1

WELCOME:
About the Project:
The goal of this project is to give youth a sense of agency and voice in the movement for climate justice
through the development of public art. The project aims to shift the conversation around climate change
to be more accessible, inclusive and empowering. The project is a synthesis of skills in community
organizing and environmental education and represents a creative approach to communication and
facilitation.

What is climate justice?

Dominant narratives around climate change cast the impacts as far off and distant while conveying images
like polar bears, melting ice caps and rising carbon dioxide levels. These narratives are often full of
complicated jargon and lack human agency.
Yet, as frontline communities all over the world know, the impacts of climate change are already upon us.
The movement for climate justice has emerged as a movement led by those on the front lines
communities of color and low-income communities that are all too familiar with the fossil fuel industry and
its impacts on health and wellbeing. This movement has emerged as one to center and elevate the voices
of those most impacted in order to develop equitable solutions that address the economic, social and
political roots of the climate crisis.
To ground ourselves in a shared understanding of climate change and climate justice in particular, lets turn
to the NAACPs Environmental and Climate Justice program:
o

o
o

Climate change is about the increase in the severity of storms which means that storms like
Sandy and Isaac, which devastated communities from Boston to Biloxi, will become more of the
norm.
Environmental injustice is about people in Detroit, Ohio, Chicago, Memphis, Kansas City, and
elsewhere who have died and others who are chronically ill due to exposure to toxins from coal
fired power plants and other toxic facilities.
Climate change is about our sisters and brothers in the Bahamas, as well as Inuit communities in
Kivalina, Alaska, and communities in Thibodaux, Louisiana, who will be losing their homes to
rising sea levels in the coming few years.
Climate change and environmental injustice are about sisters and brothers from West Virginia to
Tennessee who are breathing toxic ash from blasting for mountain top removal.
Environmental injustice and climate change are about the fact that in many communities it is far
easier to find a bag of Cheetos than a carton of strawberries and this only stands to get worse
as drought and flooding impact the availability and affordability of nutritious food.

Seattles Equity and Environment Agenda has emerged in response to the reality that people of color and
low-income communities are more likely to be affected by and have a harder time adapting to new
climate realities.1 Addressing climate change in Seattle offers an opportunity to strengthen community
cohesion and build the resilience of our neighborhoods. The development of public art for climate justice
represents one such opportunity.

Why public art for climate justice?

Art has the power to transform. It is a powerful medium by which to communicate information, bring
people together across difference, and build social capital. Public art is an important tool for building

community because it has the power to foster healthy

debate and instill thoughtful creativity, not only within
communities but also within individuals, creating better
cities.2 Public art, when done inclusively, can be a tool to
empower and connect individuals. Additionally, it has a
lot to say about our own resiliency. According to the
Project for Public Spaces, when we feel connected to a
space, we are more likely to experience our connection to
others within that space. This development of
community cohesion is critical in responding to and
moving forward from climate events.
Additionally, the urgency of climate change requires new
modes of thinking and interacting. In the wake of
government inaction, communities are rising up and developing new strategies for adapting and thriving.
According to the Center for Creative Ecologies, artists and activists are inventing creative strategies of
consciousness-raising, mass mobilization and ecologically sustainable thinking and living.3 Public art has
the potential to serve as a powerful mode of communication to elevate the voices of those most impacted
while also bringing people together to collaborate and build resilience.
The city of Seattle has a commitment to advancing public art. Additionally, the recently released Equity
and Environment Agenda has a commitment to community self-determination, influence and leadership,
by tapping into [communities] own collective cultural cornerstones of environmental sustainability is key
to ownership of initiatives and other efforts.4 The initiative to advance public art around climate justice fits
well into existing City programs, while bringing new voices to the table.

Got Green (2016). Our People, Our Planet, Our Power. (7).
Kerr, E. (2010). In a new city, thinking about public art. Retrieved from: https://nextcity.org/daily/entry/in-a-new-city-thinking-about-public-art
http://news.ucsc.edu/2016/03/arts-dean-series.html
4
Equity and Environment Agenda, 5.
1
2
3

Why engage youth in the work?

Youth have an important voice in the
movement for climate justice. After all,
the impacts of climate change will only
intensify in future years. We should be
educating young people around the
scientific and social dimensions of the
crisis, while also providing them with
an understanding that they can have a
meaningful role in the movement to
effect change.
Young people already have a great
wealth of knowledge around issues
impacting their community, as well as
the things that make these places great. By involving youth in the process of developing and creating
public art for climate justice, the project aims to broaden the notion of what is meant by climate justice,
by bringing to light the more day-to-day impacts like racial segregation, failing schools, lack of reliable
public transit.5 The project aims to create space to share stories and provide new voices an opportunity to
join the conversation and effect change.

Tips for Using this Guide:

The guide begins with a training for youth around climate justice for youth to understand how they are
impacted by the climate crisis, and then begin to understand how they can serve as agents of change in
the movement.
Next, we move onto why stories are important in social movements, as well as trainings on how to tell your
story and communicate that through public art.
Finally, we get to the nitty gritty including organizations to work with in your community, how to apply for
funding, as well as securing legal access to your public art.

http://www.citylab.com/politics/2016/07/how-environmental-injustice-connects-to-police-violence/492053/

Curriculum & Resources for Training

Youth on Climate Justice
In this section, youll find resources to help youth understand climate change as well as what climate
justice means.

1. Climate Change Mixer (Adapted from A Peoples Curriculum for the

Earth)
No doubt climate change affects everyone, everywhere. But not equally. Through role play, the Climate
Change Mixer introduces students to 17 individuals around the worldeach of whom is affected differently
by climate change. For some, climate change threatens to force them to leave their land. For others, it is a
business opportunity. In this activity, students meet one another in character and learn about the impact of
climate change in their livesand how each is responding.

