Media Credentials for Journalists at WEEC2019

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Press and Media are warmly welcome to attend the 10th World Environmental Education Congress in Bangkok (3-7 November 2019). In order to attend as press you need to submit an official press ID specifying media affinity to media@weecnetwork.org  and wait for an acceptance letter from the Organizing Committee in order to register as media. Fill the press accreditation form and send it to media@weecnetwork.org
Our  wish is for a distribution of press geographically and according to media type.

Journalists, including photographers, are required to submit one of the following:

  • A letter of assignment on the letterhead of the news organization being represented
  • Copies of 2 bylined environmental/science articles (or credited photos) published within the last year. Web links are acceptable, provided the full article is accessible.
  • A copy of official press credentials, such a press card issued by a recognized journalists’ association or a government-sanctioned press organization and/or a business card issued by a recognized news organization

Freelance journalists including photographers must submit one of the following:

  • A letter of assignment on the letterhead of the news organization being represented
  • Copies of 2 bylined environmental/science articles (or credited photos) published within the last year. Web links are acceptable, provided the full article can be accessed.

Nature as a solution to respond to climate change challenges

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Researchers, practitioners and policy makers from the Mediterranean region and the European Union met to discuss the benefits and challenges of implementing Nature Based Solutions (NbS). From 22 to 24 January, 2019, the city of Marseille  hosted the workshop entitled “Implementation of Nature-based Solutions(NbS) to Tackle Climate Change: Focus on the Mediterranean Region”. The event provided attendees with an opportunity to identify new collaborations while sharing European and Mediterranean best practices and challenges related to NbS. It also provided policy-makers with increased awareness regarding the importance of healthy ecosystems for effective adaptation to climate change. Organized by Plan Bleu, IUCN Centre for Mediterranean Cooperation, the IUCN French Committee, Conservatoire du Littoral, Tour du Valat, MedWet and Wetlands International, the workshop bring together a diverse group of more than 100 participants from the Mediterranean region and the European Union, including researchers, practitioners, policy-makers, local authorities, civil society, and NGOs. Participants had a chance to share and discuss their perspectives regarding opportunities and challenges related to implementation of Nature-based Solutions.

Mediterranean societies are currently facing a wide range of challenges stemming from unsustainable urbanization and impacts on health, including degradation and loss of biodiversity, lack of clean air, water and soil, and climate change impacts which are resulting in an alarming increase of natural disasters. However, through actions that restore natural or modified ecosystems, nature itself can provide adaptive solutions that address societal challenges. These nature-based solutions offer sustainable, economical, versatile and flexible alternatives to the more traditional civil engineering developments or technologies. They can also help create new jobs and stimulate growth, all while protecting or enhancing biodiversity. For more information visit the website.

BE.Hive: Climate Change Needs Behavior Change

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BE.Hive: Climate Change Needs Behavior Change is a one-day summit to explore global climate change through the lens of human behavior.
Climate change is the most pressing threat facing our species and our planet. Human behavior lies at the center of the challenge. But it also may be the solution. At the BE.Hive: Climate Change Needs Behavior Change summit, you will learn about the latest insights from behavioral science, get inspired by the world’s leading environmentalists, be ignited by artists, storytellers and explorers, and tap into some of the most promising approaches for shifting human behavior to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Whether you’re looking to change yourself, nudge your peers, or move society,  join a growing community of environmental changemakers, behavioral scientists, conservationists, designers and thought leaders at this one-day summit at the intersection of behavior-centered design and climate change.
Register here

WEEC2019, new Call: Patterns of Complexity in an Anthropocene Environmental Curriculum

