The important part is that it is very good at creating motivation for action.
One assumption behind it is that to make students motivated for climate action, the course must meet the standard described below:
These are the most important ”takeaways” for students having been through ”The Climate School”:
• Students will know the extend and the urgency of the threat
• Students will know that their own contribution is important
• Students will know about the urgency of political action
• Students will know that they are not alone in this battle
• Students will know about interrelated threats
• Students will know about tipping points
• Students will know about climate myths and which effects these are having on themselves
• Students will be aware about the ways they themselves are in denial
• Students will know, feel and act because they have found out, that if they are not affected on all of these levels, they are still in denial, and the survival of our civilization depends on mankind getting out of denial.
• Students will know much more than IPCC, our politicians and our media are telling us. Beause the threats are much more severe than they tell us.
• Students will know why exponential growth is catastrophic, and that we are living in the last minute of the existense of the civilization, if we do not act adeqately and fast.
• Students will know, that a mobilization on the scale of the American WWII mobilization – or MORE – is needed. And that we can´t sit this one out!!
• Students will know that holistic solutions to these challenges exist, and the content of them
• Students will know that the world can afford it – for instance that it only costs a small fraction of the worlds military budgets
• Students will know that strong powers are trying to paint the overall political picture full of doubt – and that there is a strong economic incentive embedded in this
• Students will know that the greatest danger for the future of humanity lies in the reluctance to get out of your comfortable chair and act
• Students will know that there is a revolutionary movement on the rise all over the world for this, and that you will be part of the most important movement in the history of mankind.
• Students will know that the more they do, the better they will be able to face their grandchildren, when they ask: ”What did YOU do to contribute?”
• Students will know that – according to Margaret Mead – all important change in history was initiated by one person or a small group of dedicated individuals
• Students will know the truth of the quote from Dalai Lama: ”If you do not think a single individual can make a difference: Try sleeping in a room with a mosquito.”
• Students will know the energizing effect of being part of something much bigger than themselves.
• Students will know that there are always people around them who share their thoughts and feelings, so that when the going gets tough, they have someone to turn to
• Students will know that doing the transition to a low-consuming society with emphasis on local production of what we need is possible, and that it is already happening in parts of the world.
• Students will know that being part of this will improve their experienced meaningfulness and quality of life tremendously.
• Students will know – not as a phrase but as an existential fact – that ”Saving Civilization is not a Spectator Sport”.(Lester R. Brown)
