How do you talk to kids about #climatechange? How do you convince the general public to take #climateactions?
I took this interesting opportunity to up my #climatechangecommunication mission last weekend in Eco Tropics at Johor Bahru! When Vanessa Chan reached out to me and explained that as an event organizer, she wishes to introduce more sustainability awareness into the events she helps to organize, I thought this was an amazing idea and a great idea for Time To Rice to reach out to wider audiences!
Now the question is how do I talk about climate change for 45 minutes, without a screen to display slides, and the bigger challenge is that, who would stand still for 45 minutes listening to me? The usual way of presentation is probably not going to work this time, so I thought about #storytelling.
I talk about the story of Nasi Lemak and the Climate Crisis.
As we know, food is the key to a Malaysian’s heart. Malaysians could not understand the implications of the rising average temperature, but would most probably be intrigued to know that the future of our national dish, Nasi Lemak is at stake because of the possible reduction in rice production, fish stock, and egg production due to heavy precipitation, flood, temperature rise, ocean warming, and heat stress in chickens.
Aside from the #foodsecurity aspect, I also pulled out my picture book collection "The Car That Wanted to be a Bike" by urban planner Lior Steinberg, to highlight how we can move toward a more sustainable planet, from #urbanplanning and #urbanmobility perspective. The story was well-received by the crowd, especially kids. It put a smile on me seeing that both parents and children are actively engaging in answering questions and that fancy cars are no longer the childhood heroes for the little boys!
I end the sharing session with a quote that has inspired me to start working on this: "We don't inherit the Earth from our ancestors, We borrow it from our children". May the story of Nasi Lemak and the car that wanted to be a bike inspire more content creators, and science communicators to continue working on creative ways to make sustainability knowledge more contextualized, accessible, and transferrable! Thank you again, #EcoWorld#EcoTropics & #Lesgo for having me!
Comments