Materials needed:

Copies of climate change mixer questions for every student (see Appendix 1)
Mixer roles, cut up. One for every student. (see Appendix 2)
Blank nametags. Enough for every student in the class.

Time Required:

45 minutes for the mixer. Time for follow-up discussion.

Suggested Procedure:
1. Explain to students that they are going to do an activity about the impact of climate change around
the world. Distribute one role to each student in the class. There are only 17 roles, so you may need
to assign the same role to more than one individual.
2. Distribute and have students fill out their nametags, using the name of the individual they are
assigned. Tell students that in this activity you would like each of them to attempt to become these
people from around the world. Ask students to read their roles several times and to memorize as
much of the information as possible. I ask students to list the three or four things they think are
most important about their characters.
3. Distribute a copy of Climate Change Mixer to every student. Explain their assignment: students
will circulate through the classroom, meeting other individuals who also have some connection to
global warming. They should use the questions on the sheet as a guide to talk with others about
climate change and to complete the questions as fully as possible. Emphasize to students they they
must use a different individual to answer each of the eight questions. Tell them its not a race; the

4.
5.
6.

7.

aim is for students to spend time hearing each others stories, not just hurriedly writing down
answers to different questions. Any role play risks stereotyping, so tell students not to adopt
accents in an effort to represent an individual from another country. Encourage students to speak
as if they are their assigned characters. Emphasie the use of the I voice, as sometimes students
will begin by saying something like My character lives in Bangladesh. Its important to the success
of the activity that they attempt to become their charcters- for example to say, I live in
Bangladesh. Note that its best to encourage students to meet one one, as they circulate
throughout the classroom. Sometimes students will cluster in groups, but this tends to allow some
students to be passive and simlply listen to others conversations, rather than engaging in their
own. Encouraging students to discuss the questions in pairs helps to address the potential
problem. Finally, the last two questions ask students to begin to think about possible solutions. Tell
students that answering both of these questions means they dont have to limit themselves to the
information included in their role descriptions; they should try to propose ideas that are consistent
with their characters circumstances and concerns. For example, in one class, students playing two
different individuals harmed by climate change decided they would make a film about the negative
impact of rising temperatures throughout the world. This solution was not included in either role,
but it was a creative response.
Ask students to stand up and begin to circulate throughout the class to meet one another and to fill
out responses on the climate change mixer questions students handout.
There is no set length of time for the mixer. I generally play a character myself so I can get a feel for
how its going and how much time students need. Allow at least a half hour for students to circulate.
After students meet the other individuals, ask them to write briefly on some of what they learned
from meeting people around the world. Questions that Ive used:
a. Whom did you meet, or
what situations did you hear
about that surprised you?
Did you have any ahas
while talking with people?
b. Did anyone make you
angry? Who?
c. What themes seemed to
come up in your
conversations?
d. Whom did you meet or
which situations did you
hear about that gave you
hope?
Discuss these with students.

2. Find your Frontlines Activity (Adapted from Movement Generation)

What is it?
A short introductory activity for people to understand where they are on the frontlines of the climate and
ecological crisis.

Why do it?

To understand our individual roles on the frontlines of the climate and ecological crisis; to make
climate change personal
To make the connections between issuesthat the same thing that makes folks poor is the same
thing that screws up the atmosphereand the same problems that come with being oppressed
make climate problems worse

Time: 10 minutes15 minutes

Materials Needed:

A circle drawn or placed on the ground (with rope)

Directions:

1. Create a circle on the ground, big enough for everyone to stand around.
2. Have everyone stand on the outside, facing in at each other.
3. Choose 4-6 prompts (from the lists below) and read them aloud one by one, instructing everyone to
take a step into the circle if.
4. Read script.

Prompts:

you have to take the bus to get around and your service has been cut
you have had to wait for the bus for more than 15 minutes
someone in your family suffers from asthma or other health effects from pollution
your family has had to move because of war
your family has had to move because they needed to work
you are more than a 10 minute walk to a plaace that sells fresh fruits and vegetables
you dont know where your water comes from and you live in California
your family has to choose between which needs- health care, housing, food- get met when there
isnt enough money
you live within 3 blocks of a freeway
you or someone in your family has lost their job in the last three years
you, or someone you are close to, has gone to jail
you or someone you know couldnt go to school because they didnt have bus fare
you or someone close to you didnt use the heat this winter cause the bill is too expensive (or had
their utilities shut off)
you or someone in your family has had to move in the psat 3 years cause the rent is too damn high

you or someone in your family suffered during an extreme weather event, such as Katrina, tsunamis,
drought or forest fires
at your high school, there are not enough text books for every kid in the class; or there are not
enough school supplies for each classroom
the bathrooms or drinking fountains in your school dont work

Script: if youre in the circle you are on the frontlines of the climate and ecological crisis. The same thing
that makes folks poor is the same thng that screws up the atmosphere- and the same problems that come
with being oppressed make climate problems worse. A key way to make sure that you are living in
harmony with your ecosystem is to make sure that everyone is taken care of.

Fun/interactive twist: you can turn this into a fun human knot activity, by having them work through a
human know by reading the script below.
Put your hands up. Take the hands of two different people. Now you have 7 minutes to untie the
knot without letting go of hour hands.

Visioning your Community (Adapted from

Detroit Future City)
Then intention of this activity is to guide young
people to not just focus on the negative impacts
of their community, but to look at what makes
their neighborhood a vibrant place to live. By
looking at community capacity, this activity
highlights how neighborhoods can be resilient
places capable of meaningful action.

