Dear Friends and Colleagues,

More interesting news on the environment and psychology from a variety of sources.    

Regards,

Susie Burke and Harriet Radermacher

Public Interest, Environment and Disaster Response
twitter:  @BurkePsy.

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The CLIMARTE Poster Project is about provoking public dialogue, and influencing public and political opinion, by creating the empathy needed to bridge the gap between knowledge and action.

During May 2016 hundreds of AO size posters will be printed and displayed on poster sites around Melbourne by street poster company Plakkit. The designs will also be featured on our website, e-newsletters, social media and other online and printed promotional materials.

From 5 – 28 May 2016 the posters will be exhibited at the University of Melbourne at the LAB-14 Gallery at the Carlton Connect Initiative, 700 Swanston Street, Carlton. 

More information about the project

Peter Christoff's article in the Conversation - The poster is political: how artists are challenging climate change (5 May)

The US Whitehouse, April 2016

Acknowledging the rising demand for data that can be used to characterise how climate change affects health, this report assesses recent analyses that quantify observed and projected health impacts.

Each chapter characterises the strength of the scientific evidence for a given climate–health exposure pathway or “link” in the causal chain between a climate change impact and its associated health outcome.

This assessment’s findings represent an improvement in scientific confidence in the link between climate change and a broad range of threats to public health, while recognizing populations of concern and identifying emerging issues.

We specifically recommend looking at Chapters 4 (Extreme Events) and 8 (Mental Health and Wellbeing which was co-authored by Joseph Reser).

Read the Report

Rachel New & Nadira Faber, May 5, The Conversation

Big decisions could be facilitated by many psychological processes that focus on global identity, long-term gain rather than short-term loss, intergroup competition and reputation, rewards, shared norms, providing sufficient and clear information, and instilling trust and transparency.

Read the article

Daniel Oberhaus, Motherboard, Apr 22, 2016

Climate change-induced violence is on the rise around the world. And although the effects of climate-related catastrophe are likely to be increasingly felt in everyone’s lives in the coming decades, there is one group that is poised to bear the brunt of this violent fallout: Women, particularly those in the developing world.

Read article

Obradovich & Guenther, University of California, 5 May

Framing the issue of climate change collectively is more effective than emphasis on personal responsibility. People are willing to donate up to 50 percent more cash to the cause when thinking in collective terms. Thinking about climate change from a personal perspective produced little to no change in behavior.

Read article

Daniel Nethery and Emmanuel Vincent, Climate Consensus - the 97%, The Guardian, Apr 26, 2016

While the internet puts information at our fingertips, it has also allowed misinformation to sow doubt and confusion in the minds of many of those whose opinions and votes will determine the future of the planet. 

Climate Feedback intends to change that. It brings together a global network of scientists who use a new web-annotation platform to provide feedback on climate change reporting.

Read article

Common Cause Foundation, 2016

New research from the Common Cause Foundation reveals that not only do our own values influence our attitudes and behaviours - but so does our perception of other people's values.

Read the report

Climate Outreach have developed a new guide, which is the first practical tool of its kind and builds on our previous pioneering work in this area. With a list of communication do’s and don'ts, and an exploration of four narrative frameworks, it provides advice and guidance for navigating this important and complex area.

An interactive workshop will also be held in London in May for communications specialists, based on this guide and our previous work. It is designed for campaigners, advocates and policymakers wishing to explore how to communicate with people of centre-right values about climate change and energy more effectively.

Click here for more information about the Guide or Masterclass

John Cook and colleagues are still building resources for their Denial 101 free online MOOC.  From the Denial team....

We have set up a Google Group Misconception based learning - Denial101x forum. If you are an educator that would like to share successes, frustrations, or questions about teaching we would love for you to join this group.

We’re also still adding new videos and information through the Denial101x Facebook, Twitter accounts.

All the best, The Denial101x team

Resonance FM, January 2016

Consultant psychotherapist Dr David Morgan talks to Sally Weintrobe, psychoanalyst and editor of Engaging with Climate Change.

Access audio here

Sara Harris, 27 April 2016, Skeptical Science

If you want to master the basics of climate science join Climate Change: The Science starting May 3rd on edx.org offered by the University of British Columbia.

More information

At the Paris Climate talks, activists set 1.5 degrees Celsius of warming as a red line that must not be crossed, but in February, the global temperature spiked to 1.65 degrees. Our red line has been crossed. Nothing but emergency action can preserve a liveable planet.

