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The Great Transition refers to the changes that human societies around the world will make as they move to a state of social, economic and environmental sustainability. Most scientists now believe that continuation with “business as usual” is a formula for future human disaster. “Business as usual” is characterised by an ever growing human population and an ever growing economy that is fuelled by endless consumption of “stuff” and supported by the burning of pollution-producing fossil fuels and destruction of the natural environment. Urgent change must now occur to the way we generate energy and use it and about the way we work and live with the environment on which we all depend (see also the2020 Vision resource on the Great Transition and Plan B). In Canberra, the decision to reduce carbon emissions by about 60% by the year 2020 will require substantial changes in the way the city develops and the way all of us live our lives. There is now firm understanding about what we need to do and how it can be accomplished. One of the things that stands in the way of us doing it is discomfort and fear of change. Our entire human world is changing rapidly. We need only to look at what has happened across the world in Queensland, New Zealand and the Middle East in the early months of 2011 to recognise that “change is in the air”. Most of us are uncomfortable with rapid change from what we have Have students view the UTube presentation on transformative change by Jan Rochstrom (below). Get them to write an essay or poem about keeping on with “business as usual”. . Prepare a visual become accustomed to, especially if we do not understand where the change could be leading. That is partly why communities around the world are nervous about the changes being advocated with respect to carbon emissions. The aim of this module is to support teachers in the task of helping young children to see the changes associated with reducing our carbon emissions as an opportunity rather than as a constraint. It also seeks to help give children confidence that we can deal with change and produce a better future. demonstration of either a naturally occurring or a manmade complex adaptive system. Use the demonstration to illustrate your understanding of the terms resilience and transformation. The system could be the human respiratory We are dealing here with a number of quite sophisticated concepts, which teachers need to be comfortable discussing with their students. A number of resources are available to clarify these concepts. It is these concepts that will play a key role in how quickly and adequately Canberra responds to the challenge of reducing its carbon emissions. : Psychologists repeatedly refer to the need for people system or the economic system. to believe they can tackle a problem effectively as an essential aid to The aim of the visual overcoming fear and discomfort of the unknown. If we believe tackling a 2 2020Vision Teaching Resources: Years 7-12 problem is impossible we often would prefer to ignore the problem. If we believe we know how to negotiate the obstacles that we know are present, we are much more comfortable moving down a new path. This is the state of feeling powerful and capable of taking action. It is linked to the concept of self-efficacy. Most of us tend to feel impotent in the face of global challenges such as that of sustainability. An empowered person is one who understands an issue and feels confident taking action on it.” Never doubt that a small demonstration should be to group of thoughtful, committed people can change the world. Indeed, make clear issues such as it is the only thing that ever has."-Margaret Mead. feedback loops and the relation : This has been defined as an approach to of systems above and below the problem solving, by viewing "problems" as parts of an overall system, system of interest. rather than reacting to specific parts, outcomes or events and . Prepare a group sketch or thereby, possibly contributing to further development of unintended play of no more than 5min. in consequences. Systems thinking is not one thing but a set of habits or length that can be videotaped practices within a framework that is based on the belief that the to illustrate the importance of component parts of a system can best be understood in the context self-efficacy in handling change. of relationships with each other and with other systems, rather than in isolation. Systems thinking focuses on cyclical rather than linear cause and effect (Wikipedia) : The People Power Revolution was a series of popular Write a 3000 word essay about Changing the World from nonviolent revolutions and prayerful mass street demonstrations in “business as usual”. the Philippines that occurred in 1986, which marked the restoration of Have the students view the 58 min. YouTube presentation by David Korten (below) about the need to change the economic system. Hold a class debate about the topic “we won’t control climate change until we change the way the economy works”. Prepare a 5min. video of the two outstanding speakers. Make a cartoon or comic strip about the difficulty of changing from what we are accustomed to. that country's democracy. It became a subsequent inspiration for the Revolutions of 1989that ended communist dictatorships in Eastern Europe. These protests were the culmination of a long campaign of civil resistance by the people against the 20-year running authoritarian, repressive regime of then president Ferdinand Marcos and made news headlines as "the revolution that surprised the world" (Wikipedia). Similar people power movements have been evident in the Middle East in recent months as growing numbers of people have felt empowered to act to terminate an unacceptable system of oppressive government. Resilience is a term being applied increasingly to complex adaptive systems, which abound both in nature and in human society. A resilient system is one that can adapt to external shocks without losing its essential functions. Sometimes a system may be exposed to a shock of such magnitude that a key element of the system reaches a tipping