Materials:

Pens, markers
Large pieces of paper

1. Begin exercise by asking students what it means to be resilient?

a. Resilience is about the ability to respond to a changing climate, where communities are able
to adapt and grow through chronic stresses, like homelessness and inequality, as well as
acute shocks, like natural disasters, according to the Rockefeller Foundations 100 Resilient
Cities Initiative.
b. We want to think about resilience as bouncing forward not bouncing back, addressing the
social, political and economic roots of the climate crisis.
2. This activity can be done alone or in a group, although a group is always preferred! If you are in a
group, place a large sheet of paper on a table that everyone can reach.
3. Think about what happens in your neighborhood and where the neighborhood hubs are: places
where people gather, run into each other and hang out. Imagine as many different scenarios as you
can.
a. Ex. Public spaces (community garden, parks, bus stop), businesses (corner store,
barbershop), homes (porches, backyards), places of worship, schools
4. Sketch out a drawing or write a story to illustrate these hubs and make notes of the people who go
there. Write these names and notes on your drawing. Include as much detail as you can.
a. Consider the resources and the people who you are already connected to.
5. Now, assign students to spend 10 minutes walking around their block, interacting with their
neighbors. Consider the following questions:
a. Where do people live?
b. Are people walking around? What condition is the sidewalk in?
c. Where is the open space?
d. Do you see any gardens? Are they private/well-cared for?
e. Where are the public gathering spots?
6. Collect student responses to understand what are some elements of a resilient community.

Climate Justice Storytelling:

1. Reading: Why Stories Matter: The art and craft of social change.
By: Marshall Ganz
I grew up in Bakersfield, California, where my father was a rabbi
and my mother was a teacher. I went to Harvard in 1960, in
part because it was about as far as I could get from Bakersfield,
which was the terminus of the dust bowl migration that John
Steinbeck made famous in The Grapes of Wrath.

dont mean rage, I mean outrage. Its the contradiction

between the world as it is and the world as it ought to be. Our
experience of that tension can break through the inertia and
apathy of things as they always are.
How do organizers master urgency to break through inertia?
The difference in how individuals respond to urgency or anxiety
(detected by the brains surveillance system) depends on the
brains dispositional system, the second system in the brain,
which runs from enthusiasm to depression, from hope to
despair. When anxiety hits and youre down in despair, then
fear hits. You withdraw or strike out, neither of which helps to
deal with the problem. But if youre up in hope or enthusiasm,
youre more likely to ask questions and learn what you need to
learn to deal with the unexpected.

I got my real education, however, when I left Harvard to work in

the civil rights movement in Mississippi. I went to Mississippi
because, among other things, my father had served as an Army
chaplain in Germany right after World War II. His work was with
Holocaust survivors, and as a child the Holocaust became a
reality in our home. The Holocaust was interpreted to me as a
consequence of racism, that racism is an evil, that racism kills. I
made a choice to go to Mississippi.
I also was raised on years of Passover Seders. Theres a part in
the Passover Seder when they point to the kids and say, You
were a slave in Egypt. I finally realized the point was to
recognize that we were all slaves in Egypt and in our time that
same struggle from slavery to freedom is always going on, that
you have to choose where you stand in that. The civil rights
movement was clearly about that struggle. It was in Mississippi
that I learned to be an organizer and about movementbuilding.

Hope is not only audacious, it is substantial. Hope is what

allows us to deal with problems creatively. In order to deal with
fear, we have to mobilize hope. Hope is one of the most
precious gifts we can give each other and the people we work
with to make change.
The way we talk about this is not just to go up to someone and
say, Be hopeful. We dont just talk about hope and other
values in abstractions. We talk about them in the language of
stories because stories are what enable us to communicate
these values to one another.

I went to Mississippi because it was a movement of young

people, and theres something very particular about young
people, not just that they have time. Walter Brueggemann
writes in The Prophetic Imagination about the two elements of
prophetic vision. One is criticality, recognition of the worlds
pain. Second is hope, recognition of the worlds possibilities.
Young people come of age with a critical eye and a hopeful
heart. Its that combination of critical eye and hopeful heart
that brings change. Thats one reason why so many young
people were and are involved in movements for social change.

ALL STORIES HAVE three parts: a plot, a protagonist, and a

moral. What makes a plot a plot? What gets you interested?
Tension. An anomaly. The unexpected. The uncertain and the
unknown. A plot begins when the unknown intervenes. We all
lean forward because we are familiar with the experience of
having to confront the unknown and to make choices. Those
moments are the moments in which we are most fully human,
because those are the moments in which we have the most
choice. While they are exhilarating moments, they are also
scary moments because we might make the wrong choice. We
are all infinitely curious in learning how to be agents of change,
how to be people who make good choices under
circumstances that are unexpected and unknown to us.

THE INITIAL CHALLENGE for an organizer-or anybody whos

going to provide leadership for change-is to figure out how to
break through the inertia of habit to get people to pay
attention. Often that breakthrough happens by urgency of
need. Sometimes it happens because of anger-and by anger I

10

In a story, a challenge presents itself to the protagonist who

then has a choice, and an outcome occurs. The outcome
teaches a moral, but because the protagonist is a humanlike
character, we are able to identify empathetically, and therefore
we are able to feel, not just understand, what is going on.

aspirations, that the world out there is not as it ought to be.

Instead, it is as it is. And that is a challenge to us. We need to
appreciate the challenge and the conflict between the values
by which we wish the world lived and the values by which it
actually does. The difference between those two creates
tension. It forces upon us consideration of a choice. What do
we do about that? Were called to answer that question in a
spirit of hope.

