Kids on Strike Lesson Pack

LESSON PLANS

by

David Woollcombe, President, Peace Child International, Author, Kids on Strike

INTRODUCTION

One of the main joys of doing a Peace Child show like Kids on Strike is that you get to learn about the issues and become a bit of an expert about them – while having a lot of fun at the same time. So, this is where you start your learning adventure. None of us in Peace Child is a qualified teacher, so please don’t make these lessons school-like. However, do encourage the cast to do their homework and bring new ideas and facts into the early rehearsals where you are preparing your version of the story. And do embrace the science as much as the geography – the economics as much as the politics. Climate change is an issue that spans all the disciplines. Don’t hesitate to pester teachers of these other disciplines to come and join you in rehearsals – and even in the cast. Great scientists are often great philosophers and great singers too!

© World Youth Congress 2008

AN INTRODUCTION TO CLIMATE CHANGE

AN INTRODUCTION TO CLIMATE CHANGE

Background Reading:

Amazon lists 2,622 books on Climate Change and Global Warming. Hard to recommend the best of them. High school students should try: SIX DEGREES by Mark Lynas and HEAT by George Monbiot: both are easy, reader-friendly introductions to the Climate Change issue. For younger students, check out TWO DEGREES(hdr.undp.org/en/media/Two_Degrees_En.pdf) and KICK the HABIT (www.unep.org/pdf/tunza/ Tunza_6.1_EN.pdf) – two publications by UNDP and UNEP respectively written by the young people of the Peace Child Network for young people (and everyone else!) on the climate change issue. Great introductions to the issue, but, if you want more, there are still another 2,618 to read through!

Some Questions and Answers:

Is climate change the greatest challenge faced by our generation?

‘Yes!’ – a recent UNEP study found close to 90% of young people wanting governments to ‘do what ever it takes’ to deal with the climate change issue. However, if you are one of the billion or so children and young people living on less than two dollars a day, you might think that getting your next meal, getting a job, a roof over your head, a doctor to visit when you are sick, an education – were all more immediate challenges for your generation. But, given that all specialists agree that it will be the poor who will suffer most – indeed are suffering – from the effects of climate change, even for them, Climate Change may be the biggest challenge of their generation. It may well cause their current $2 a day income to drop to $1.

What is the 2 degree threshold?

In five years of visiting classrooms around the world, I have never found a single student – and very few teachers – who can give a confident answer to this question. Yet it is perhaps the most important statistic for their generation. For it represents the amount by which the world must warm to trigger dangerous climate change. The whole effort of the UN Summits on climate change is to prevent global warming crossing the 2 degree threshold.

What are Adaptation and Mitigation?

these two words are all we will ask your cast to learn from the expanding vocabulary of arcane climate change terms. Adaptation is what countries have to do to prepare for the inevitable onset of some global warming – building sea walls, flood barriers etc. Mitigation is what all of us must do to limit the amount of carbon we emit into the atmosphere.

Will fossil fuels run out in our lifetimes?

No. Though most experts agree that oil and gas will run out between 2030 and 2050, coal, the most polluting fossil fuel, will not run out for several hundred years. If only it were so simple as having to replace fossil fuels by renewables because all the supplies are exhausted. It is not: we have to find ways to burn coal with zero carbon emissions (see Lesson 4) – or find ways to generate energy without it if we are to avoid catastrophic global warming.

Some Games:

ONE:

Make a circle around the Story-teller, and get each cast member to think of a question about climate change that they would like answered. If you know the answer, fine! – if not, make a list – and try to find out the answers before the next rehearsal. Keep going round the circle until you run out of questions.

TWO:

Get the cast to look out of the window and imagine it is the year 2050. Ask them to decide whether the world is in catastrophic decay as a result of climate change or in pristine renewal as a result of the successful building of a green economy: divide the cast into the optimists and the pessimists – then ask each of them to describe one thing that is different that they can see through the window.

