Website Changes
We’re transitioning from the old website www.climatechange.org.nz to a new one on www.fridaysforfuture.nz. This brings our naming more in-line with Fridays For Future groups around the world. The new site will contain regular updates you can share to let people know why we gather and what to expect when you come along. You can subscribe to be notified of changes or comment on posts, and we will also feed information from the site to social media (Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram).
Banners in Busy Places
Join, me, Violet, Stu, Jane, Lucas, and Ella as we move into the city to tell people about Fridays For Future. The communicators tell us (thank you Jane!) that real change is about talking to persuadables. These are the many people who haven’t formed a strong opinion, one way or another, just yet.
It takes some effort because climate reality skeptics and activists alike both want to talk about it all the time. But these people are the least likely to change.
You don’t need to shift someone’s opinion a long way to make a difference. If your presence starts people thinking and gets them considering the evidence you have made a very real difference.
Get in touch via email or talk to us on Friday if you want to try this out. We have signs and fliers you can use to get started. If people want to get together to prepare material we can book the ReGen centre in Aro Community Hall.
This week’s speakers:
Sean Weaver: Healing the Urban/Rural divide.
Sean is working to combine climate care activists from the city with some central North Island farmers to get some mutual understanding on the way forward. He is running a workshop this Thursday at the Sustainability Trust.
Liam Prince: The Rubbish Trip
Liam Prince and his partner Hannah embarked on The Rubbish Trip (check Google) a couple of years ago, to teach people how to minimise waste in their homes, particularly plastic. They’ve won awards and were profiled on Sunday on TVNZ a few months ago. At the start, it was tough going. I remember Liam saying to me once, “we don’t know if we’re wasting our time, the msg isn’t getting thru.” And then 6 months later plastic reduction became the new black. Liam will speak about having determination and belief when it all seems too har
Last week’s speaker: Tom Bennion.
Environmental Lawyer and #NoFly advocate Tom Bennion reprised a recent talk on the changes that are upon us. Links and notes from that talk are here.
Coming up:
Social Media improvements.
We’re looking at ways to improve the ways information gets to you – starting with HootSuite – a tool to push our updates to Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook all at once – so you can share the information online using the tools you love.
More Speakers.
Lisa McLaren of Gen Zero (the creators of the Zero Carbon Act) has agreed to join us soon. As election year starts to build momentum we’d love to get a political campaigner to give us some pointers about starting conversations about things that matter. We’re also keen to hear from some school strikers. Keep an eye out for future posts and get in touch with suggestions.
Overseas strikers: @solonotalone
Solo But Not Alone is a new twitter account tracking solo strikers around the world. We’ll be working with them to hear from strikers around the world and to show them our solidarity.
Events
There are more than we can keep track of right now! (We’re working on that too). In the meantime here is a short list from Tui Climate Community’s [[Facebook feed][
- Feb 20 Healing the Rural/Urban Divide (Sean Weaver)
(Extinction Rebellion) We are excited to have Sean Weaver (Ekodo) with us again to run a planning workshop on assertively compassionate climate action. This will involve recruiting and planning a delegation of climate care activists to a central North Island rural farming community that is open to meeting with urban climate campaigners to heal the urban-rural divide on climate change. This is creating the seed crystal of a nation-wide cross-party agreement on climate change for rural Aotearoa. This work is about using active listening and compassionate communication skills to create transformative ecopolitical outcomes. The climate crisis is upon us and there is no time to lose getting distracted with adversarial approaches that divide us. Why compassion? Because it is the most effective way to bring about enduring beneficial change in an age of division. This workshop will involve forming a core working group keen to sit down and kōrero with our farming whanau to create a foundation for mutual understanding and mutual agreement on a way forward. This is about learning what life is really like for these communities, exploring shared values, and co-designing a middle path solution, so that both urban and rural people can build a resilient, low carbon future together. - Feb 29 Climate Hub at Aro Fair
We’ll be there all day amongst the madness at the Aro Fair ’20, so combine an awesome day out with a wee pop in to see us! Discover what’s going on in the local climate / environmental scene, and have a look at how you could get involved- we have something for everyone; whatever time or skills you have to offer! Rest your weary legs on our comfy couches (first room on the right in Aro Community Centre) and come have a chat with our friendly TUI community! - Mar 7 Wellington No Butts cleanup
Our Seas Our Future is running a nationwide campaign to highlight the negative effects of cigarette butts on our environment. Join us this Seaweek for our first local No Butts cleanup. During this clean up we will separate cigarette butts from general rubbish to begin building a picture on the extent of ‘butt pollution’ in Wellington. - Mar 8 Climate Community Get Together
(open to requests / ideas / input / feedback from last time!) This is an event for all environmental / climate groups in Wellington to get together, share some stories and some kai, strengthen bonds, and make friends! All welcome!! If you’re not active in any current environmental groups, but want to be, this is a great opportunity to come along and mingle! That’s all for this week – see you on the lawn! nga mihi Kieran