, wind, geothermal etc.)
* provide resources for the many things that we can all do to turn the situation around.
* Support a network of Climate Study/Action Groups across Australia each educating themselves and their local community. These Climate Study/Action Groups may be a project of an existing organisation or a new group formed on the night.
The roadshow will offer continued support to the Climate Study/Action Groups through;
1) the development of a website which includes all resources that are made available at the roadshow plus more.
2) meeting facilitation support and consulting on group process as needed.
The evening forums will include:
* a video presentation that includes Al Gore speaking on how Australia in particular could make a huge impact in the world by taking decisive action to prevent catastrophic climate change, Pullitzer Prize winning journalist Ross Gelbspan, footage from climate change victims and other footage.
* Graphs and information to consider what the real solutions are likely to be and the urgency of reaching concensus about these solutions.
* a discussion on the role of the denial of feelings of anguish and despair in making us feel helpless, hopeless, paralysed, what can one person do anyway, its too late etc etc. This addresses Gore's insight that many people move straight from denial to hopeless despair about this issue without leaving any space in between for effective action.
* Where no climate study/action group currently exists, the group will be invited to form one there and then. If one already exists, representatives from the group will be invited to give an update on their group's direction, meetings etc. We will discuss the importance of direct democracy and grassroots and that each of us now needs to awaken those around us to the urgency of understanding and action.
* Host a short meeting of the group and discuss general meeting guidelines
* Invite people to host "house parties", invite their friends to watch DVDs of Inconvenient Truth, Ross Gelbspan and the Roadshow kit to build the network and spread word of the climate study/action groups.
* an invitation to the "Climate Change, Despair and Empowerment" one-day workshop at a nearby venue on Saturday or Sunday. We'll train others up for both this piece and for the presentations themselves.
I'll let you know dates, times and venues as soon as I know.
