Hitchcock Climate Action Series
An adult engagement program at the intersection of climate change, sustainability, and environmental justice. Bringing partners and community members together to address critical community issues through a practical workshops, discussions, and deliberative forums.
This program series aims to help us come together as a community and region in the face of climate change. We will be asking the questions – How can we engage adults in building a sustainable and resilient future for the valley? How do we build community capacity for civic engagement, civil dialogue, and deliberation in Amherst and surrounding communities? How do we do this in a way that is socially just, culturally rich and ecologically restorative as our Living Building challenges us to do? We will be telling the stories of creative problem solving; exemplifying for adults the great work we do with children we do the work of developing hopeful creative problem solvers for now and the future.
Coming Together in the Face of Climate Change: Laying the Groundwork by Building Hope, Practicing Action, and Improving Communication
All programs are at a Sliding Scale or Suggested Donation
Check back more Winter Programs coming soon…….
Locally Grown Homes: A Path To Climate Justice and Housing Equity –
with Greg Bossie and Kelley Wagner of Rare Forms Design
Thursday, February 27, 7PM
What would it look like if everyone had access to sustainable, affordable housing? This talk explores the intersection of biogenic building materials (rapidly renewable materials like straw, cork, hemp, and bamboo), housing equity, and climate justice through the lens of Rare Forms’ journey into manufacturing straw bale insulated building panels. We explore the critical challenges of affordability, environmental impact, and health in today’s housing market, and how biogenic materials like straw offer sustainable, cost-effective solutions; support local agriculture; and provide high-quality, healthy homes. Rare Forms’ work centers housing equity and reduces the carbon footprint of the construction industry, creating access to sustainable, affordable housing. Suggested donation $10
Climate Cafe – check back for future dates
One of the biggest challenges of the climate crisis is knowing what to do with the complex set of emotions regarding the planetary emergency. Where is it safe to talk about the fear, outrage, and grief? The idea is that the more comfortable we become with these difficult feelings, the more able we are to cope with our situation. Climate Cafes offer a structured space for informal open, respectful discussion of emotional responses and reactions related to the climate.
The Climate Cafe is a facilitated, welcoming space for people concerned about the climate and ecological crises, and their impacts on the global, local, and individual levels. We call it a Cafe because we aim for an informal and open discussion (and participants are welcome to bring a beverage to enjoy during the meeting). This is not a lecture, nor is it a therapy group. Each participant will be welcome to speak or not to speak as they feel comfortable. The Climate Cafe fills an important and often unmet need: a safe space for people to speak about their emotions stemming from the climate and ecological crises (CEC). Many people have been deeply concerned for decades about the climate and ecological crises, and some are just beginning to feel concerned as we experience more direct impacts in our area and as the news of climate-related disasters continues to increase. Many fall somewhere in between. Everyone is welcome, no matter where they fall on that continuum.
Living Building Tours for Classes or Groups
The Hitchcock Center is the 23rd building in the world and the 4th in Massachusetts to achieve the Certified Living Building designation! The building is designed to model systems in nature- it is net zero energy and water, has composting toilets, and has been made with responsibly sourced non-toxic materials. Find out what makes our building a special teaching tool empowering visitors to ask, “what does sustainability look like in the built environment and in my community?” Using Zoom, we’ll explore the systems and features of the building. Bring your questions so we can learn together. Tours typically last from 1-1.5 hours and have a sliding scale fee of $100-$200. Please email dan@hitchcockcenter.org to schedule a tour.
The Bigger Why of our Climate Action Series
When we built our Living Building on our Welcome Wall
we invited you-
to join us in creating and imagining a world in which children think electricity comes from the sun and composting toilets are normal.
A world where every decision has been made with the safety and health of all life on earth in mind.
A world where everyone has access to safe fresh local food and water.
A world where what we create and do as humans adds to the web of life, restores it, is regenerative.
A world where diversity, competition, and cooperation among a community’s members, natural and human, is the source of the community’s resilience.
This is our next step in this process.
The Hitchcock Center is uniquely poised to use the living building and outdoor learning spaces as inspiration for what a sustainable and resilient future for the Valley could look like, and to use our expertise and rootedness in the community to facilitate conversation and change on a community level that is inclusive and equitable. We need leaders, citizens, and residents to have the knowledge, skills, and values to successfully engage together in building a greener, just, and more economically vibrant future. We need municipalities in our region to come together to create a sustainable and resilient vision for the future of the Connecticut River Valley, from Greenfield to Springfield.
“Use your voice to talk about why climate change matters to you, here and now. Use it to share what you are doing, what others are doing, what they can do. Use it to advocate for change at every level. Use it to vote and to inform decisions your school, your business, your city, and your country can make. Talk about it in every community that you are part of and whose values and interests you share.”
– Katherine Hayhoe (2021) Saving Us: A Climate Scientist’s Case for Hope and Healing in a Divided World
The Need for Public Discourse on Climate Change
We are all experiencing the impacts of climate change more each day, in our own communities and around the world. Recent data from the Yale Project on Climate Change Communication shows that 70% of Americans understand that climate change is real, human-caused, and happening now. Yet, only 35% discuss it even occasionally with family or friends, leading to a lack of public discourse and civic engagement to address one of the most critical issues of our time.
Informal science education centers such as the Hitchcock Center are ideally situated as boundary organizations in their communities who can bring together diverse partners, and hold unique authority and social position to promote solutions at a civic scale.
Increased public discourse is a critical precursor for action: “Americans who hear about global warming in the media or talk about it with their own family and friends are more likely to perceive global warming as a risk and support policies to reduce it,” (Ballew et al., 2019; Howe, et al., 2015). And, discussing climate change with family and friends is the only predictor of climate change’s absolute and relative importance as a voting issue (Campbell et al., 2021).
A major reason why these conversations are not happening is because many people don’t feel hopeful about our ability to address climate change, and don’t see how they can be part of the solution. That is why it is so important for us to help people to reconnect to and learn from nature’s efficient and sustainable systems, to develop a problem-solving mindset, and share a positive vision for the future.
More about Deliberative Forums
Deliberative forums…
- Tackle issues that are not easily solved
- Face up to issues where people disagree
- Look at difficult issues with an open mind
- Listen carefully to different perspectives
- Weigh the benefits and trade-offs of different courses of action
- Think about what matters most to them—what they really value when they can’t have everything
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