A story communicates fear, hope, and anxiety, and because we

can feel it, we get the moral not just as a concept, but as a
teaching of our hearts. Thats the power of story. Thats why
most of our faith traditions interpret themselves as stories,
because they are teaching our hearts how to live as choiceful
human beings capable of embracing hope over fear, self-worth
and self-love over self-doubt, and love over isolation and
alienation.

Our goal is to meet this challenge, to seize this hope, and turn
it into concrete action. After developing our stories of self, then
we work on building relationships, which forms the story of us.
From there we turn to strategizing and action, working
together to achieve a common purpose, learning to experience
hope-thats the story of now.

HOW DO WE recapture that power of public narrative and

learn the art of leadership storytelling?

I LEARNED IMPORTANT lessons in Mississippi that underlie the

art and work of organizing.

A leadership story is first a story of self, a story of why Ive been

called. Some people say, I dont want to talk about myself,
but if you dont interpret to others your calling and your reason
for doing what youre doing, do you think it will just stay
uninterpreted? No. Other people will interpret it for you. You
dont have any choice if you want to be a leader. You have to
claim authorship of your story and learn to tell it to others so
they can understand the values that move you to act, because
it might move them to act as well.

All the inequalities between blacks and whites were driven by a

deeper inequality-the inequality of power. Paul Tillich taught us
that the work of justice requires power, and for power to
become justice requires love. All three are intimately related.
We cannot turn our love into justice without engaging power.
Justice is not achieved without struggle. Its not achieved
without mobilizing power. Organizing is about mobilizing
power.

We all have a story of self. Whats utterly unique about each of

us is not the categories we belong to; whats utterly unique to
us is our own journey of learning to be a full human being, a
faithful person. And those journeys are never easy. They have
their challenges, their obstacles, their crises. We learn to
overcome them, and because of that we have lessons to teach.
In a sense, all of us walk around with a text from which to teach,
the text of our own lives.

The Montgomery bus boycott in 1955 and 1956 was an

example of turning individual resources into collective power.
To resist the segregated buses, the black bus riders refused to
pay the fare to the bus company, and they refused not as
individuals but as a community. By withdrawing that financial
resource from the city of Montgomery, they turned an
individual resource into collective power.
Gandhi taught us that most systems of power are based on
interdependence and require some degree of cooperation
between those who are exploited by them as well as those who
benefit from them. Communities get organized because there
are people among them who are skilled organizers, who are
skilled leaders.

The second story is the story of us. Thats an answer to the

question, Why are we called? What experiences and values do
we share as a community that call us to what we are called to?
What is it about our experience of faith, public life, the pain of
the world, and the hopefulness of the world? Its putting what
we share into words. Weve all been in places where people
have worked together for years, but theres no us there
because they dont share their stories. Faith traditions are
grand stories of us. They teach how to be an us.

Leadership is about enabling others to achieve purpose in the

face of uncertainty. When theres certainty, when you know
what to do, you dont need leadership. Its when you dont
know what to do that the art and creativity of leadership
matters. It matters even more in enabling others to work

Finally, theres the story of now-the fierce urgency of now. The

story of now is realizing, after the sharing of values and

11

together to achieve a common purpose in the face of

uncertainty.

Learning skills and practices is not like learning a formula; its

more like learning how to ride a bicycle. You can read 10 books
about it or listen to someone lecture about it all day, but how
do you really start learning to ride a bicycle? You get on. And
you fall. Thats how you learn practices. Thats how you learn
organizing.

One way to look at leadership is reaching down to mobilize the

resources of a constituency and turning them into goals
consistent with that constituencys values.

Marshall Ganz is a lecturer in public policy at the Kennedy

School of Government, Harvard University. This article was
adapted from his presentation at Sojourners Training for
Change conference in June 2008.

We start with the skill of relationship-building, the story of self.

Then we develop the skill of motivation or the story of us.
Third, the skill of strategizing, the story of now. And fourth, the
skill of action.

12

VISION DRAWING

WORKSHEET

DIRECTIONS: In the areas provided below, draw what the Problem looks like and then draw what the Solution looks like.

THE PROBLEM LOOKS LIKE

THE SOLUTION LOOKS LIKE

2016 Creative Commons license

storybasedstrategy.org

61

3. Resources:

13

Helpful Organizations:
ARTS:

NAME
Urban
Artworks

ABOUT
Urban ArtWorks is a Seattle
nonprofit organization that
provides opportunities for
contemporary artists and local
youth to work together to create
public works of art. The
organizations goal is to empower
young people through
professional opportunities in the
arts.

WEBSITE
http://urbanartworks
.org/

CONTACT
http://urbanartworks.org/co
ntact/

LoveCityLove

LOVECITYLOVE emerged as a
blank canvas for the creative
community to convene. We
believe continuing to make space
for this alternative is not only
possible but crucial to keeping
unadulterated art alive and
thereby the increase in cultural
capitol and brand equity of the
city at large.

https://lovecity.love

https://lovecity.love/pages/c
ontact

4Culture

4Culture, the cultural services

agency for King County,
Washington is committed to
making our region stronger by
supporting citizens and groups
who preserve our shared heritage,
and create arts and cultural
opportunities for residents and
visitors.

http://www.4culture.
org/

http://www.4culture.org/con
tact/index.htm

Office of Arts
& Culture

The Seattle Office of Arts &

Culture (ARTS) oversees the city's
public art program, cultural

http://www.seattle.g
ov/arts/

http://www.seattle.gov/arts/
about-us#contact

14

partnerships grant programs,

the Langston Hughes Performing
Arts Institute , and The Creative
Advantage initiative in the effort
to foster a city driven by creativity
that provides the opportunity for
everyone to engage in diverse
arts and cultural experiences.
Seattle Art
MuseumDesign my
[Neighbor]Ho
od Program

Design Your [Neighbor]hood is a

multi-session workshop focused
on visual art, designin the
broadest senseand social
change. In this experience-based
program, you'll go on site visits to
organizations that make designs
decisions that impact our
everyday activities.

http://www.seattlear
tmuseum.org/progr
ams-andlearning/teens

sbloom@seattleartmuseum.
org

CLIMATE JUSTICE:

NAME

ABOUT

WEBSITE

CONTACT

Got Green?