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We want to analyze how an experimental curriculum in Environmental Education in the era of Anthropocene requires a multi-disciplinary and a multi-scale approach. Through the presentation of examples and case studies, we intend to show how an environmental thinking framework has to include simultaneously:
– a focus on local approach and on the implementation of small scale interventions, aimed at empowering small agents and local minorities;
– a focus on the realization of macro actions, planned in top-down perspective, and effective on a global scale.
Such capability of upscaling and downscaling within the same thinking framework characterizes the patterns of the theory of complexity, in particular reflecting self-similarities and recursive behaviors presented by multiscale systems. Environmental education in fact reveals itself as a complex topic, where multiple patterns of specific localities and macro complexities coexist and converge.
At the same time, the time frame of the Anthropocene we are supposedly living in calls for a strong multidisciplinary approach. No methodology or traditional field of research alone can make sense of the Anthropocene multiple environmental controversies. Anthropocene is both a fully natural and fully cultural construct.
The practice of ethnography typical of anthropological research is particularly fitted to identify and highlight small-scale contexts, and to pinpoint the role of local actors, minority groups and marginal societies, but it shows some limitations when confronted to quantitative information and big data, that are at the basis of all the environmental knowledge in the making. A productive pattern for an Anthropocene Environmental Curriculum has to be able to embrace heterogeneous methodologies and knowledge sources, and at the same time build the epistemological texture where uneven data can dialogue and develop.
The thematic cluster calls for papers that describe local and global scale case studies, used profitably in Environmental Education, which rely on and exemplify multi-scale thinking frameworks and multi-disciplinary approaches.

Call proposed by:
Elena Bougleux – University of Bergamo, elena.bougleux@unibg.it
Jennifer Wells – CIIS San Francisco, jwells@ciis.edu

Come promoting the WEEC with us!

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Voir ci-dessous pour la version française
Ver abajo para la versión en español

We hope you can support the congress and its dissemination. How? Here you are some quick suggestions:

  • Send an invitation to participate to all your friends and colleagues. Many people could be interested in attending the Congress, but maybe they are not in our database. Ask them to subscribe our newsletter to be always in contact with us. If you like, help us also to spread the communication about WEEC 2019 using the “Save the date” stamp as signature of your e-mail and on social network and websites.
  • Promote your country delegation. Do you want to be the referent of your country? Surely you know many people interested in participating, but (for reasons of time and work) they need help in organising, that person can be you!
  • Do you know that you can get a discount using the group rate?  Group of 5 persons and upto 9 persons, who registered together / same time, will get 10% discount on total fee. Group of 10 persons and above, who register together /same time, will get 20% discount on total fee. Organize your group (association, university, institution, group of friends and students)!
  • Pay before, pay less. The early bird registration is valid until  March 31st 2019. It is therefore useful to take advantage of it.
  • Send us your proposal for a Call. We launched the call for papers on specific topics we are going to receive. This initiative aims at promoting a collaborative process enriching and specifying topics listed on the program. So, you (or your colleagues) can send us your own thematic calls for papers we will share and will promote through the WEEC website, newsletter and Facebook. Proposals you like to develop with/to announce to colleagues from all over the world can be sent to: staff@weecnetwork.org (suitable deadline: March 31st 2019).  Of course, proponents will be the point of reference also BEFORE the congress and at the congress they will chair/coordinate thematic niches built on this basis.

We are sure that, thanks to your help, it will be a remarkable Congress!

 

FR
Nous espérons que vous pourrez soutenir le congrès et sa diffusion. Comment ? Voici quelques suggestions rapides:

– Envoyez une invitation à tous vos amis et collègues. Si vous le souhaitez, aidez-nous également à diffuser la communication sur le WEEC 2019 en utilisant le timbre ” Save the date ” comme signature de votre courrier électronique ainsi que sur les réseaux sociaux et les sites Web.

– Promouvez-vous la délégation de votre pays. Voulez-vous être le référent de votre pays ? Vous connaissez sûrement beaucoup de personnes intéressées à participer, aidez-les à s’organiser !

– Savez-vous que vous pouvez obtenir un rabais en utilisant le tarif de groupe :  Groupe de 5 personnes et jusqu’à 9 personnes, qui se sont inscrits ensemble / en même temps, obtiendront 10% de réduction sur les frais totaux. Les groupes de 10 personnes et plus, qui s’inscrivent ensemble / en même temps, obtiendront un rabais de 20% sur les frais totaux.

– Payez avant, payez moins. L’inscription anticipée est valable jusqu’au 31 mars 2019. Il est donc utile d’en profiter.

