Gabriola Sounder, 20 Sep. 2023 — The Climate 12-12-12 project held its final event at Agi Hall on August 24th. The event was a wrap of the previous year, where we focused on a specific climate change topic each month. The project brought us together and directed the community’s collective wisdom and experience to address 12 wicked problems of climate change.
At the August meeting, we looked at all the ideas that were generated and came up with solutions that we can affect ourselves, right here on Gabriola.
Large paper sheets posted around the room listed issues and ideas in each Action Area. Participants were invited to stick dots beside their highest priority actions. People then picked a table of interest and discussed which actions were most important, which were low-hanging fruit, and how to start getting concrete results.
The August wrap event was the launch of the Climate-12 Action phase of the project, which moves from talk and ideas to making things happen.
Six Action Teams have begun working on Agriculture & Food Security, Buildings & Energy, Economic Change, Health & Well-Being, Transportation, and Water. Teams yet to form will address the areas of Biodiversity, and Consumerism & Waste, and two general teams will focus on Arts & Culture, and Indigenous Ways of Knowing. Anyone in the community who is interested may join an Action Team and start to tackle one or more of the priorities selected by the Team.
A steering committee will help the Teams, by holding regular meetings to identify overlaps and provide overall support in areas like fundraising and advocacy.
The Climate-12 project launched a year ago as a Sustainable Gabriola initiative, and has since attracted wide interest in the area, with several Gulf Islands and Regional Districts looking to create similar programs, and the nationwide CBC radio show “What On Earth” interviewing organizer Fay Weller. The project’s mandate is culture change — to counteract cynicism and despair about climate change, a topic now on everyone’s radar – by creating effective local action to mitigate and adapt to its effects.
To express interest or join an Action Team, come to one of our events or email Climate12Action@gmail.com.