Youth workshop on "Sustainability"

Here is a constellation of methods we implemented in a workshop with youth on "Sustainability":

INTRODUCING SUSTAINABLE TOPICS

The project group gets introduced to the different definitions and the meaning of sustainability. After a presentation about the definition of sustainability, the group will get to know challenges of sustainability and understand why it is so important to strive for sustainability.

WHAT IS SUSTAINABILITY?

Among many ways that sustainability has been defined, the simplest and most fundamental is: “the ability to sustain” or, in another way, “the capacity to endure.”^{^[1]}

More than that, sustainability implies responsible and proactive decision-making and innovation that minimizes negative impact and maintains balance between ecological resilience, economic prosperity, political justice and cultural vibrancy to ensure a desirable planet for all species now and in the future.^{^[2]} It means, to be a sustainable has not just limited environmental aspect, it has also social and economic aspects. The term can be split into three domains:

1. Environmental sustainability is the ability to maintain rates of renewable resource harvest, pollution creation, and non-renewable resource depletion that can be continued indefinitely.

2.Economic sustainability is the ability to support a defined level of economic production indefinitely.

3.Social sustainability is the ability of a social system, such as a country, to function at a defined level of social well-being indefinitely.^{^[3]}

METHODS USED TO GET INTO THE TOPIC

1. “Positioning”

Objectives: 1. To stimulate the group

2. To get to know each other

3. To get into the topic

Material: 1 Tape or string to indicate a line from “yes” to “no”

Duration: 20 minutes

It’s the first day of the meeting. The participants are excited to get to know more about each other. To get also started with the project topic, the group is asked to position themselves in the room according to their opinion:

The room gives space and people can move comfortably. The facilitator asks at least 4 questions that allow answers with “Yes / No “. There is a line that points from “yes” to “no” reaching through the room. Voluntary participants are asked to explain why they positioned themselves like that. Whilst listening to the person speaking, the other participants do not need to stay where they are, they can move if they change their opinion in the meantime.

Questions:

- Do you think youth can drive a change?

- Do you agree with the statement: “politics has the power of all.”?

- Do you think that you do too little for climate action?

- Do you think that climate should be protected better in the future?

- Do you think that humanity is already doing as much as it can to save the planet
and environment?

4. Symbols of sustainability

Objectives: 1. To get to know each other
2. To get into the topic

Material: Each one is asked to bring an item from home
Duration: 20 minutes

Before the youth exchange, the participants are asked to bring an item that represents or stands for sustainability in their view. On the first or second day of the meeting, you come together outside in green space to present the items in 1 to 2 minutes. Here are a few examples that were presented:

5. Brainstorming “sustainability”

Objectives: 1. To get into the topic
2. Defining “Sustainability”
3. Understanding the complexity and the differences of the term

Material: Computer, projector, internet
Duration: 20 minutes

Everyone contributes to define the term “sustainability” by naming a few words that represent the word. The names will be collected and listed in “wordle”, an online platform, that creates word clouds: http://www.wordle.net/

WHY SUSTAINABILITY MATTERS^{^[4]}

The group gets introduced into the many reasons why we should live for a sustainable world:

Reserves of natural resources decrease to a critical degree. Some researchers say that the existence of resources will remain for only a few more years: 114 years for coal, 53 years for natural gas, 51 years for oil. Moreover, our planet is facing many more terrifying realities. ^{^[5]}

[6]

1. Temperatures are breaking records around the world

The 21st century has seen the most temperature records broken in recorded history. 2016 was the hottest year on record since 1880, according to Nasa and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), with average temperatures measuring 1.78 degrees Fahrenheit (0.99 degrees Celsius) warmer than the mid-20th century mean. This makes 2016 the third year in a row to set a new record for global average surface temperatures.

