CIRCLE OF TREES
A Multigenerational Tapestry of Faith Program
WORKSHOP 5: TREES: FROM PERIL TO PROGRESS
BY JULIE SIMON, KATIE TWEEDIE COVEY, AND PAT KAHN; DEVELOPMENTAL EDITOR, JUDITH A. FREDIANI
© Copyright 2013 Unitarian Universalist Association.
Published to the Web on 9/30/2014 12:36:56 AM PST.
This program and additional resources are available on the UUA.org web site at
www.uua.org/religiouseducation/curricula/tapestryfaith.
WORKSHOP OVERVIEW
INTRODUCTION
I think that I shall never see
A billboard lovely as a tree.
Perhaps, unless the billboards fall,
I'll never see a tree at all. — Ogden Nash, American poet, "Song of the Open Road" (1933)
This workshop briefly addresses the peril of global climate change with a focus on the progress that can be made when each of us takes action. Participants view a visual essay by Canadian activist Franke James and create one of their own.
GOALS
This workshop will:
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
Participants will:
WORKSHOP-AT-A-GLANCE
Activity | Minutes |
Welcoming and Entering | |
Opening | 5 |
Activity 1: Rise Up for Trees / Team Up for Trees | 5 |
Activity 2: Guided Imagery — Among the Trees | 5 |
Activity 3: Story — Visual Essay | 15 |
Activity 4: What Can One Person Do? | 25 |
Faith in Action: Choosing a Project | 60 |
Closing | 5 |
Alternate Activity 1: Song — What Can We Do | 10 |
Alternate Activity 2: Hummingbird Video | 10 |
SPIRITUAL PREPARATION
Find a place where you can be quiet with your thoughts. Close your eyes and breathe deeply for several minutes, perhaps repeating a word or phrase to separate yourself from the activities of the day. When you feel settled and relaxed, ask yourself:
WORKSHOP PLAN
WELCOMING AND ENTERING
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
As participants arrive, direct returning participants to retrieve their name tags from the basket, and invite newcomers to choose and write their first name on a name tag.
OPENING (5 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
Gather participants in a circle around the chalice. Select someone to light the chalice. Say, in these words or your own:
Whenever we light a chalice, we are connected with Unitarian Universalists around the world who share this ritual of our faith. Our chalice lighting words are adapted from words by an anonymous writer which are sometimes attributed to Chief Seattle, a chief of the Duwamish tribe in the 19th century in the area we know today as the state of Washington. These words speak of our connection with nature and all life.
Invite the group to join you in saying the chalice lighting words you have posted:
We light this chalice for the air that is precious . . .
for all things share the same breath—
the beast, the tree, the person,
we all share the same breath.
Go around the circle and have everyone introduce themselves. Point out the covenant the group created in the last workshop and ask if anything needs to be added. Point out the group covenant and ask if anything needs to be added. Introduce the topic of today's workshop—Trees: From Peril to Progress—with these words or your own:
So far in Circle of Trees, we've talked about the many benefits of trees and we've expressed our gratitude. Now it is time to think about taking action to support and protect trees. Despite the "gloom and doom" message we see and hear in the news, there are things that each of us can do—and if every person who cares about trees does them, they add up!
Including All Participants
If there are participants with limited hearing, consider using a hand-held microphone to help with volume. If participants are sitting on the floor, make sure that there are also chairs for those who do not wish to or cannot sit on the floor.
ACTIVITY 1: RISE UP FOR TREES / TEAM UP FOR TREES (5 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
Once you've introduced both versions of this ice-breaker, you may do the same one each time or alternate between the two; ask the group for their preference.
Including All Participants
If a participant needs to remain seated, encourage them to do the poses from a seated position.
ACTIVITY 2: GUIDED IMAGERY — AMONG THE TREES (5 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
Invite participants to make themselves comfortable and prepare to listen to a guided meditation. Read aloud from Workshop 1, Leader Resource 1.
Encourage responses to the meditation with questions such as these:
Including All Participants
If any participants have limited hearing, consider using a hand-held microphone.
ACTIVITY 3: STORY — VISUAL ESSAY (15 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
The story for this workshop is a visual essay by Canadian artist and environmental activist Franke (pronounced Frankie) James. Introduce the story with these words or your own:
Today, instead of hearing a story, we're going to "see" one—a visual essay by Canadian Franke James. In her work, she merges science, art, and storytelling to inspire people to take action for the planet. She is an author, artist, and game designer focused on the environment, ethics, and social justice. Bill McKibben, founder of 350.org, says, "Franke James is among the tiny handful of really powerful and profound artists who have taken on climate change—the most important topic on the planet, but one so big and all-encompassing that it often defies artistic interpretation. Her work is incredibly important for many of us around the world."
Explain how the essay is to be viewed. Remind the group how much time they have to view the entire essay.