THREE:

Improvisation: if you have a cast divided between optimists and pessimists – set up two chairs, and get one from each side to sit on the chair and defend their position – explaining the reasons why they are either pessimistic or optimistic, and trying to persuade the other why they are more likely to be right than the other. Keep changing the students so that new ideas flow from the debate. And note down what they say as their ideas may be useful in future scene-writing.

Some Homework:

Read TWO DEGREES(hdr.undp.org/en/media/Two_Degrees_En.pdf) and KICK the HABIT (www.unep.org/ pdf/tunza/Tunza_6.1_EN.pdf) High school students should try SIX DEGREES and HEAT – which should be available in local libraries. Each student should bring back to the cast three things that they have learned that they didn’t know before.

Some ideas for New Enquiries: New Scenes, New Characters, New Story-line, New Songs:

If you are quite happy with the tone, approach and songs of the original script, you don’t need to worry about this section. This is the part of each lesson that is for those who want to radically re-write the musical – and for those who don’t, it can really mess your mind! You have been warned!

Setting:

Seems like we’re in a rural meadow in this scene. Song’s a bit sappy for older kids: so think about setting it in a Nightclub. Replace Paradise with metal or grunge – have the Story-teller be a DG in black leather with metalwork hanging off his/her nose and ears. Abandon the little children completely - just have teen-age ravers, rocking out to the music. Give yourself a whole new take on the 2050 scene.

New Enquiries:

So climate change is solved in 2050 – but think of what the new challenge will be then? What might be the next ‘biggest challenge’ – of your children’s generation? Imagine the Kids on Strike story be one that the people of 2050 tell each other in order to inspire society to rise to that new challenge. Could be anything –food crisis, health crisis (a new HIV-AIDS virus), fertility crisis (population dropping like a stone everywhere) – the dawn of a new ice-age with expanding ice-shelves and glaciers…You could even re-cast the story as one in which climate change was solved, but it has now come back with a vengeance in a new and more dangerous form: so society is telling the story of the original Kids Strike to inspire every one to rise to new efforts to resolve the issue.

Further Discussion:

The basic problem is that we all enjoy consuming things too much. We don’t want to stop! We want pay rises – not pay cuts! Countries like China and S Korea tell us that they can increase production to feed our appetite for discount shopping, but that they cannot do so without increasing their use of fossil fuels. Vicious circle! In introducing the study of climate change to your class, go back to the discussion of what is the most dangerous challenge that the current generation of young people will face in their lifetimes? Next to all out war – or nuclear war, the threat of which has receded (though not disappeared) with the end of the Cold War – climate change, rising sea levels, irregular weather conditions – all threaten to disrupt civilization as we know it. You need only point up the dialogue between Luke, the Boffin and Lian on Page (16) to demonstrate how serious it is. Talk about the Precautionary Principle – another key phrase in Climate Change vocabulary which they must get to know and understand. (The simple explanation is Luke’s ‘standing on the railway track’ metaphor on Page 16)

History:

The history of climate change: starts in the ‘60s when early eco-thinkers were worried about global cooling – nuclear winters etc. and a new Ice Age. Then John Hansen alerted the US congress to the threat of global warming in 1988 as did the Brundtland Report and others at the Rio Earth Summit the Framework Convention on Climate Change (www.iisd.org/rio+5/agenda/climate.htm). Everything grew from there: Kyoto; Bali; Poznan – and on to Copenhagen in 2009.

Peak Oil:

Note that fossil fuel consumption has been racing ahead of new fossil fuel discoveries since 1970. We are now – or very shortly will be – at the Peak of oil consumption and ‘Peak Oilers’ are amongst the most vocal advocates of new energy infrastructures.

And that has to be the main point that you leave your cast with at the end of this first lesson: yes! – the dangers of climate change are horrific! – Yes it could change the face of life as we know it! – but Yes! – also – it is the most exciting challenge and opportunity that civilization has had since the Renaissance to reinvent itself. The Building of the green economy – the construction of the post-carbon energy infrastructures – with smart grids, carbon trading, ground-source heat pumps, electric transport systems with battery filling stations – all this represents massive business opportunities as potentially profitable as the building of the railways was in the 19th Century – or the building of the Internet in the late 20th Century. Inject HOPE! For the ultimate message of Peace Child’s Kids on Strike is that this generation will create a greener, cleaner, more prosperous, more peaceful planetary family than we have ever known. Kids on Strike is the story of how we achieve it!

