Like many of us perhaps, my biggest struggle with climate change is dealing with doubt. I mean other people's, and also my own. Combating climate change involves such changes to the luxuries we have all come to take for granted that I think it's tempting to shut our ears and eyes to what's going on. My level of doubt varies a great deal.

Saturday 10th March around 50 people gathered in the Wesley Memorial Hall in Oxford to train as a carbon-fighting army. We were being shown how to win hearts and minds for perhaps the biggest issue of our times - controlling climate change. The most inspiring aspect for me was to see the work that is already going on. People are already out there speaking to church groups, WIs, schools, community groups. There is a huge groundswell of commitment to do something about this problem.

There were professionals, academics,  seasoned campaigners taking on a new issue, students and recent graduates keen to create a buzz among their friends, recently retired workers from the oil industry who now want to make a difference- an incredible wealth and diversity of people. It gives me hope that a groundswell of commitment to change is building up beneath our society.

We learned the basic skills for giving a short talk on climate change, and were given some invaluable resources in the form of the template talk. Many different layers of experience were represented, from some people already well-equipped to give inspiring and impassioned talks, to some more-or-less total novices like myself. I was quite daunted by how committed some attendees were. The experience helped me cope with my doubt by convincing me that it is possible to make changes, and in fact that the process has already begun.

The training day came hot on the heels of the Channel Four programme The Great Global Warming Swindle. Although I watched it with great scepticism, I found it difficult not to accept alternative explanations for climate change. And why? Because it's comforting not to take responsibility, and not to think we have to give up our cheap flights to Barbados and enjoying exotic fruit all year round. Since the programme, in talking to friends who were previously committed to cutting their carbon output, I have found doubt creeping in. I think it will be up to all of us to arm ourselves with the facts, and fight against one-sided arguments with clear evidence and determination.

Tags: campaigning,  doubt,  global warming 

Comments

Posted by gobion on 2nd Apr 2007 14:19 (5 years, 1 month ago):

It sounds like a good session to have attended :)

After the Channel 4 programme went out I got sent a strong rebuttal by John Houghton, former Head of the IPCC which I found to be very useful. I'll see if I can put it up as an article on ClimateX.org

Cheers,
Gobion

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