TakingITGlobal

3. 2 W ha t Helped: Real Rela tionships, Emo tional Tr us t , L ocal E cosys tems, and Jus tice. Ojala (2016), Norgaard (2011), and Brown (2016) all point out another excellent reason not to rely on individual solutions: individualism can result in despair. Many people cope with the anxiety and fear caused by climate change by implementing individual solutions, but this provides only temporary relief, often followed by disillusionment and increased feelings of helplessness as they recognize that lifestyle changes alone won't be adequate to address the urgency of the dilemma. Thus, our findings suggest that one of the greatest benefits of this IPCC project, and other similarly-designed educational experiences, is in forming relationships, learning and acting on climate change with other passionate people, and working together to navigate the complex emotions and thoughts posed by climate change. Further, the sharing of unique, individual stories in a group generated shared emotional responses to those experiences, facilitated bonding, provided a way for the youth team to maintain engagement, and created the opportunity to respond to climate change collectively. Kretz (2017) confirms the importance of these processes: "Resistance [to despair] comes through emotional solidarity - building communities of support with those who honestly and emotionally engage with the violent assault of Mother Earth, and validate the legitimate sadness to which this loss should give rise… We can demand political recognition and resolution of the injustice implicit in the destruction of life on Earth, and can strengthen the capacity for change through communities of support" (282). A connection to home also mattered. The majority of these students conceptualized climate change at the level of local impacts. In the common climate change narrative, which focuses primarily on fossil fuels as the sole culprit, local ecological destruction is not usually recognized as 'climate change'. However, the student's knowledge actually highlights the importance of centring the relevance of local forests, wetlands, and waterways in climate change education—as local environments whose health and destruction are 1) intimately related to the stability of the global climate (Biodiversity for a Livable Climate, 2017) 2) more immediate, personally relevant, and emotionally engaging than abstractions of climate change, and 3) locations where youth and educators may feel more capable of acting to protect life than is possible in global climate agreements and conferences. | 67 Y O U T H A N D C L I M A T E C H A N G E 2 0 1 8 E D I T I O N

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