The Climate Cafe team is a small but passionate group of environmentally minded students who care about the rivers of the Great Marsh. As your future leaders, they need to make sure that there will be clean, plentiful water for communities and wildlife now and in the future. That future depends on all of us, so collaboration and cooperation are necessary to make change happen. That is why Climate Cafes operate on the basis of exploratory conversation and the concept that, as Climate Cafe student Sophie puts it, “starting a conversation simply by asking someone’s thoughts on the matter.”
In engaging the community through discussions, the Climate Cafe students have discovered the importance of emotional appeals and personal anecdotes in getting people to care about environmental issues. Recently, the Climate Cafe students partnered with Ipswich River to engage the community on river connectivity and possible removal of the Ipswich Mills Dam, and the community’s strong feelings for the river were apparent.
“In my group we really focused on the emotional connection the citizens of Ipswich have with the river and with the dam,” says Climate Cafe student Mei. “We talked about how all the town events near the river are a great way to initiate conversation as well as help engage people in the topic. We also talked about the importance of education and how we needed to start educating the younger generations early on so that they understand why the Ipswich dam needs to be removed.”
If you are interested in participating in a Climate Cafe, join the students on November 17th, 12 noon at the UU Lower Church in Newburyport, 26 Pleasant Street.