{"id":34554,"date":"2020-04-03T03:48:55","date_gmt":"2020-04-03T10:48:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/?p=34554"},"modified":"2020-04-01T16:12:49","modified_gmt":"2020-04-01T23:12:49","slug":"motivating-people-to-change","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/2020\/04\/03\/motivating-people-to-change\/","title":{"rendered":"Motivating people to change"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tzeporah Berman is international program director for Stand.Earth. (photo from Tzeporah Berman)<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

There is no silver bullet when it comes to responding to the climate crisis, according to Tzeporah Berman. The 25-year veteran of environmental activism and international program director for Stand.Earth said it needs a multi-pronged approach.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of people like to say it\u2019s negotiations or policy work or protests, but, in my experience, the most effective campaigns that have made change have been the ones where there has been a diversity of tactics and approaches,\u201d Berman told the Independent<\/em>. \u201cThe most effective initiatives are the ones that are not just about educating, but are about motivating people to take action on an issue\u2026. What we need to try and do is motivate people to make change.\u201d<\/p>\n

Berman was among those who started Stand.Earth (formerly ForestEthics) about 20 years ago. According to the website, the group \u201cdesigns and implements strategies that make protecting our planet everyone\u2019s business. Our current campaigns focus on shifting corporate behaviour, breaking the human addiction to fossil fuels and developing the leadership required to catalyze long-term change.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the 1990s, Berman was an organizer of the Clayoquot Sound logging protests that contributed to agreements to prevent clearcutting. More than two decades later, as construction of the then-Kinder Morgan-owned Trans Mountain pipeline expansion ramped up, Berman participated in the sit-ins on Burnaby Mountain.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe War in the Woods \u2026 it was this tipping point moment on the issues and Canadian history, where people were engaged from all walks of life,\u201d she said. \u201cWhether or not the rainforest should be clearcut was a conversation around everyone\u2019s kitchen table. I think that\u2019s true today of climate change and pipelines, that it\u2019s one of these rare moments in history where it is a populist issue, where everyone is engaged in the conversation, and I think that\u2019s why you see, in both circumstances, such a diversity of people showing up.\u201d<\/p>\n

Last year, the concern reached a fever pitch in Canada and elsewhere, with unprecedented numbers of people marching in the streets calling for climate action. Asked what Berman thought of elected officials such as Prime Minister Justin Trudeau or NDP leader Jagmeet Singh participating in marches like last September\u2019s global climate strike \u2013 that, at their heart, target leaders such as them to address climate change through policy decisions \u2013 she said she believes they show up with good intentions.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re living in this strange moment where our elected officials are starting to understand the urgency and importance of climate change, but that is not yet translating into their policy proposals,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s like there\u2019s a time lag and they\u2019re saying the right words about urgency and joining marches, but their policies represent the best thinking on what climate policy should be from 10 years ago. I don\u2019t think they\u2019re being disingenuous when they join a protest \u2026 but one of the big problems that we have is that so many people believe that they\u2019re doing enough and other people need to do more. We like to celebrate how progressive we are, but we have a very mixed record. Canada is among the worst in terms of G7 countries with our climate plan.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite estimates of more than one million people in Canada marching in climate strikes last year, Berman said the environmental movement is sorely outnumbered resource-wise in comparison to the oil and gas industry lobby. In a tweet sent at the beginning of this year, Berman spelled out 10 tips for successful activism.<\/p>\n

\u201cDo stuff that makes the world respond. Don\u2019t just respond to the world,\u201d she wrote. She expanded, telling the Independent<\/em> that advocates need to be sure they are the ones setting the agenda, not governments and corporations. \u201cCampaigners and campaigns are not proactive enough, we just respond to what decision-makers are doing. Instead of doing that, what if, months before, you looked at what you think needs to happen in order to protect the climate, our water, the air, produced a report with recommendations for policy, and then held a press conference and a public information night. Then you\u2019re putting a proposal out there of what you think needs to happen in the world.\u201d<\/p>\n

Last November, Berman presented to 400 people at Temple Sholom, giving an overview of the scientific evidence of climate change and the role of nations and individuals moving forward. She spoke of the loss of the \u201cculture of engagement.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cToday, we have a weak civil society engagement muscle and an overextended hyper-consumer muscle,\u201d she said during the presentation.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe got lazy,\u201d she explained to the Independent<\/em>. \u201cWe live in a democracy, we assume it\u2019s functioning, and leave it up to the politicians\u2026. I\u2019m not exactly sure how it happened, but I think it\u2019s a culture that was eroding over the last generation. Growing up, it was expected in our community that you volunteer \u2013 for your synagogue, for your church. We don\u2019t really have that culture now and the result is we\u2019re not engaging in our communities as much as I think we used to. I notice now that we\u2019re starting to see it more as a result of the more active student movements, but I think that\u2019s because they\u2019re scared.\u201d<\/p>\n

The role of community groups such as religious institutions should not be underestimated, she added. \u201cPeople are going to be more willing to engage in the issues if they feel safe, if they feel a sense of common purpose, if they trust the people they\u2019re organizing with. It\u2019s one thing to hear scientists, or read an article. It\u2019s a very different thing to sit down with people in your community \u2026 and organize. A lot of people right now are searching for what they can do. [Institutions] should be providing leadership and structure.\u201d<\/p>\n

Berman continues to be a leader in her own right. Late last year, she was awarded $2 million US from the Climate Breakthrough Project to fund her efforts to limit new oil and gas development globally to align with the United Nations Paris Agreement goals of a safe climate. The project will be housed within Stand.Earth<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Shelley Stein-Wotten<\/strong> is a freelance journalist and comedy writer. She has won awards for her creative non-fiction and screenwriting and enjoys writing about the arts and environmental issues. She is based on Vancouver Island.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Tzeporah Berman is international program director for Stand.Earth. (photo from Tzeporah Berman) There is no silver bullet when it comes to responding to the climate crisis, according to Tzeporah Berman. The 25-year veteran of environmental activism and international program director for Stand.Earth said it needs a multi-pronged approach. \u201cA lot of people like to say […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":34555,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[6299,8684,2845,696,9804,9803],"class_list":["post-34554","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local","tag-activism","tag-climate-crisis","tag-environment","tag-forestethics","tag-stand-earth","tag-tzeporah-berman"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":8}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34554","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34554"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34554\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34555"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34554"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34554"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34554"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}