From Shepparton to Bonn, George continues to articulate our confusion

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eorge Marshall visited and spoke in Shepparton earlier this year and here he is in Bonn, Germany, helping us understand more about the confusion around climate change.

The Bonn conference, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change attracted people from all around the world, including George Marshall, who helps us see the dilemma through a whole different prism.

Take six minutes and watch this YouTube clip - “Interview with George Marshall, Climate Outreach Information Network”.

Fortunate to hear and now we can follow George Marshall

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hepparton was fortunate to hear Britain’s George Marshall speak earlier this year.



George Marshall visited Shepparton
during his recent tour of Australia.

And now, if we follow his blog - “Climate Change Denial” – we can keep abreast of what George is saying and doing.

His latest post, “Get radical – engaging conservatives about climate change”, illustrates that the enthusiasm we saw here in Shepparton has not abated as he continues to engage with and talk about climate change with deniers.

He writes: “I regard myself to be a radical. However, I now believe that the most radical thing that I can do is to break out of the safety zone of left/liberal environmentalism and actively engage with conservatives.”

Ian Dunlop's observations promote flurry of letters to The Age

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his group of letters in today’s Melbourne Age are worth a few minutes, they are all about climate change and Ian Dunlop's observations –

Ian Dunlop’s warming

Ian Dunlop's warning (Comment, 7/4) is especially sobering. The slowing of atmospheric temperature rise over the past 15 years or so, used by climate change sceptics to debunk the work of the IPCC, is, on the contrary, evidence that the solar energy delivered to the Earth is being absorbed by the oceans. The Arctic and Antarctic ice sheets are acting as giant dampers to contain temperature rise in the oceans. When both of these ice sheets melt away in the next decade or so, the rise in both ocean and atmospheric temperatures will accelerate rapidly and demonstrate that the passing of the tipping points that Dunlop expresses concern about has, indeed, occurred.

There can hardly be clearer evidence that the future of our planet is squarely in the hands of our politicians. Dunlop  calls on Australian "stateswomen to step forward". I think it will need concerted action by statespeople of both genders and probably all political persuasions to haul us out of the dangerous intellectual lethargy into which we have been led.

Associate Professor Maurie Trewhella, Victoria University

We had a stateswoman

We had a stateswoman, Ian Dunlop. Her name was Julia Gillard. Everything she did to tackle climate change has been dismantled and reversed by this draconian government. I despair for my grandchildren and fail to see how supposedly intelligent parliamentarians can be so shortsighted, given most of them also have families.

Carmen Hilton, Hampton Park

Reasons to be optimistic

In contrast to the pessimism of Ian Dunlop, I think there is every reason for the global economy to continue to grow until all citizens reach the West's standard of living. Climate change need not be feared. Modern coal-fired power stations are more than three times as efficient as they used to be,  while the significantly reduced emissions can be liquefied and then used, increasingly, in greenhouses and chemicals such as formic acid and fuels, or, at worst, permanently sequestrated under a layer of silt and 3000 metres of seawater. All this can be done while reducing the cost of electricity by 10 per cent. Meanwhile renewable energy is constantly advancing. The greening of the planet can occur through the piping of fresh water using large, flexible plastic tubes to areas that need it. But Dunlop is correct that current government actions are not enough and that more needs to be done.

John Martin, chief executive, Docklands Science Park 

We must break party political deadlock

George Marshall speaking in Melbourne this year.

I recently attended a workshop run by George Marshall, author of “Don't Even Think About It: Why our brains are wired to ignore climate change”, where he showed us a video of one of Maggie Thatcher's speeches and how she communicated her message on climate change. Her audience was the Conservative Party room. She appealed to the values of the group with words like balance, stability, fairness, reality, leadership, duty, respect, health, faith, freedom. It was seen to be an issue we care about – us, not them.  It was not a science-based argument. The ownership of it was  a strong part of the attraction,  and it drove the emotional connection behind the Conservatives then determining to take action.

Now, not believing in climate change is a stronger identifier of those who consider themselves conservatives than gun control and the "right to life". With such entrenched party positions, perhaps Dunlop is right and the only hope we have is to take a different tack – look at it with a gender lens. We must shift this "right/left" way of seeing the greatest threat to all our lives.

Carolyn Ingvarson, Canterbury

George Marshall explains at Shepparton why we are wired to ignore climate change

George Marshall recently spoke to nearly 100 people in Shepparton.

George Marshall speaking in Melbourne.

The climate change communication specialist and founder of Britain’s Climate Outreach Information Network (COIN) visited Shepparton as a part of his Australian tour.

George was here to speak at the Sustainable Living Festival and agreed to visit Shepparton as a guest of the city’s Slap Tomorrow group.

He has since returned to England, but before leaving our shores he posted on his blog “As I near the end of an increasingly manic but wonderful Australian tour, I have become ever more interested in the challenges and opportunities of speaking across the political divides and reaching out to conservatives.”

On his blog, George reflects on many things, including his visit to Shepparton, read it here: “Speaking across political divides in Australia – and endangered chocolate fish”.

End fossil fuels exploration - George Marshall

George Marshall last night encouraged those at a Shepparton lecture to do what they could to slow or stop exploration for oil, gas or coal.

Interesting, about the same time the Warrnambool Standard has reported that one of Victoria’s biggest onshore gas fields has been flagged in the south-west by a company which wants the state government to lift a ban on drilling.