Got Green is a grassroots group

in the Seattle area led by young
adults and people of color that
promotes the movement for an
equitable, green economy as the
best way to fight poverty and
global warming at the same time.

http://gotgreenseatt
le.org/

http://gotgreenseattle.org/c
ontact/

Puget Sound
Sage

Puget Sound Sages mission is to

build communities where all
families thrive. We believe that,
regardless of race or status,
people should have access to
good jobs and dignity at work, as
well as a clean environment and
safe, affordable housing.

http://www.pugetso
undsage.org/

http://www.pugetsoundsage
.org/contactus.php

15

Duwamish
River Clean
Up Coalition
(DRCC)

DRCC is a non-profit organization

involved in all aspects of the
cleanup of the Duwamish River,
working to ensure the cleanup
meets community standards by
restoring environmental health
and protecting the fishers and
families who use the river as well
as reflecting the priorities, values
and will of the people who live
and work in the region.

http://duwamishclea
nup.org/

http://duwamishcleanup.org
/contact/

Dirt Corps

DIRT Corps provides on-thejob training for young adult

workers, specifically
encouraging women, people of
color, and military veterans to
enroll. The program provides
hands-on training with a focus on
rain garden and cistern
design/build, operations and
maintenance (O&M), vegetation
management, and ecological
restoration.

http://www.urbansys
temsdesign.com/#!d
irt-corpsprogram/cpt7

cari@urbansystemsdesign.co
m

Front and
Centered

Front and Centered is a statewide

coalition of more than 60
organizations and groups rooted
in communities of color and
people with lower incomes, on
the frontlines of economic and
environmental change. We work
to build power and capacity for a
Just Transition that centers equity
and is led by people of color.
Interim CDA promotes resilience
in Asian, Pacific Islander,
immigrant and refugee
communities through culturally
and linguistically responsive
community building.

http://frontandcente
red.org/

coordinators@frontandcente
red.org

http://interimicda.or
g/

http://interimicda.org/about
-us/

Interim CDA

16

Equity &
Environment
Agenda- City
of Seattle

The Equity & Environment

Agenda is a partnership of the
City, the community, several City
departments, and private
foundations to deepen Seattle's
commitment to race and social
justice in environmental work by
creating an Environmental Action
Agenda centered on equity.

http://www.seattle.g
ov/environment/abo
ut-ose/equity-andenvironment

17

http://www.seattle.gov/envir
onment/about-ose/contactus

Appendix 1: Climate Change Mixer Worksheet.

1. Find someone who is harmed by climate change. Who is the person? How has this person been
hurt? How might he or she be hurt in the future?

2. Find someone who might benefit from climate change. Who is the person? How might this person
benefit?

3. Find someone who is affected by climate change in a way that is similar to how youre affected.
Who is the person? How are your situations similar?

4. Find someone whose story involves a connection between water and climate change. Who is the
person? Whats the connection?

5. Find someone who will have to make life changes because of climate change? Who is the person?
Why does this person have to make a life change? What might this individual do?

6. Find someone who lives on a different continent from you. How is this person affected by climate
change? How is it similar or different to how youre affected?

7. Find someone who has an idea about what should be done to deal with global warmingor
someone who is taking action in some way. Who is the person? What is the persons idea or action?

8. If possible, find someone here with whom you could take some joint action around global warming.
Who is the person? What action might you take in common?

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Appendix 2: People
Larry Gibson- mountaintop removal activist, Kayford Mountain, West Virginia
They say that to move away from oil we need to rely more on clean coal, mined here in the USA.

Clean coal. Thats a lie. That so-called clean coal comes from mountains in Appalachia that have been destroyed by coal
companies, like Massey Energy. They blast mountains apart to get at the coal and dump everything they dont want in the valleys
and streams, poisoning everything around.
When they talk about clean coal, they sure dont mean how they got it. They want you to focus on the fact that burning coal today
produces less sulfur dioxide that it used to. Thats the stuff that causes smog and acid rain. But burning coal still releases about
twice as much carbon dioxde as natural fas, and a third more than oilfor the same amount of energy. And carbon dioxide is a
greenhouse gas, the gases that cause global warming.
So mining coal is bad for the people of Kentucky and West Virginia, but its also bad for the planet.
Ive been fighting mountaintop removal of coal for more than 25 years. Im not going to sit around and watch my home and the
planet be destroyed. The coal companies care about the money. For me, its not about the money. Its about the land. My mother
gave me birth. The land gives me life.

Roman Abramovich- Sibneft Oil Co, Russia

Recently, Ive seen a lot of articles asking whether gloval warming will be good for Russia. This is a dumb question. Like
anything, it will be good for some people and bad for some people. But I am doing everything I can to make sure that I am one of
the people who benefits from global warming.

Its simple: as temperatures rise every year, ice will melt and huge new areas will be open for oil and gas exploration in the Arctic.
And as one of Russias wealthiest mean, and head of a large oil and gas company, this is the chance of a lifetime. Researchers tell
us that one quarter of the Earths untapped foddil fuels, including 375 billion barrels of oil, lie beneath the Arctic. In the industry,
were talking about this opportunity as the new black gold rush. Already, our competitors in Norway (statoil) are working on
project Snow White, which will generate an estimated $70 billion in liquefied natural gas over the next 30 years. Im not going to
sit back and let the Norwegians or anyone else beat me out of the new opportunity.
Im sure that global warming is bad for a lot of people, but Ill leave that to the politicians and scientists. Im a good businessmana good oil businessman- so its time to get to work.