– Envoyez-nous votre proposition d’appel. Nous avons lancé l’appel à communications sur des sujets spécifiques que nous allons recevoir. Cette initiative vise à promouvoir un processus de collaboration enrichissant et spécifiant les sujets énumérés dans le programme. Les propositions que vous aimez développer avec / à annoncer à des collègues du monde entier peuvent être envoyées à: staff@weecnetwork.org (date limite: 31 mars 2019). Bien entendu, les promoteurs seront le point de référence également AVANT le congrès et, lors du congrès, ils présideront / coordonneront les niches thématiques construites sur cette base.

Nous sommes sûrs que, grâce à votre aide, ce sera un congrès remarquable!

ES

– Envía una invitación para participar a todos tus amigos y colegas. Si lo desea, ayúdenos también a difundir la comunicación sobre WEEC 2019 utilizando el sello “Guardar la fecha” como firma de su correo electrónico y en las redes sociales y sitios web.

– Promover la delegación de su país. ¿Quieres ser el referente de tu país? Seguramente conoces a muchas personas interesadas en participar, ayúdalos a organizarse!

– ¿Sabe que puede obtener un descuento utilizando la tarifa de grupo:  Grupo de 5 personas y hasta 9 personas, que se registraron juntas / al mismo tiempo, obtendrán un 10% de descuento sobre la tarifa total. Grupo de 10 personas o más, que se registren juntos / a la misma hora, obtendrán un 20% de descuento sobre la tarifa total.

– Paga antes, paga menos. La inscripción anticipada es válida hasta el 31 de marzo de 2019. Por lo tanto, es útil aprovecharla.

– Envíanos tu propuesta de convocatoria. Lanzamos la convocatoria de artículos sobre temas específicos que vamos a recibir. Esta iniciativa tiene como objetivo promover un proceso de colaboración que enriquezca y especifique los temas enumerados en el programa. Las propuestas que desee desarrollar con / para anunciar a colegas de todo el mundo se pueden enviar a: staff@weecnetwork.org (fecha límite adecuada: 31 de marzo de 2019). Por supuesto, los proponentes también serán el punto de referencia ANTES del congreso y en el congreso presidirán / coordinarán nichos temáticos construidos sobre esta base.

Estamos seguros de que, gracias a su ayuda, ¡será un Congreso extraordinario!

WEEC2019. New Call: The environment and indigenous development challenges

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The World Bank estimates that there are about 370 million Indigenous people living worldwide in over 90 countries, accounting for 4,8% of the world’s population. Almost 80 percent of these are located in Asia and more than one-third in China alone. This type of ancestral knowledge and expertise on how to adapt, mitigate and reduce disaster risks has been internationally recognized as a support for the modern methods to cope with the imminent effects of climate change. Further, indigenous education can be an example of what a sustainable life means: a non-anthropocentric experiential transmission of coexistence with nature, based on mutual respect and a deep sense of belonging. Any knowledge (epistemology) can “be useful or useless, politically salient or meaningless, socially relevant or irrelevant, empirically testable or irrefutable, ideologically open or blind, without reference to whether it is indigenous or scientific” (Arun Agrawal). However, conitnuing pressure to maintain living standards in the industrial countries imply devastating socio-economic and territorial changes for indigenous peoples all over the world. The Their livelihoods are contaminated by raw material extraction and deforestation processes, and actions that force them to enter into market dynamics as the only way to survive and protect their territory.

In this context, some significant figures have begun to shown their influence in facilitating change: among others the Bora(1) leader, Liz Chicaje Churay, was awarded with the Franco-German Human Rights Prize and Rule of Law Award for her work in favor of the territorial security of the indigenous communities of Peru(2); Ruth Buendía, Asháninka(3), won The Goldman Environmental Prize (South and Central America) for her leadership skills in raising awareness about the impact of Peruvian energy development and its threats using digital simulations of how the Ene River Valley would be flooded during construction. Today more and more leaders from indigenous communities are involved in environmental defense issues. Another example is Rusbel Casternoque, a leader of the indigenous community Kukama Tarapacà, who is actively fighting for a prior consultation process in the case of “Hidrovia Amazonica”(4), worried about the environmental impacts that would fall on the territory, in particular regarding the issue of food and livelihood sources for communities along the rivers courses there. It should be stressed that among the indigenous peoples we must also not only isolated communities, but those who have integrated into the urban centres or live on reserves (see for example First Nations communities in Canada).

