Education as Intervention: The Climate Fresk comes to Ottawa

Le français viendra sous peu !

The Climate Fresk is a French non-profit, founded by Professor Cédric Rigenbach, in December of 2018. The organization’s aim is to raise public awareness about climate change while also encouraging participants to take action. 

The 3-hour adult workshop (workshops for school-aged children are also offered) is intended to be simple, fun, visual, creative and engaging, but also informative and transformative. It is based on 42 cards that summarize the work of the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change). Participants create a fresco, hence “Fresk,” by laying out and connecting the cards to reveal the interconnectedness of the “causes” and “consequences” of climate change. 

A climate fresk at Dovercourt Community Centre in Ottawa (photo: Ecology Ottawa).

The workshops are run by trained facilitators and are available in 150+ countries and 51 languages. In less than 6 years, more than 1.9 million people have participated in these workshops. With more than 85k going on to be trained as workshop facilitators. Past participants have come from all walks of life and included everyone from members of the general public, to educational institutions, and private sector companies. One of the Climate Fresk's unique features is its commitment to supporting workshop facilitation training within participating organizations. This effort serves to ensure continued climate education within these workplaces facilitated by fellow colleagues.

Climate Fresk workshops are relatively new to the Ottawa-Gatineau Valley, however, local organizers are keen for broad-based, expansive growth in a manner similar to what Climate Fresk has enjoyed internationally. Public workshops can be found on the CAFES-Ottawa calendar or by searching “Climate Fresk” on Eventbrite

 

Next Fresk Workshop in partnership with CAFES-Ottawa:

Friday January 17th: 5:30 - 8:30 pm

St. Paul’s United Church 

3760 Carp Rd., Carp, ON

Key Learnings from the Fresk 

The focal takeaway from the Wednesday evening session was just how instrumental a role human activity has played for the climate crisis. Many may be familiar with a term coined to describe this historic relationship, the Anthropocene. Four primary “drivers” were identified as responsible for this Anthropogenic influence: agricultural activity, industrial activity, transportation, and building (energy) usage. While some of us may be vaguely familiar with the role of carbon emissions on the greenhouse effect. Few are familiar with how this speaks to radiative forcing

In the workshop, radiative forcing was explained as the measure of the energy equilibrium ensured by the greenhouse effect, the balance in energy that enters the Earth’s atmosphere and the energy that leaves the atmosphere. The additional greenhouse effect produced by human activity impacts radiative forcing. You can think of it as placing an additional blanket over top of the blanket already warming the earth. This means we are trapping more of the Sun’s energy within the Earth’s atmosphere than in the pre-Industrial era. 

The accumulated energy, if not absorbed by the Earth’s natural carbon sinks (i.e. oceans, forests, and vegetation via photosynthesis), figures into the Earth’s energy budget. This incrementally contributes to rising ocean and atmospheric temperatures, which leads to melting sea ice, glaciers, and ice sheets. 

What does all of this mean for life on land? These factors are contributing to an unprecedented rise in flooding events, drought events, heatwaves, and unprecedented forest fires, and they are negatively impacting freshwater resources.

Climate Education in a Post-Pandemic Society

Climate Change & the Ballot Box

According to an Angus Reid Poll dating back to the last Federal election cycle, 1 in 5 Canadians believe climate change to be a key issue driving their decision at the ballot box. It is important to note this trend encompassed all age-gender groups. 

Galvanizing Support: Trust in the Media, and the rise of Climate Doomism?

In a recent study conducted by the University of Waterloo’s Trust in Research undertaken in Science and Technology Network (TRuST), Trust in the media was identified as a vital aspect in the study of trust in science as so much scientific information is mediated through journalism (Lyon et al., 2012, pg.3). This underscores the need for innovation in the field of science communication. In this new era of information overload, the interpretation of, and trust in the media is paramount (Mangold, 2023, pg. 3). 

Climate doomism refers to a mindset, at times borne out of this information overload, that feels it is now too late to turn things around (mitigate the effects of climate change). Those who stand staunchly against this sort of pessimism believe a steady diet of negative climate news can inspire dread and paralysis, which then leads to inaction, and may well contribute to a self-fulfilling prophecy. 

While eco-anxiety can be seen as a natural response to the constant barrage of unsettling climate or environmental news. Allowing ourselves to sit in this place of despair for too long – climate doomism – benefits the preservation of business as usual. We are equally capable of both calling for systemic change, while doing our part to reduce our own impact. Individual action can spur wider change, just ask Greta Thunberg.

Lesley Isaro is a member of Ecology Ottawa's Council Watch program.

 

Participants at the conclusion of the climate fresk at the Dovercourt Community Centre

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