Wangari Maathai- Green Belt Movement, Kenya

Africa is the continent that will be hit hardest by global warming. Unpredictable rains and floods, prolonged drought, crop failures,
and fertile lands turned into deserts have already begun to change the aface of Africa. The continents poor and vulnerable will be
hit the hardest. Already, some places in Africa are seeing temperatures rising twice as fact as world averages.

Wealthy countries will be affected too. But for us, this is a matter of life and death. What makes this so outrageous is that our
output of greenhouse gases is tiny when compared to the industrialized worlds output. So the industrialized nations need to raise
steady and reliable funds for the main victims of the climate crisis: the poor throughout the world.

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For my part, Ive been working in the Green Belt Movement for the last 30 years, since I was a young woman. We have mobilized
millions of individual citizens in every country to plant trees, prevent soil loss, harvest rainwater, and practice less destructive forms
of agriculture. We must protect the trees from logging that is turning our continent into a desert. Our goal is to plant a billion
trees. We will do our part to save the planet, but it is the rich countries that are the most responsible.
Enele Sopoaga- Prime Minister, Tuvalu
Most people have never heard of my little island that is 400 miles from Fiji in the South Pacific. Tuvalu has 10,000 people in a place
that averages just six feet about sea level. My people live on fish and fruit; everyone knows their neighbors and people dont even
lock their doors.

Rising sea levels, caused by global warming threaten the very existence of my land and people. Beginning in 2000, at high tide the
water began covering places on the island that had never before been covered in the memory of even the oldest residents. In
august 2002, the entire island flooded and the increased salinity (salt) has forced families to grow their root crops in metal buckets
instead of in the ground. Many people believe that if current trends continue, there will be no more Tuvalu in less than 20 years.
The former prime minister of Australia said that if Tuvalu disappear, people should be relocated elsewhere. What incredible
selfishness. How can anyone say that people in Tuvalu should suffer so that people in the so-called developed world can continue
to fill our atmosphere with carbon dioxide by driving their big cars and buying stuff made halfway around the world? This is sick.
That is why I have been speaking out.

Matthew Gilbert- Member of the Gwichin Tribe, Northern Alaska/Northwestern Canada

I am a member of the Gwichin, the northernmost Indian nation on the American continent. There are about 8,000 Gwichin.
Because of global warming, we are threatened as a people.

We survive mostly from hunting caribou. Less snowfall is making sled and snowmobile transportation more difficult. Creeks are
freezing later, and the ice is too thin to carry heavy loads. Lakes are drying up.
The worst threat is to the caribou. In 10 years, their number dropped from 178,000 to 129,000. Calves drown when they try to
cross rivers that are usually frozen. My grandfather remembers vast numbers of caribou moving in waves near their village during
spring and summer. No more. Our environment is in chaos. The hunters find it harder and harder to find that caribou that feed our
people.
We must reduce greenhouse gases. My people are dying.

Chris Loken- Apple Grower, Hudson Valley, New York

Everybody is saying awful things about global warming, and I know that its bad for a lot of people. But recently, Fox News did a
report on climate change winners, and they came to talk to met. As they said in their report, there are some upsides to global
warming.

Frankly, I saw this coming. I knew that things were going to get warmer and you now what they say about a crisis: its also an
opportunity.
I live in a beautiful place. Rolling hills. Good for apple trees. But I decided to diversify. Right next to the apples, I planted peach,
apricot, and plum trees. Years ago. As I say, I saw this coming. These trees wouldnt have survived the winters of the old pre-global
warming days. But our winters are getting milder, and Im betting my trees will do just fine. As I told the Fox News people: this
farm here has been set up for the future. Its not easy running a farm these days, and if the weather decides to cooperate a little
bit, who am I to argue? Im sorry for those folks who are hurt by all this, but Ive got to think of my family.

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Stephanie Tunmore- Greenpeace climate campaigner

I joined the environmental organization Greenpeace because I felt like I had to do something to make the world a better place. To
me, it seems that climate change is the most dangerous problem facing humanity and the environment. The consequences of
global warming will be catastrophic, and we have to do something.

Ive been working to save the arctic. People think of the Arctic as just one big empty block of ice and snow. Either that, or where
Santa Claus and the elves live. But its an unbelievable place. There are species of birds and fish that are found only there and a
few other places. Polar bears, musk oxen and caribou reside there; and in the summer, snowy owls, ducks and swans migrate there
to nest. But already, Alaskas North Slope has been taken over by 28 oil production plants, almost 5,000 wells, and 1,800 miles of
pipes.
But the oil companies see gloval warming and the melting ice as an opportunity to drill for even more oil and gas. Havent we
learned anything? Why are we looking for more fossil fuels? The good thing is that more and more people are determined to stop
oil development. Weve taken direct action and have confronted drillers in places like the Beaufort Sea, where we towed a
fiberglass fdome with two Greenpeace activists inside into a BP Northstar oil-drilling construction area. Two other activists unfurled
a banner: Stop BPs Northstar, Save the Climate. Direct Action. Thats what it will take to stop these oil-drilling criminals.

Rafael Hernandez- Immigrant Rights Activist, The Desert Angels, U.S.-Mexico border
In 1986, I crossed the border from Mexico to the US, looking for a better life for my family. Now I am committed to helping
migrants in need. My group, Loas Angeles del DisiertoThe Desert Angelspatrols both sides of the Mexican-Californin border
near San Diego. We look for lost migrants and leave water, clothing, and food at key spots in desert locations to help people on
their journey.

