Last week I had a phone call asking me to take a group of thirty eco ambassadors from my local primary school for a three hour session in climate change. Now I’ve worked with kids in the past but thirty 7-11 year olds? For three hours? Pretty intimidating. So I went into overdrive and prepared at least five hours of climate change activities.
However I got lucky and landed an incredible group of eco warriors. They may have only been seven and eight but these kids were coming up with ways to reach a fair and safe deal on global warming beyond what world leaders have managed so far.
We held a mock Copenhagen Conference, I split the class into groups and then each group represented a country attending the conference. Each group had a little time to prepare and to decide what they would agree. (Based upon what the real world leaders have committed to)The class then proceeded to have an hour long mock debate. We had an impassioned speech from the Maldives begging developed countries to commit to a cut in emissions to save their people from rising sea levels. An understandably frustrated India was represented, demanding to know why they should be expected to cut their emissions when 42% of people are living below the poverty line. The USA was present; unwilling to make any real commitments or listen to the pleas from Tanzania, Peru and the Maldives and three Gordon Browns in the corner promised all sorts, but for some reason no one seemed to be listening…
By the end of our mock session the “Presidents” of the USA agreed to give each developing country one billion dollars to help adapt to the effects of climate change and to cut emissions by 80% by 2050 . A sign of what might happen at Copenhagen? One can only hope.
All I can say is I can’t wait until these children are the ones in charge. Who knows what they could be capable of. They are the ones that will be affected by climate change and they are taking a stand to fight climate change.
I finished the session with some poster making. I have also been working with children in other classes and youth groups in my local community to make climate change posters and have combined these to create a display in Hampton village centre. Come and check it out if you’re in the area.
Tags: climate change, Copenhagen, eco warriors, Emissions, Global Warming, Gordon Brown, maldives, UN conference, USA