A HISTORY OF PROTEST MOVEMENTS II

© World Youth Congress 2008

A HISTORY OF PROTEST MOVEMENTS

Some Quotes:

“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed it is the only thing that ever has.”

Margaret Mead;

“A small body of determined spirits fired by an unquenchable faith in their mission can alter the course of history.”

“One person’s terrorist is another person’s Freedom fighter.”

“You have to be the change you want to see in the world.”

Mohandas Gandhi

Attorney General Ramsey Clark

Mohandas Gandhi

“Non-violence is the greatest force at the disposal of mankind. It is mightier than the mightiest weapon of destruction devised by the ingenuity of man.”

Mohandas Gandhi

“There is a higher court than courts of justice and that is the court of conscience. It supercedes all other courts.”

Mohandas Gandhi

“The limitation of riots, moral questions aside, is that they cannot win and their participants know it. Hence, rioting is not revolutionary but reactionary because it invites defeat. It involves an emotional catharsis, but it must be followed by a sense of futility.”

Martin Luther King, Jr.

“If physical death is the price that I must pay to free my white brothers and sisters from a permanent death of the spirit, then nothing can be more redemptive.”

Martin Luther King, Jr.

“I submit that an individual who breaks the law that conscience tells him is unjust and willingly accepts the penalty by staying in jail to arouse the conscience of the community over its injustice, is in reality expressing the very highest respect for law.”

“A person who won’t die for something is not fit to live.”

Martin Luther King, Jr.

Martin Luther King, Jr.

Background Reading:

You can approach this in several ways. Set the context – the great historical revolutions – the English Revolution led by Oliver Cromwell; the French Revolution; the Russian Revolution – the European Revolutions of 1848 and 1989/90. These were many others like the Peasants Revolt led by Wat Tyler, and Mao Tse Tung’s Great March. The climate change revolution is more likely to reflect the protest movement against Slavery –from Spartacus to William Wilberforce; or the Anti-colonial movements of Gandhi and others; or the feminist movement, or Civil Rights movement or Anti-Vietnam War protests in the USA. The New Internationalist is the magazine most activists in the UK, USA and around the world read: check it out at: www.nesint.com A good book on recent protest movements since the ‘60s is: Waves of Protest a series of essays edited by Jo Freeman and Victoria Johnson. There is a useful preview of it at:

http://books.google.com/books?id=BO6D9qdVs3sC&pg=PR2&lpg=PR2&dq=Waves+of+Protest:+Social+Mo vements+Since+the+Sixties+(People,+Passions,+%26+Power+Series)+by+Victoria+Johnson+Jo+Freeman& source=web&ots=x0S307yut2&sig=Kt8MewkWqacEfRxiRAkaEtYj_xE&hl=en&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum =6&ct=result#PPR11,M1

Some Questions and Answers:

What is the purpose of protest?

Protest, or ‘direct action’, is the most visible way of making a mass opinion about a local, national or international issue or policy. The purpose of any protest is to achieve a change in policy by the government: I write this as the opposition movements in Thailand are occupying Bangkok’s main international airport – preventing all flights in and out of the country. They are protesting what they perceive to be a corrupt president, and are demanding that he resign. (He did – so the protest worked!) But, famously in Beijing in May 1989 a mass protest in Tianenmen Square failed to trigger the resignation of the Chinese Communist Party Politburo. Instead, the Politburo ordered in the army to disperse the demonstrators seeing it as a ‘public order problem’!

Who is the best kind of leader for a protest movement?

