Kaelan, a student from Redmaids school in Bristol, quickly realised that whilst there would be occasions for socialising the main reason for the week's seminar was to get feedback from the world's youth of the effects of global warming and there ideas as to how this could be managed.
However this annual event at the University of Chicago broke them in gently with a day of American life starting with a typical American Breakfast, a visit to Wallmart, a speed boat trip on the lake plus jetski oportunity and a street market.
Following a Mexican lunch the following day they arrived at the first Seminar which was held on American football field and was led by speaker Marco Marquez: ACE (Action for Climate Emergency) and was mainly about about organising climate protests.
There followed a day of Diplomacy simulation in discussions rooms which covered Government policy & climate change. They assumed two imaginary countries: Yeeland & Grusa where a river flows through Yeeland (energy source issues, need to build dam) and a lake in Grusa (rare birds & tourism). SOAR (Save our Avian Resources), the UN Water Convention Bureau, The US Gov (us), Yeeland gov & Grusa gov all had to be considered by small groups to discuss issues & strategy / approach.
They held formal negociations in their Project group first , then had to join a bigger (negotiator) group and found difficulties in merging different ideas which were discussed and then voted.
There were break-out discussions relating to Government & Policy : small group discussions about efficacy of local gov versus state versus federal gov't to tackle climate change. Talks about lobbying (how different this is is compared to UK)
The following 6 days were spent similarly discussing topics such as:
Sustainable forests
Diplomacy simulation where everybody introduced their own countries position and requirements
Public Health in Africa
Todays issues including wild fires (currently close by)
Stress Epidemics, 80% of Amaricas doctor claim to be adversly affected
Public Transport
Kaelan brought her excellent presentation to a close by expessing her thanks to the club and her thoughts about the seminars as follows
This Trip was a fantastic experience and I am grateful to the Rotary Club o Clifton.....so thank you all so much.
The main take-away for me was the realisation that so many organisations and activists in the US and in Africa (& the world) are working to find solutions to the climate change threats. It’s easy to feel despondent about climate change.
It’s in the news everyday. The problems our generation will face seem enormous and it can be demoralizing at times…..
…but I can honestly say that after this seminar, I feel more optimistic about humankind’s abilities & capabilities to mitigate & even reverse the impact of climate change.
My generation is already learning to adapt…we’re conscious about our carbon footprint (how we travel, what we wear, what we eat, where we buy things from) and this new behaviour will never revert back to the old.
It won’t be easy, especially for poorer people & economies…but after a week of discussing climate issues & debating ideas….with teenagers from other countries, listening to keynote speakers while having to stay indoors because of unusually fierce wildfires in Canada (ironic but quite fitting, the situation is urgent!), it doesn’t feel like such an unsurmountable problem to fix…
There are already thousands of small initiatives out there that are already making a difference.
Welcome Home Kaelan
Kaelan with Mum and Rex Sacket (l) Project Officer and Jonathan Bolgar (r) Youth Committee Chair