Recently, we rescued Maria Guadalipe Beltran, a 29-year old mother of four who had been burned severely in the huge Harris fire
on the border. Her father had died in Mexico and she had returned home to attend his funeral. She was caught in the fire coming
back into the US. But after suffering terribl, Beltran died of her injuries. Afterward, I spoke to her husband, Rafael, who sat by her
hospital bed for two weeks. He told me: I asked the Virgin: Tell me whatever you want, just please dont take her. But she did.
At 11 in the morning, my wife went away. She died at 11. Six migrants died in the fire and eight were injured.
The border patrol has pushed migrant to cross in unsafe desert areas. And global warming is making these areas even more
unsafe, more deadly. Climate experts say that these wildfires, just like the awful ones in Greece, Australia and Colorado, are going
to happen more and more as the climate shifts. So Maria and other wildfire victims are also victims of global warming.

Rinchen Wanchuk- Snow Leopard Conservancy, Ladakh, India

When I was a boy, after school ended for the summer, I remember slipping down the glacier that stretched far down the
mountains near my vllage in the Nubra Valleyin Ladakh, the far northern part of India. Today, that glacier is almost gone. And I
am watching the glaciers of the Karakoram Mountains disappear a little more every year. One study found that each year, the
glaciers lost between 49 and 66 feet, and another found that since the 1960s, more than 20 percent of the glaciers have
disappeared. And as global warming increases, the glaciers will begin to melt faster and faster.

Glaciers are ice that has built up over thousands of years. Because it rains only two inches a year in Ladakh, we depend on the
glaciers for 90 percent of our water. Farmers depend on this water to irrigate fields, and everyone depends on it for drinking.
Ladakhis in the villages have worked out a cooperative system to share the water, but what will happen in the glaciers disappear?
How will we survive?

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In the rural areas of Ladakh, we have almost no cars. We pollute very little and release almost no greenhouse gases. It is unfair that
the rich countries that produce so much carbon dioxide should be destroying the glaciers we depend on.

Moi Enomenga- Huaorani, Eastern Ecuador

For years, the oil companies have invaded my peoples lands and the lands of neighboring peoples- the Suar, the Cofan, the
Sequoya- the the rainforests of eastern Ecuador. First was Texaco. They left thousands od open pits that poisoned our rivers. Oil
companies have spilled millions of gallons of crude oil and they continue to dump toxic chemicals into our rivers and streams. And
oil development has also led to deforestation. When the oil companies build the roads, other settlers move in and chop down our
forests and scare away our game.

With oil comes destruction. And now we learn that not only is oil development destroying our rainforest, it is destroying the world,
through carbon dioxide pollution that leads to global warming. Oil kills the Huaorani through pollution and kills everyone through
global warming. We say, leave the oil in the ground. Why do rich countries come here? People from the richest and most
populated countries come to the poorest to take our resources, to live their life better, and leave us even poorer. But we are richer
that they because we have the resources and the forest, and our calm life is beter than their life in the city. We must all be
concerned because this is the heart of the world and here we can breathe. So we, as Huaorani, ask those city people: Why do you
want oil? We dont want oil?

Anisur Rahman- Mayor of Antarpara, Bangladesh

I am the mayor of Antarpara, a village in Bangladesh. Antarpara is on the Brahmaputra River that flows from the Himalaya
Mountains in India. We are in the lowlands, and our village floods every year. We are used to it, and in fact, the flooding is good
because it leaves our land more fertile.

But now, the floods are much worse. Now the floods are huge and each year they destroy our homes and carry off the land
underneath them. My village used to have 239 families. Now we are 38 families. But where can we go when our homes are gone?
Our country has 150 million peoplethe most densely populated in the world. I have an 18-month old child. By the time she is
grown, the village wont be here.
Where are we supposed to go? Do we all get tickets to America?

Steve Tritch- President and CEO, Westinghouse Electric

Before I became the head of Westinghouse, I was senior vice president for Nuclear Fuel, providing nuclear fuel products and
services to the nuclear power plants throughout the world. Before that, I led the merging of the former ABB nuclear businesses
into Westinghouse Electric, and was senior vice president of nuclear services. And before that, in 1991, I became manager of the
Nuclear Safety Department, and later wa appointed general manager of Westinghouses Engineering Technology. Today, I belong
to the American Nuclear Society and serve on the Nuclear energy Institutes board of directors. I guess you could call me Mr.
Nuke.

You might say that Im a man on the hot seat these days. Not only are we running out of easy-to-find oil, but oil is also blamed for
global warming. Coal is an abundant source of power, but it produces even larger amounts of greenhouse gases than oilor
natural gas. People are looking to my company, Westinghouse, for solutions. The solution is obvious: nuclear power. As I tell my
employees, whats good for the planet is good for Westinghouse.
Sure the accident at Fukushima nuclear plants in Japan was serious, and people were hurt. But the whole industry has learned from
this accident, and even Japan still knows that nuclear power is the best way to go. The real threat is global warming. Global
warming could destroy much life on Earth. But clear power produces no greenhouse gases. They say nuclear power has dangers.

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Well, last year 5,200 Chinese coal miners died in accidentsand thats a lot more than have ever been hurt in a nuclear power
accident. I see hope for the planet and Westinghouse is here to play our part.