The story: “Lake Oils wants leeway to tap south-west reserves” reports that Lakes Oil is confident it can tap into potential reserves north of Warrnambool and Port Fairy with conventional techniques rather than controversial fracking.

Marshall, a climate change communication specialist, was in Shepparton to talk about why we are wired to ignore the climate change message.

Although not professing to understand the broad concept of resolving climate change, in answering an audience question about “What do we do now?” he urged people to do all they could to end fossil fuels exploration.

Known fossil fuel reserves in the world have the potential, if dug up and burnt, to drive the world into catastrophic climate change.

George Marshall, who visited Shepparton courtesy of Psychology for a Safe Climate and the Sustainable Living Foundation, spoke at the University of Melbourne’s Rural School of Academic Health lecture theatre at a forum organized by the Shepparton-based Slap Tomorrow.

George researched and wrote the book: “Don’t Even Think About It: Why our brains a wired to ignore climate change”.

Looking back, looking forward from Beneath the Wisteria

What was and what will be will be discussed when supporters of a response to climate change gather on Saturday Beneath the Wisteria.

The events and outcomes of last year will be considered and supporters will talk about what is happening in 2015.

This year begins with a bit of a rush as on Saturday, February 7, Prof David Karoly will speak in Euroa at an event entitled “Conversations: climate change and the Strathbogie region”.

The Euroa event is being organized by Strathbogie Voices and details can be found on the group’s webpage.

And then just nine days later the British author and co-founder England’s Climate Outreach and Information Network group, George Marshall will speak in Shepparton.

He will speak at the Graham St lecture theatre of the University of Melbourne’s Rural Academic Health Centre at 6:00pm.

George is the keynote speaker at Melbourne’s Sustainable Living Festival and along with that is visiting Australia to promote his relatively new book: “Don’t Even Think About it: Why Our Brains Are Hard Wired to Ignore Climate Change”.

Soon after that, in March, Slap Tomorrow, our sister group will be showing alternative fuelled vehicles at the annual Rotary Motor Show in Shepparton, this time at DECA. Supporter Bill Winters is co-ordinating that from the Slap Tomorrow aspect.

Saturday’s gathering at the northern end of Shepparton’s Maude St Mall is free; starts at 11:00am; some public seating is available, but those attending should bring a folding chair as the gathering; it lasts for about an hour.

George will explain why no one is hearing the climate change message

George Marshall understands why we are not hearing the message about climate change.

And the British author and co-founder of the Climate Outreach and Information Network (COIN ) will be in Shepparton next month to talk about his findings.

Shepparton-based group, Slap Tomorrow, is bringing George to Shepparton to speak at the University of Melbourne’s Rural School of Academic Health at 6:00pm in Graham Street on Monday, February 16.

He discovered much about communication and climate change while researching for his latest book, “Don’t Even Think About: Why our brains are wired to ignore climate change”, which was published just a few months ago.

George Marshall on TEDx

George’s visit to Shepparton is a programmed event in Victoria’s Sustainable Living Festival and has been co-ordinated through the Melbourne-based group, Psychology for a Safe Climate.

The February 16 Shepparton event will be free, but a gold coin donation maybe take up to help offset George’s costs. He has volunteered to visit Shepparton and is being brought from Melbourne by Carol Ride from the Psychology for a Safe Climate.

This shortTEDx presentation will enable you to see that George is an entertaining speaker with an important message.

George Marshall will help us understand why we ignore climate change

George Marshall will help us understand why people are hardwired to ignore climate change.

The British author and co-founder of the “Climate Outreach and Information Network (COIN)” will be in Melbourne next February to talk about this conundrum.

He will be in Melbourne to speak at Melbourne’s Sustainable Living Festival and then on Sunday, February 15, conduct a workshop in North Fitzroy for the group, “Psychology for a Safe Climate”.

Places for the North Fitzroy workshop are limited and so those interested have been urged to book early – details on the flyer.

However, as a bonus for Northern Victorian people keen to hear George speak, he will be in Shepparton on the night of Monday, February 16, to also lead a discussion about what people appear hardwired to ignore climate change.

His relentless research into the matter of why many are intellectually and emotionally remote from climate change, has given him a broad understanding of how people communicate.

A venue for his Shepparton lecture has not yet been settled, but it soon will and subsequently publicized.

The Shepparton-based group, Slap Tomorrow is bringing the author and climate change communication specialist to Shepparton and it hopes to adhere to its aim of making all its events free, although unavoidable costs may make this impossible.

His new book, “Don’t Even Think About It: Why Our Brains are Hardwired to Ignore Climate Change” will be available at most venues.

Details about the George’s Shepparton lecture will be available soon.

 

Thoughtful discussion needed about climate change

Resolutions that are broadly accepted and welcomed usually evolve from thoughtful discussion.

In researching material for his book: “Don't Even Think About It - Why Our Brains Are Wired to Ignore Climate Change”, George Marshall found climate change was compartmentalized and frequently not discussed at all.

His book, published just this year, makes an important contribution to difficulties climate change activists face when talking about this world-changing dilemma.

In fact, as he points out even when the evidence of an event caused by climate change is all around them, many people don’t even make the connection between what has happened to them, their town, city or area and climate change.

Earlier this year the Harvard Book Store and Cambridge Energy Alliance welcomed climate change expert and founder of the Climate Outreach and Information Network, George Marshall, to talk about his book.