point. As a result of this the system 3 changes or transforms. At this point, it takes on new functions and operates differently. Resilience is not always a desirable attribute. Sometimes, there is a need to transform systems that are resistant to change. Generally however it is the resilience of complex systems that keeps nature and human society on a steady course. Sometimes it takes a very small change to lead to a change in a system. It is a bit like an animal teetering on the edge of a cliff. A tiny push will launch it over the edge with disastrous consequences. This applies to all sorts of systems including the systems that control our society. If greenhouse gases accumulate sufficiently in our atmosphere, they could reach the point where a tiny further increase could tip the climate system into chaos. We often talk about key tipping points leading to transformational change A resilient system is one that keeps adapting to the changes and shocks around it. Once a tipping point occurs as a result of a transforming shock or change, the system becomes a new system. It is like a caterpillar being transformed into a butterfly. Some critical changes can lead to desirable transformation in a system while others can lead to wholly undesirable new system. The full implications of the current climate change debate are poorly understood in the Australian community. While most Australians understand that the climate is changing they do not share with the climate scientists a comprehensive understanding of the seriousness of the situation if the world does not reduce quite drastically its greenhouse gas emissions. The ACT government has recognized the seriousness of the situation and has established an ambitious target for the ACT community for the year 2020. Meeting this target will require broad community commitment to change, not only in the source of our electricity but in the way we eat and the things on which we spend our money. Change is however never easy. Creating amongst children a flexibility of attitude to change towards sustainability is the key objective of this module. The pieces of the jigsaw relating to the future of the world are no longer consistent with a viable future for much of the human species. But the good news is that we are almost certainly approaching a 4 2020Vision Change is constant, yet often we fight it. How can we view Teaching Resources: Years 7-12 global tipping point where conventional wisdom about the current adequacy of a number of our human systems including especially our economic system will be rejected and replaced with a new model. We are an intelligent species and are fully capable of developing a new mindset that is more attuned to the limitations that the environment is placing on us. Many of our complex adaptive systems are devised by humans and are capable of being changed. That will the challenge of climate change and the changes happen if the predominant mindset of the population changes. We need to take steps to ensure that such a shift in mindset comes about and the tipping point could occur as a result of the determined actions of less than a quarter of the population. science is telling us we must make, as an opportunity 1. We now recognise that many of the activities that are part of our daily lives are producing greenhouse gases that are contributing to global warming. rather than a catastrophe? 2. We know how to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and it means we will have to change some of the things we have got used to. 3. That includes changing some of our favourite food habits, some of the things we spend money on and paying particular attention to the way we generate the energy that we all tend to take for granted. 4. Some of the things we need to change include growing more of our own food, reducing waste, using our cars less and understanding more about our ecological footprint and how we can reduce it. 5. We know we can do these things and that by doing them we will be building a better future for everyone. 6. Knowing that we can manage something gets us a long way down the path of doing it. A 9 minute U tube presentation on Transformative Change by Johan Rochstrom. Strongly recommended for Teachers and high school and college students: http://rs.resalliance.org/2010/08/31/johan-rockstrom-at-ted-onplanetary-boundaries/ 5 What are the scientific facts about climate change? Report by the Australian Academy of Science. http://www.science.org.au/reports/climatechange2010.pdf The world’s ecological Footprint. Why we must change. http://www.footprintnetwork.org/en/index.php/GFN/page/footprint_ basics_overview A 58-minute U tube presentation by David Korten about the need to change the way we manage the world’s economy. Suitable for upper high school and college students, especially those undertaking environmental and economic subjects. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zdsZ_lLz07Q Website on the Millennium Development Goals embarked on by the United Nations in 2000 to which all countries are signatories http://www.undp.org/mdg/basics.shtml The world obesity system. A map of the systems that are considered to be interacting to produce a global epidemic of obesity: http://www.shiftn.com/obesity/Full-Map.html Malcolm Gladwell has written an entertaining book about how changes in the way people think about the world take place. http://www.gladwell.com/tippingpoint/index.html He described in some detail, the factors which lead communities and groups to a "tipping point" when they are influenced by new ideas or actions and now see the world through different eyes and behave in new ways. Gladwell goes on to point out that change can occur quite quickly as a result of a relatively small proportion of the population accepting the validity of the new idea or embracing the new fashion. The figure may be as low as 20% of the population being enough to effect quite dramatic changes in behaviour of the majority. What particularly matters according to Gladwell is the "stickiness" or attractiveness of the idea and the personal characteristics of the people who are involved in promoting and disseminating it. 6