2. There is no scientific debate about the reality of climate change

Multiple studies show that a massive 97 per cent of researchers believe global warming is happening and that they agree that trends observed over the last past century are probably due to human activity. But climate change is considered only the third most serious issue facing the world by the world's population, behind international terrorism and poverty, hunger and the lack of drinking water, according to YouGov research.^{^[7]}

3. Arctic sea ice and glaciers are melting

Arctic sea ice coverage has shrunk every decade since 1979 by 3.5 to 4.1 per cent. Glaciers have also been in retreat, including in major mountain ranges like the Alps, Himalayas and Rockies. In 2017, Arctic sea ice reached a record low for the third straight running, according to scientists from the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) and Nasa.^{^[8]}

4. Sea levels are rising at their fastest rate in 2,000 years

[9]Rising sea levels is caused primarily by the added water from melting ice sheets and glaciers, as well as the expansion of sea water as it warms. Levels are currently rising at their fastest rate for more than 2,000 years and the current rate of change is 3.4mm a year. In July, a massive crack in the Larson C ice shelf finally gave way sending a 5,800 square km section of ice into the ocean. The newly formed iceberg is nearly four times the size of London.^{^[10]}

5. Climate change will lead to a refugee crisis

Displacement of people as a direct result is not a hypothetical, it's already happening. An average of 21.5 million people have been forcibly displaced since 2008 due to climate changed-related weather hazards, according to the United Nations High Commissioner For Refugees. The organization says that climate change also acts as a 'threat multiplier' in areas of ongoing conflict. "Climate change sows seeds for conflict, but it also makes displacement much worse when it happens," it says.^{^[11]}

6. We consume all of Earth's 2017 resources by August

Earth Overshoot Day is an annual event when humanity's consumption outstrips Earth's production of resources. [12] This annual event is getting earlier and earlier in the year. In 2000 it landed in October. In 2015, it was August 13. This year, it landed on August 2.

7. Two-thirds of the Great Barrier Reef has been damaged as a result of climate change

In April 2017, it was revealed that two-thirds of Australia's Great Barrier Reef has been severely damaged by coral bleaching. This occurs when algae living within the coral tissue are expelled, usually as a result of water temperatures being too high. As a result, the coral loses its vibrant appearance, turns white and becomes weaker. Scientists say it will be hard for the damaged coral to recover.

8. The ocean is 26 percent more acidic than before the Industrial Revolution

The pH of ocean surface water has decreased by 0.1, which makes them 26 percent more acidic now than at the beginning of the Industrial Revolution. The waters are more acidic now that at any other point in the last 300,000 years.^{^[13]}

9. Global flooding could triple by 2030

The number of people exposed to flooding each year is at risk of tripling from 21 million to 54 million by 2030, according to a study from the World Resources Institute. This would result in the economic costs of flooding increasing from £65 billion to around £340 billion.^{^[14]}

10. More greenhouse gases are in our atmosphere than any time in human history

he concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere reached the milestone of 400 parts per million for the first time in 2015 and surged again to new records in 2016, according to the World Meteorological Organization's annual Greenhouse Gas Bulletin.^{^[15]}

11. Earth could warm by six degrees this century

The Earth's temperature will continue to rise so long as we continue to produce greenhouse gases. The estimates for how much temperatures will increase by 2100 range from two degrees Celsius to as much as six degrees Celsius.[16]

^{^[1]}http://sustainability.com/sustainability (Accessed on November 14th 2017)

^{^[2]}https://www.academia.edu/4362669/Reframing_Social_Sustainability_Reporting_Towards_an_Engaged_Approach(Accessed on November 14th 2017)

^{^[3]}http://www.thwink.org/sustain/glossary/Sustainability.htm (Accessed on November 14th 2017)

^{^[4]}http://www.wired.co.uk/article/climate-change-facts by Libby Plummer and Cara McGoogan (Accessed on November 14th 2017)

^{^[5]}http://www.enerji.gov.tr/Resources/Sites/1/Pages/Sayi_15/mobile/index.html#p=12 (Accessed on November 14th 2017)

[6] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=58_wb51-yl4 (Accessed on November 8^th 2017)

^{^[7]}https://yougov.co.uk/news/2016/01/29/global-issues/ (Accessed on November 14th 2017)

^{^[8]}http://nsidc.org/news/newsroom/arctic-sea-ice-maximum-record-low-third-straight-year (Accessed on November 14th 2017)

[9] http://www.neontommy.com/news/2012/11/sea-level-rising-faster-un-forecast (Accessed on November 8th 2017)

^{^[10]}http://www.nj.com/weather/index.ssf/2016/02/sea_levels_rising_faster_around_world_ru_researche.html (Accessed on November 14th 2017)

^{^[11]}http://www.unhcr.org/uk/news/latest/2016/11/581f52dc4/frequently-asked-questions-climate-change-disaster-displacement.html (Accessed on November14th 2017)

[12] https://www.footprintnetwork.org/2013/08/24/earth-overshoot-day-2013-around-world/ (Accessed on November 8^th 2017)