If time allows, invite participants to share their reactions to the visual essay.
Including All Participants
Display the visual essay so that the viewing experience is physically accessible to all, including anyone with mobility limitations. Partner a visually impaired person with someone who can guide them through the visual essay and describe its components aloud. Project or hang the visual essay at a level accessible to all participants; it is far easier for taller people to gaze down than it is for shorter people to look up.
ACTIVITY 4: WHAT CAN ONE PERSON DO (25 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
Help participants form three or four small groups, each including a mix of ages.
Introduce a brainstorming activity in these words or your own:
Think about everything we've learned about trees, the healing they can bring to our planet, and what we just viewed in the visual essay. Each group will do a short brainstorm of things that "one person can do" to protect trees and address climate change in three or four different areas: at home, in our congregation, at work or school, and in our town or city. After about five to seven minutes, we'll reconvene and share our ideas.
Assign a work area to each group. Give each group a marker and a sheet of newsprint and ask them to record the ideas they brainstorm on the newsprint. If you wish, distribute Handout 1. Have groups conduct their brainstorms.
Give the groups a one-minute warning.
Invite each group to share the ideas they came up with. Post each group's newsprint where everyone can see it.
Say, in these words or your own:
With the time we have left, we will start working on some advocacy plans to share our ideas. For example, you can work with partners to create a visual essay, or to start a letter-writing campaign. How about starting a petition to encourage others to join in our efforts to protect trees and address climate change?
Indicate the tables and materials available and guide participants to choose a project and people to work with; as always, encourage multigenerational groups to work together.
Once participants have completed visual essays (which may need to continue outside of the workshop time allotted), they may wish to display and share them. Ask for volunteers to work on a plan; for example, the essays could be posted somewhere in the congregation, shared in the newsletter, or turned into a PowerPoint slideshow to project at a congregational event or to share on the website.
Including All Participants
Encourage each group to make room for contributions from people of all ages and ability levels.
CLOSING (5 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
Gather the group in a circle around the chalice. If needed, relight the chalice.
Distribute Taking It Home. Explain that Taking It Home includes a summary of what they did in the workshop, resources for further exploration, and fun "homework." Tell participants that their homework is to begin implementing the climate change action plan right away and to keep a journal of things they have done.
Invite participants to reflect for a moment on today's workshop. Ask each participant to share one word that describes how they feel. Go around the circle with this "one-word checkout."
Invite participants to join hands and say the closing words together:
Let us go out in joy, and be led back in peace;
the mountains and the hills before us shall burst into song,
and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands.
Extinguish the chalice together. As they go, ask participants to leave their name tags in the basket you've provided for this purpose.
FAITH IN ACTION: CHOOSING A PROJECT (60 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
Repeat the steps detailed in Workshop 1 to choose another project. If desired, use the project that got the second-most votes in Workshop 1.
Including All Participants
Throughout the project, be sure to make room for contributions from people of all ages and ability levels.
LEADER REFLECTION AND PLANNING
Meet with your co-leader after the workshop to reflect on the following:
Look ahead to the next workshop and assign leadership responsibilities.
TAKING IT HOME
I think that I shall never see
A billboard lovely as a tree.
Perhaps, unless the billboards fall,
I'll never see a tree at all. — Ogden Nash, American poet, "Song of the Open Road" (1933)
IN TODAY'S WORKSHOP ... we viewed a visual essay by Franke James called "What Can One Person Do?" We brainstormed ways that we can address climate change at home, in our congregation, at work or school, and in the wider community and came up with a plan for sharing our ideas.
HOMEWORK: Begin implementing the action plan right away. Keep a journal of actions you have taken.
MAKE TIME FOR TREES: There are several ways to take today's workshop home, for example:
EXTEND THE TOPIC: Explore some of the many wonderful books about trees found in Workshop 1, Handout 2, Selected Bibliography.
ALTERNATE ACTIVITY 1: SONG — WHAT CAN WE DO (10 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
Participants learn the song "What Can We Do" by UU musician and songwriter Joyce Poley.
Distribute Handout 2. Teach the song by singing one phrase at a time and having participants sing the phrase back to you. Then put it all together and sing the whole song. The song can also be sung as a round.
ALTERNATE ACTIVITY 2: HUMMINGBIRD VIDEO (10 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
Show the video, in which Green Belt movement founder and Nobel Peace Prize recipient Wangari Maathai tells a story about a hummingbird and encourages viewers to do what we can to help the earth.
CIRCLE OF TREES: WORKSHOP 5:
STORY: VISUAL ESSAY
"What Can One Person Do When 6.8 Billion Are Frying the Planet?" by Franke James. Posted December 28, 2010 on the YES! Magazine website. YES! Magazine encourages you to make free use of this article. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.