Nancy Tanaka- Orchard Owner, Hood River Valley, Oregon

Our family has owned and operated fruit orchards in Oregons Hood River Valley since my husband Kens grandparents bought
land here in 1917. Our familys only time off was when the US government locked our family in internment camps during World
War II. But thats another story.
Every generation of our family has farmed this land. And then we woke up to the front-page article in our local newspaper. It was a
shocker. In fact, it scared us half to death. A study by Oregon State University found that 75 percent of the water during the
summer months in the Upper Middle Fork of the Hood River comes from melting glaciers on Mt. Hood. And because of global
warming, the glaciers are disappearing. Thats our river. Well, we dont own it, but its the river that irrigates our pears and
cherries. Our family has grown fruit on this land since before we were born, and now they tell us that our irrigation water may be
disappearing?
To tell you the trurh, I never knew so much of the rivers water in the summer came from the glaciers. You see, glaciers on Mt.
Hood are kind of small compared with glaciers on other mountains. Scientists say the problem is that glaciers have been shrinking
because of global warming. I always though global warming might affect the Arctic and the polar bears, but not the Upper Middle
Fork of the Hood River.
Trisha Kehaulani Watson- Environmental lawyer, Hawaii

I was born and raised in the valley of Manoa, in the district of Kona (known today as Honolulu), on the island of Oahu. I am native
Hawaiian. I am a lawyer specializing in environmental lawbut much of my knowledge comes from talking with my family and
kupuna, our elders. Over the years, I have seen the beaches I played on my entire life steadily erode. In many places, the sand is
disappearing.
My valley has always been very waiwai (wealthy, rainy, with much fresh running water), yet the waters have changed. We have far
more unstable weather. When I was a little girl, my grandfather used to take me down to the streams to watch the water rise when
the heavy rains came. But things are much different today. The heavy rains are devastating. A few years ago, we had a terrible
flood wash through the valley. Since then, my street has been shut down numerous times due to dangerous flooding.
The seasons have also changed. It gets much colder than it used to, and also much hotter. The plants have changed because of it
Fruits come at unusual times of the year. Flowers bloom at different times of the year. Health problems also result from these
weather changes. The Earth is not well.

James Hansen- Former Director, Goddard Institute for Space Studies, National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA),
New York City

I am a scientist, but I am also a grandfather. So that makes me especially interested in the future. Recently, I was arrested at the
White House in Washington, D.C., protesting the construction of the 1,700-mile Keystone XL Pipeline to send oil from the Tar
Sands of Alberts, Canada to Texas. Why would a scientist and a grandfather commit civil disobedience and get arrested? Thats
simple. If this pipeline is built and they continue to take this especially dirty and polluting oil from the Canadian Tar Sands, it
makes it very unlikely that we will be able to stabilize the climate and avoid the disastrous effects that we are already beginning to
see. As Ive said, this pipeline is the fuse to the biggest carbon bomb on the planet.

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Many years ago, I was one of the first scientists to warn that as we burn more fossil fuelscoal, oil, natural gasthe carbon
dioxide created will heat the Earth to dangerous levels, with terrible, terrible consequences. I thought people would respond to
scientists rational arguments that we needed to end our addiction to fossil fuels. Now I know we need to take more drastic action.
So I volunteered to be arrested with 1,200 other people to draw attention to the importance of stopping this deadly pipeline from
being built. I am more than 70 years old, but if need be, I will keep getting arrested.

Robert Lovelace- Ardoch Algonquin Indian Leader, Ontatio, Canada

In mid-February 2008, I was sentenced to six months in jail and ordered to pay a $15,000 dine. What was my crime? Trespassing
on my own landtrying to block a uranium company, Frontenac Ventures, from prospecting on and polluting Algonquin Indian
land. It began when we noticed people cutting down trees on land we had never ceded to the Canadian government. Someone
had given Frontenac a prospecting license and they had gotten a court to issue an injunction against trespassing. But this is our
land, and Algonquin Indians and our non-Indian supporters organized a 101-day blockade to physically stop Frontenac from
destroying the land. I was arrested and became a political prisoner.
Because of global warming, the nuclear power industry is claiming it is the clean alternative, because nuclear power does not
generate greenhouse gases like coal or oil. The price of uranium shot from $43 a pound in 2006 to $75 a pound a couple of years
after. It came down as a result of the 2011 nuclear disaster in Japan, but it will go back up. Canada is already the worlds leading
exporter of uranium, and our prime minister wants to increase exports and turn Canada into an energy superpower.
There is nothing good about uranium mining. Uranium mining has no record other than environmental destruction and negative
health issues. Mining company clearcut the land and destroy the Earth to get at the uranium. Uranium cant be stored safely and
other uranium mines around Canada have left land polluted with heavy metals like arsenic. And nuclear power itself is not clean.
Nuclear waste stays radioactive for thousands of years and no one has found a safe way to store nuclear poisons that long.

Richard Anderson- CEO, Delta Airlines, Atlanta

I am CEO of Delta Airlines, and live in Atlanta. Im a businessman and a lawyer, and have been in the airline business for more than
20 years. My job is to oversee Deltas longterm goals. Ultimately, I need to keep the company profitable for our investors and a
secure and fulfilling place to work for our 80,000 employees.
Ive been reading that air travel is bad for global warming. People say our jets produce huge amounts of carbon dioxide and other
greenhouse gases that increase global warming. An article I read recently said, Flying is one of the most destructive things we can
do. This researcher concluded that the only ethical option is greatly to reduce the number of flights we take.
But ethics are complicated: Dont I have an ethical responsibility to my employees and stockholdersand to the 160 million
customers who fly Delta every year, on more than 15,000 flights each day? And that means expanding air travel, advertising low
fares, and trying to get people to take vacations to faraway places like Japan and China, to keep Delta profitable. Sure, we will try
to pollute less, but well leave global warming to the politicians and scientists to figure out. Im a businessman.

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