These are many examples of how indigenous cultures are in tension with the industrialized West. With our research we need to raise awareness about the many connections between environmental stewardship and indigenous cultures; at the same time, new technologies and the mass media give a voice and a face to all persons, stimulating proactive processes of change.

In line with this aim, we welcome contributions (in the form of oral sessions, papers, posters, round table sessions or workshop) engaging with any of the following (and associated) topics:

The 21st century indigenous communites and cultural values
Ancestral knowledge and experiential education techniques
Indigenous adaptation measures assisting in current environmental remediation
Tensions between indigenous cultures and globalization processes
Forms of environmental education occurring in Indigenous communities
Modern tools useful for the improvement of life in indigenous communities

Enquiries: staff@weecnetwork.org –  Flavia Napoletano in cooperation with David Zandvliet

References

The World Bank (2018) “Indigenous people”,

Arun Agrawal (2009) Why indigenous knowledge?, 39:4; 157-158, DOI:10.1080/03014220909510569

1Indigenous peoples originally settled in Colombia, nowadays in the north-east of Peru after the rubber exploitation.
2Her actions led the creation of the Yaguas National Park.
3Asháninkas are the demographically largest Amazonian indigenous people of Peru.
4The project involves dredging some areas of the Amazon River (Brazil and Peru) and its tributaries (Marañón, Ucayali and Huallaga), to ensure “safe navigation throughout the year”.

School strike for climat, Greta and the others

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Tout a commencé en août dernier quand une jeune suédoise de 15 ans (elle en a 16 aujourd’hui) désormais célèbre, Greta Thunberg (photo) a décidé de faire la « grève de l’école pour le climat » au motif que pour un jeune cela n’a aucun sens de préparer son avenir alors que l’inaction des adultes quant à la crise climatique prive précisément la jeunesse d’avenir.

Dans le sillage de Greta

Comme une véritable héroïne, elle était seule assise sur les marches du parlement suédois. Elle est revenue avec sa pancarte semaine après semaine. Puis elle a été rejointe, puis des élèves en Australie ont fait grève eux aussi, puis elle est allée à la coop 24 où elle a eu des parole fortes, puis des élèves en Allemagne, en Suisse, en Belgique… se sont mis en grève et on manifesté pour le climat en se revendiquant de ce mouvement de grève de l’école pour le climat, agissant de façon explicite dans le sillage de Greta. Cela n’est pas encore enclenché dans la réalité en France mais les décisions sont prises, ça va bouger. Les jeunes belges sont en particulier impressionnants. Ils ont décidé de se mobiliser tous les jeudis. Ils sont passés de 3 000 à 35 000 en 3 semaines à défiler pour le climat à Bruxelles. Certains manifestants n’ont pas plus de 10 ou 12 ans ! Greta à fait sensation à Davos, le mouvement ne cesse de se renforcer. A l’appel de Greta, le 15 mars sera une journée internationale de grève de l’école pour le climat.

Les profs entrent en action

En France un collectif des enseignants pour la planète s’est constitué. Ils se sont rencontrés dans le tout nouveau mouvement extinction rébellion. Ils disent « L’urgence écologique n’est plus à démontrer. Elle est à enseigner, et elle doit nous mobiliser à chaque instant, dans nos salles de classe, salles des profs mais aussi dans la rue et dans nos luttes! C’est le sens de la création de ce collectif Enseignant.e.s pour la planète! » Ils sont déjà en quelques semaines près de 3 000 à avoir signé.

Un appel circule dans les milieux de l’éducation

“…nous déclarons que nous ne voulons plus être les instruments d’une propagande rassurante, qui rend invisible la catastrophe écologique. Nous devons au contraire dire à nos élèves que la situation est gravissime, sur le climat qui s’emballe, la biodiversité qui disparaît, la pollution qui pénètre jusque dans nos cellules, et qu’aucun diplôme ni aucune formation ne les protégera contre cela…”. L’excellent quotidien de l’écologie Reporterre a publié un article sur le sujet.