Download a high-resolution PDF (at www.uua.org/documents/jamesfranke/what_can_one_person_do.pdf) for printing.
CIRCLE OF TREES: WORKSHOP 5:
HANDOUT 1: CLIMATE CHANGE ACTION PLAN
Developing an Action Plan, from the United States Environmental Protection Agency's website.
What Is a Climate Change Action Plan?
A local climate change action plan lays out specific policy proposals or planning processes, including institutional and policy structures, that a local government will use to develop and implement a climate change mitigation strategy. A climate action plan typically addresses the following:
Why Create an Action Plan?
Although climate change is a global issue, many critical actions to address greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions can be initiated locally. Local governments can alter GHG emission patterns significantly through their influence and authority over several climate related topics (at www.epa.gov/statelocalclimate/local/topics/index.html) such as municipal utilities, land use and urban forestry, building codes, waste management, transportation, financing, environmental programs, and other relevant policy areas. Additionally, local government actions directly impact and benefit the lives of citizens.
In addition, many climate change mitigation measures generate broader non-climate related benefits. For example, energy efficiency programs lower costs while reducing GHG emissions. Increasing carpools and public transportation reduces pollution and traffic congestion in addition to reducing GHG emissions. Reforestation and urban tree programs not only sequester carbon, but also can reduce the amount of energy used for cooling and provide aesthetic improvement.
Developing a Climate Change Action Plan
Collaborate with Stakeholders
Collaboration across local agencies, as well as with the public, businesses, and industry, ensures that the strategy reflects a cross-section of perspectives that support it. EPA provides information to assist local groups in translating inventory results into actions (at www.epa.gov/statelocalclimate/local/activities/ghg-inventory.html#five).
Understand the Scope of GHG Emissions and Identify Opportunities for Reductions
Understanding the scope of GHG emissions is key to identifying trends, sources of increase, and sectors to target. EPA provides methods and tools to assist local groups in developing a GHG inventory.
Understand Vulnerabilities to Climate Change
Local governments can consider impacts and adaptation in existing planning and approval processes, especially large infrastructural projects that would be costly to adapt later. For information about potential impacts of climate change, visit the U.S. Global Change Research Program website.
Set Goals
Quantitative goals provide structure and facilitate the evaluation of progress. Goals should include a specific timeframe and can be stated in terms of emissions reductions, energy savings, or cost savings. Goals can be sector-specific or more general.
Establish Criteria for Evaluating Mitigation Options
Examples of evaluation criteria include the following:
Identify Options
Local governments can consider options that affect the entire community or key sectors, depending on the GHG inventory, goals, and priorities. EPA provides methods and tools to assist local governments in identifying policy options.
Evaluate and Select Options
In evaluating policy options, local governments should determine each option's quantitative impact on GHGs, the economy, energy supply, air pollution, etc., based on local goals and priorities. This allows governments to rank policy options and facilitates comparison.
Establish an Administrative Process for Implementation, Evaluation, and Measurement
Local governments should identify mechanisms—including funding mechanisms—and actors for implementing individual options within strategy, and establish progress reporting mechanisms and time frames.
How to Implement an Action Plan
Design and Implement Policies
After determining the actions, local governments begin to design specific policies and to establish implementation pathways. EPA provides guidance for local governments on designing and implementing programs.
Measure and Evaluate
It is important for local governments to evaluate progress toward their goals in order to adjust their strategy and action plan accordingly. EPA provides methods and tools to assist local governments in determining the results of their climate and energy programs and policies.
Communicate
Citizens and stakeholders have important roles in helping to mitigate GHGs. Communicating the benefits of programs to mitigate climate change can help gain continued support for policies and programs affecting the community. EPA provides information for local governments on engaging stakeholders.
CIRCLE OF TREES: WORKSHOP 5:
HANDOUT 2: SONG — WHAT CAN WE DO
"What Can We Do" by Joyce Poley from the Let Your Heart Sing CD and songbook, available from Uni-Uniques. Used with permission.
Download a high-resolution PDF (at www.uua.org/documents/tapestry/trees/song_what_can_we_do.pdf) for printing.
Part 1:
What can we do to make the world a better place?
What can we do to make it better?
What can we do? Oh what can we do?
What can we do to make it better?
Part 2:
Clean up our own mess, clean up our own mess.
Recycle the good stuff, dispose of the bad stuff
Clean up our own mess.
Part 3:
Love your sister,
Love your brother,
Love one another,
That's what we all can do.
FIND OUT MORE
View more visual essays at Franke James's website (at www.frankejames.com/).
Visit 350.org (at 350.org/), a global movement to solve the climate crisis.
Unitarian Universalist environmental resources include the UU Ministry for Earth (at uuministryforearth.org/) and the UUA Green Sanctuary Program (at www.uua.org/environment/sanctuary/index.shtml).