Are you concerned/wondering/completely freaked out about climate change but don’t know what to do? NCCR is here to be a crucible – a petri dish – a garden on steroids – a conduit – a half way house for us to find and meet like minded others to grow the broad, inclusive, connected, unstoppable movement on climate change we need to achieve the Big Hairy Audacious Goal of keeping the world’s warming to 1.5 degrees within years (11 to be exact), not decades.
More than a “new group” working on climate change in Newcastle, it aims through connecting with and growing diverse communities and through providing a place for individuals to come, to bring climate change to the kitchen table, the barbecue, the political office, the bus stop, the water cooler, whatever and wherever it needs to be heard, with we as communities collectively declaring: CLIMATE CHANGE – NOT ON OUR WATCH. It proposes to provide as space and a nurturance to bring together people who want to MAKE INEVITABLE, powerful and effective cultural change against climate change and keep the world within safe levels of warming. Where a transition to a future safe from climate change becomes a defining paradigm of the next decade, and rescues that future.
BACKGROUND
NCCR started with a group of friendly passionate locals from all walks of life wanting to build upon the inspiring and diverse threads on social change research and organising arising from the Narratives of Climate Change Symposium held in Newcastle in July 2018. It is premised on the following: – That climate change is a “wicked problem” or “social mess” partly because it is has such a long lead time and is hard to imagine, and therefore “make real”, and that therefore many of us, even the most committed of activists, act & live our daily lives as though it is not. – That there is no “them” and “us” – that we all struggle with the same challenges to look after our children and find or keep a job and pay our mortgage or rent, and that we all postpone major action on climate change because it is too big, too remote, and, on some level, just doesn’t seem real. – That it *is* real, and that if we are to move beyond a future of potentially catastrophic warming, change must be broad, inclusive, diverse, spontaneous and sustainable. – That governments are slow and vested-interest-hamstrung – and in many ways we are currently a filibusterer and delayer in world climate negotiations, and this has to stop; and that – That there are some significant global sources of greenhouse gas emissions and these are essential to focus upon as targets of the task. Our roadmap for action is the IPCC 1.5 degree report released in Korea on Monday 9 October. You can find a copy here: http://www.ipcc.ch/report/sr15/ and an excellent summary of the upshot here: https://www.brookings.edu/opinions/were-almost-out-of-time-the-alarming-ipcc-climate-report-and-what-to-do-next If this sounds like you, see you there :).