Le développement durable en question

Nous pouvons aussi lire dans l’appel : “…Les médias, les scientifiques nous l’ont assez répété. Nous le savons mais nous nous taisons. Dans nos salles de classe, nous avons accepté trop longtemps d’enseigner le « développement durable », entretenant chez les élèves l’illusion que la situation était sous contrôle, prise au sérieux par les gouvernements du monde…”. Beaucoup d’acteurs de l’éducation à l’environnement apprécieront cette remise en question du développement durable. Ce concept, parachuté du haut dans les années 90, a encombré les réflexions, les échanges et les actions en faveur de l’environnement dans le monde éducatif depuis plus de 20 ans. Adoptons pour de bon le terme « transition » qui lui vient de la base et clairement aujourd’hui, à toutes et tous, s’impose.

Les Educations nationales n’ont pas assuré

De voir tous ces enfants et ces jeunes dans l’émoi cela devrait nous alarmer au plus haut point. Ils disent l’incapacité des adultes à mettre en œuvre ce qu’il faut pour stopper l’effondrement que nous vivons. Il n’y a pas qu’en France, il semble bien que ce soit dans tous les pays que les systèmes éducatifs étatiques n’ont pas assuré. Ils n’ont pas tenu compte des recommandations faites par les grandes conférences internationales sur l’environnement. Dés à Stockholm en 1972, il avait été dit et acté dans le principe 19 qu’il est  « essentiel de dispenser un enseignement sur les questions d’environnement aux jeunes générations aussi bien qu’aux adultes … »cela n’a pas été fait ou alors vraiment du bout des doigts. Il faut totalement repenser l’éducation.

En nous, on le sent, l’espoir renait

Nous n’avons pas besoin de jeunes obéissants qui savent apprendre par cœur et bardés de diplômes. Nous avons besoin de jeunes autonomes, confiants en eux, sachant prendre des initiatives, sachant travailler en groupe, des jeunes créatifs, proches de la nature pour l’avoir beaucoup fréquenté dès leur plus tendre enfance. Il y va maintenant de la survie de l’espèce humaine. Soit nous savons prendre les bonnes initiatives, nous-mêmes, pour notre économie domestique et celle de nos territoires locaux partout dans le monde ou alors nous continuerons d’aller à la catastrophe. Avec Greta, avec ces dizaines de milliers de jeunes qui se lèvent dans tous les pays, en nous, on le sent, l’espoir renait, aidons les !

Roland GERARD

The street photography of Anthony Hernandez

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Fundación MAPFRE is launching its 2019 season with the first exhibition to be held in Spain on the American photographer Anthony Hernandez (born Los Angeles, 1947), which will also be the first major retrospective devoted to him. Featuring more than 110 photographs, “The confusing gaze of Anthony Hernandez” will offer an extensive survey of Hernandez’s lengthy and prolific career while also celebrating his distinctive and unique style of street photography and its significant evolution over time.
The exhibition has been organised by the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA), an institution with which Fundación MAPFRE has collaborated since 2015 when it presented the exhibition Garry Winogrand at its Madrid exhibition space. At the present time Fundacion MAPFRE’S exhibition Brassaï can be seen at the SFMOMA, where it is on display until 17 February 2019.


Hernandez was born in Los Angeles in 1947, the son of Mexican immigrants. Without specific photographic training or further education, his career began in the streets of his home city at the end of the 1960s. After his beginnings which followed the great American tradition of street photography, his work rapidly evolved towards an approach that used different techniques and aesthetics.

In his early career he used black and white photography, concentrating on the human figure. He switched from 35 mm to large format and from 1984 he turned to color photography, excluding people from his images to the extent of capturing details that verged on the abstract. His work on various series, which can span several years, maintain their consistency thanks to an artistic vision that is hard and direct, yet full of formal beauty. Today, Hernandez maintains his interest in things and places that don’t initially appear to be suitable as subjects for photography.

In his photos of Los Angeles, Hernandez avoids any overt form of cliché, using his camera to capture anonymous citizens going about their business, waiting for buses or engaged in simple pleasures designed to help cope with their daily lives. Neither does the photographer shirk from more distressing issues such as homelessness, evictions and those affected by economic crises. However, his images go far beyond mere social documentation, in that all his work reaffirms his interest in formal beauty and composition.

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