Why do we need Earth Talk?

I’ve been running the Earth Talk programme, under the umbrella of Climate Museum UK, since September, and the third course is coming up on June 17th. You can get the full download on the programme here. Essentially, it’s an online community of practice, a big playbook and collection of quality resources, and repeated courses, all about engaging with people in response to the Earth Crisis.

I’ve just hosted a Discover Earth Talk gathering for people to explore before taking the plunge, so I thought I’d share a few highlights and a short video version of my talk, below.

The video focuses on why Earth Talk is needed.

The big ‘why’ is that the Earth Crisis demands a significant response and responsibility. The Earth Crisis includes Climate Change as a major threat multiplier, but the course helps us grasp and communicate the wider picture of Ecological Overshoot and Social Shortfall. We explore its historical and political causes, and centre human and ecological justice in this big picture.

The second ‘why’ is that there are many cultural, psychological and political barriers when facing and making sense of the Earth Crisis. These include the powerful interests that generate denialist, racist and anti-environmental narratives. A tendency in the environmental movement promotes simplifying and overly positive messaging, and/or can dive in with alarming or incomprehensible facts or images lacking trauma-sensitivity. All this (and more) can lead to unhelpful responses, such as social shame, confusion, panic, blame, silence, poor decisions and burnout.

The third ‘why’ is that practitioners working with people — such as artists, museum staff, community and health workers, teachers or campaigners — lack training and resources to support people facing the magnitude of the Earth Crisis, alongside these many barriers and practical impacts. There is a tendency to put the ‘environment’ in a small box labelled with technical tasks, such as recycling and solar panels. People who work with people, rather than buildings or products, may not easily see themselves in the ‘environment box’. They might have a deep passion for nature, careful practices with materials, or raging future anxiety, but they may lack the resources and pathways to respond to the Earth Crisis as an integrated part of their life or work with people.

This relates to why it matters how we define the Earth Crisis: We humans depend for our well-being and survival on a flourishing living planet. Those who live closest to the living world as stewards are most directly affected by its destruction. However, the majority of people living in greater separation from biodiverse places are also dis-eased by this way of life and large cities where the poorest people live are the most vulnerable to climate impacts. The system that has created gross inequalities and disease for people is also polluting, depleting and destabilising the living planet.

Our responsibilities (wherever we have collective agency or privilege) are:

• To mitigate Climate Change, and more widely to reduce harm to people, species, places and planet wherever we can, AND
• To help each other be as safe as possible as Earth Crisis impacts worsen AND
• To imagine and build alternative regenerative systems, using mechanisms such as law, politics, finance and local collective organising.

My fourth ‘why’, for now, is that quality practice matters immensely in a context of multiple crises. Quality includes:

• Focus on developing capacities, by creating conditions in which people are able and motivated to stop harm, imagine and act, compared to a focus on literacy, messaging and facts.
• A focus on relationships, by respecting all individuals and their intersecting identities and needs, while building collectives for action and care; sustaining conversations, or offering support so people can continue to take action over time.
• Not assuming that environmental engagement will easily and magically shift people from negative emotions to enlightened and empowered action. State shifts happen over time through playful practice, integrated reinforcement, social modelling and active learning.
• An integrated approach to designing experiences. This five-step framework is the Earth Talk journey.

Earth Talk is a good follow-on training to Carbon Literacy, and a foundation for anyone working in environmental campaigning, community organising or public engagement.

So, watch the video for more about: who takes part in Earth Talk, where Earth Talk is practiced, what makes it different, and what is coming up.

If you’d like to discuss any details of the Earth Talk course, not answered here, do get in touch on bridget.mckenzie@flowassociates.com

If you’d like to receive occasional news and free gifts of Earth Talk tools or creative offerings, you can subscribe here.