Call on the Australian Parliament to declare a climate emergency and initiate a massive society-wide climate action mobilisation.

Sign up here

There is a ‘storm’ of climate mobilisation petitions circulating around Australia and worldwide. In short, please sign any petition that calls for climate mobilisation.

What is climate mobilisation? Mobilisation means directing resources to one goal, akin to what occurred in WWII efforts in Europe, Australia and elsewhere. In the case of climate mobilisation, the efforts are directed to:
• returning to a safe climate and
• mitigating damage

It is heartening to see the mobilisation message taking hold. This is just what Save the Planet founders have been calling for, for over a decade.

What specifically does Save the Planet mean in regard to mobilising for the climate?

Negative emissions ASAP (10 years)

• Zero emissions stationary energy and transport
• Negative emissions land use (through reduction in high emission agriculture such as cows and sheep, manure and rice, and draw down through reforestation and revegetation, agroforestry, increasing soil carbon, coppicing for biochar)
• Sequestering carbon from organic matter (eg. turning all organic council waste into biochar)
• Substantial investment in research and development for the other strategies we need to cool the planet.

Below are some of the climate mobilisation petitions circulating.

All call for declaring a climate emergency and two campaigns state that “A society-wide mobilisation of resources is required at a scale and speed not seen since the Second World War. Carbon emissions must be reduced to zero within a few years, not several decades, and we must draw down all the excess carbon dioxide already in the atmosphere using measures that include mass tree planting. We must rapidly transition from fossil fuels to 100% renewable energy, replacing fossil fuel jobs with jobs in renewable energy and energy efficiency.”

• CORENA
• Darebin Climate Action Now, Stonnington Climate Action Network, CORENA, and Centre for Climate Safety
• Centre for Climate Safety
   

Tuesday 21 - Thursday 23 June 2016, Queensland

Older persons have years of knowledge, skills and wisdom, which are invaluable assets to reduce disaster risk. How can we ensure the voice of older people is heard in planning for and recovery from disasters?

Further information on the IFA 13th Global Conference

November 2-3, 2016, Chicago Cultural Center, Chicago, Illinois

Attendees are converging in Chicago from across the globe to address the urgent need, methods, metrics, and benefits of building personal and psychosocial resilience. Working across traditional “silos”, the Resilience Summit addresses climate change while spanning such diverse areas as community resilience, mental health, security, education, human services, climate change, disaster response, and military/Veteran resilience.

To register and for more information

Wendell Berry, 1973

Love the quick profit, the annual raise,
vacation with pay. Want more
of everything ready-made. Be afraid
to know your neighbors and to die.
And you will have a window in your head.
Not even your future will be a mystery
any more. Your mind will be punched in a card
and shut away in a little drawer.
When they want you to buy something
they will call you. When they want you
to die for profit they will let you know.

So, friends, every day do something
that won’t compute. Love the Lord.
Love the world. Work for nothing.
Take all that you have and be poor.
Love someone who does not deserve it.
Denounce the government and embrace
the flag. Hope to live in that free
republic for which it stands.
Give your approval to all you cannot
understand. Praise ignorance, for what man
has not encountered he has not destroyed.

Ask the questions that have no answers.
Invest in the millennium. Plant sequoias.
Say that your main crop is the forest
that you did not plant,
that you will not live to harvest.
Say that the leaves are harvested
when they have rotted into the mold.
Call that profit. Prophesy such returns.

Put your faith in the two inches of humus
that will build under the trees
every thousand years.
Listen to carrion – put your ear
close, and hear the faint chattering
of the songs that are to come.
Expect the end of the world. Laugh.
Laughter is immeasurable. Be joyful
though you have considered all the facts.
So long as women do not go cheap
for power, please women more than men.
Ask yourself: Will this satisfy
a woman satisfied to bear a child?
Will this disturb the sleep
of a woman near to giving birth?

Go with your love to the fields.
Lie down in the shade. Rest your head
in her lap. Swear allegiance
to what is nighest your thoughts.
As soon as the generals and the politicos
can predict the motions of your mind,
lose it. Leave it as a sign
to mark the false trail, the way
you didn’t go. Be like the fox
who makes more tracks than necessary,
some in the wrong direction.
Practice resurrection.

Recently posted by Context Institute