Transition Culture has moved
I no longer blog on this site. You can now find me, my general blogs, and the work I am doing researching my forthcoming book on imagination, on my new blog.
Come find me at robhopkins.net
Showing results 11 - 15 of 23 for the month of November, 2006.
The winners of our recent competition to win signed copies of Richard Heinberg’s new book The Oil Depletion Protocol are **Steve Wheeler**, **Graham Strouts** and **John McCormack**. The correct answer was that Richard Heinberg plays the violin, see right for photographic evidence. Many thanks to all who entered, and to Clairview Books.
**’An Inconvenient Truth’**, as you’ll all be aware, is Al Gore’s film about climate change. In essence it is a record of the lecture he has given to audiences all over the world, intercut with asides and reflections on Gore’s life and experiences. Climate change is often an area where one can feel out of one’s depth in graphs, charts and statistics, but what is so powerful about this film is that it makes the whole subject comprehensible to the lay person. Such a thing could be dry and dull, yet it is completely engrossing. It is well edited and paced, I have to say I was on the edge of my seat. As a film designed to shock the world into action, it is very powerful and, hopefully, effective.
Before the Earthwalk I give everybody a leaf, which I have chosen for their beautiful patterning. Tell them they are their tickets for the Earthwalk. When you arrive at the entrance to the woods you can pretend to check them, like tickets, as if they were going to the cinema. Tell them to hold onto their leaves as they will need them. To do this exercise you will need to have made your ‘slides’, made from cardboard, about 5″ square and hinged so you can open them to put your leaves in the middle. I then number them, and make sure I have one for each person, numbered from 1 to that number. I also write Kodak on them, to make them look a bit more like real slides!
Here is another exercise from Earth Education that is as effective with adults as with children. Simply make some small artists pallette-shaped pieces of card about 3″ by 2″, and put double sided sticky tape on them. When you are out with your group in a (preferably broadleaved) woodland, make the observation to the group that although as you look around you in the wood here it all looks to be just two colours, green and brown, if you look closely you will be able to find all the colours an artist would need. Invite them to just take ‘dabs’, tiny pieces, of leaves, bark, moss, fungi, clay, whatever, to try and build a full spectrum of colours. It can take 20 – 30 minutes to do this, and people are completely engrossed.
An Earthwalk is a wonderful exercise for getting people out into Nature and seeing it in a completely different way. Originally developed for using with children ages 10-13, I use it with adults, and have seen the power of its affect on all ages. I once taught a course in Ireland, and one man who was in the Gardai, sad afterwards he was completely blown away by it. He subsequently left the Gardai and opened a shop selling green paints and so on… . Over the next few days I’ll tell you my 5 favourite Earthwalk activities.
