Pre-Seminar Activities

Pre-work: Community Climate Map

Try to complete this before the Collaboration Groups Session 2 (Saturday, 2:30 EDT). This should take about 30 minutes to do.

Goal:

The goal of this activity is to ground your exploration of power and systems in your local communities.

Directions:

• Google: [your location/area/town/region] + “environmental justice” / “environmental racism”

• Find an article, call to action, or piece of legislature that has to do with your neighboring communities and some way people are experiencing the impacts of climate and other oppressions

• Then start to do some research: What communities are being impacted by this? Who are the organizations involved? What are the government structures involved? How close by is this to where you live? What are conditions like compared to where you are? Take any notes that will be helpful.

Outcome:

In collaboration groups, we will share very brief stories about how climate injustice and other injustice is impacting communities locally. If you are someone who benefits from writing out in advance, you can jot down a few sentences.

Pre-Workshop Writing / reflection Prompts

To prepare for the Workshop on Identity and Climate Impacts (Saturday 3:30 - 4:30 PM EDT)

Facilitators' note:

Here are some pre-workshop writing prompts. Please take a few minutes to think about each prompt and write any notes or responses in advance. It doesn't have to be full sentences; it can be bullet points as well. Drawings are also welcome!

Prompts:

Think about your ancestry. Most people's ancestors, recent or further back, moved over the surface of the planet--some of us moved, ourselves. How have your people moved? When? What stories might exist about their movement today?

Think about your identity. How do you identify? What communities are you a part of? What privileges might your identity carry, in relation to the climate crisis? Think about the effects of climate change on the community that you identify with and how they are similar to or different from other communities.