This is an important question for this story, as it is clear that Jake is not the best leader. He seems to be depressed over his own personal problems and he is not a brilliant speaker. But you can have fun with him:make him a her – and see how that changes the chemistry in the scene. And re-write that speech! Who’s heard of Tuvalu anyway?! Make him/her your own leader – and, of course, Luke and Lian have to come through and emerge as better leaders than Jake, but explore their characters too: what makes them so attractive to the media? Why was Gandhi or Martin Luther King so effective? What were the essential elements of their characters that made them such effective leaders?

What are the essential elements of a successful protest movement?

Many things but first amongst them is faith – commitment, utter self-belief and absence of self-doubt. Successful Protesters know beyond a shadow of a doubt that they are right – they own the moral high-ground. In extreme cases, the successful protesters are faithful to the death – like Bobby Sands, like the Sufragette who threw herself under the King’s horse at Ascot, like so many millions of others from all the Christian Martyrs on down to those at Kent State and Tiananmen Square. Climate change protesters have not made such sacrifices yet – but, as the dialogue on Page (19) makes clear, Luke and Lian are prepared to. Faith and Self-belief are perhaps the only essential elements of successful protest – but there may be others. There are very few examples of successful protest movements that did not involve youth and women. All successful protest movements get approving media coverage, – are led by the ‘have-nots’ against the ‘haves’ – involve the citizenry against the apparatus of the state, – and have a single, realizable goal that is easy for every one to understand: US troops out of Vietnam or Iraq; give women the vote. Simple – accessible goals that lawmakers have to respond to. It is instructive to look at protest movements that failed: the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament is one obvious example: “Ban the Bomb!” they demanded. Governments did not – even after the war for which they were created ended. Why? – which of the key elements listed above were absent? Some would say they did not fail – that great advances were made, the numbers of nuclear weapons were reduced etc. But the fact remains: bombs exist. CND did not get them banned. Why not?

What are the best ways to recruit supporters for a protest movement?

Another important question for this show is “Why are Luke and Lian so successful in recruiting supporters for their movement when Jake was not?” – and our answer is: ‘They got the media behind them…’ But their best recruiting tool comes at the end – where they devise the “Kids on Strike” campaign: simple, direct appeal to an attractive, do-able proposition. Even though the kids in question are far from on strike but conducting Days of Action and Learning to reduce their carbon footprints – and prepare their minds for the postcarbon societies in which they are going to live. Part of the shape of this story is that the old ways – leaflets, parties, demonstrations, petitions, letters to government officials and elected representatives – are not actually the best ways to recruit support. Media is vital – celebrities can help, but notice that the celebrities in this story are home-grown. We get the sense that the media see through campaigns whose only way to get their attention is to get Paris Hilton or Bianca Jagger to turn out and show support for them. Another answer, from where we sit, is that any protest has to be fun – stimulating! It should not be a duty or a drag.

Is raising awareness a sufficient goal for protest?

Our answer would be a resounding “NO!” It is important to raise awareness – but if that is all that you do, what’s the point. As several young Peace Child members have said throughout our history: “We do not want to be idle bystanders watching the death of our planet! We want to do something!” This play is a good example: performing it will raise the awareness of your fellow students and community members – but, if that is all that you do, we will have failed, utterly! Your community has to go on to become a Transition Town – to vote for representatives who will carry your message to the local and national legislatures – to carry on doing days of action and learning and school strikes until the message gets through to your leaders that the 350ppm target is non-negotiable if the planet is to be saved. That’s what lesson 10 is all about!

Some Games:

ONE:

Divide the cast up into two halves. Ask one half to decide to protest some very small, very local issue that everyone will understand – the beans in the canteen are inedible; the Toilets in B block smell! – something really simple! Ask people on the other side of the room to develop arguments to resist the protest. Set two chairs centre stage. Then, without telling the other side what they are protesting, a protester from side one sits on one chair, and a defender from side two sits in the other. The protester stands and improvises a passionate speech about their issue – and the defender then stands and suggests why the protester is totally wrong! He can choose any way of undermining him/her eg. suggesting that if s/he thinks the toilets smell, s/ he should go clean them him/herself. See what this tells you about the nature of protest – and how to defend yourself against it.

TWO:

Symbols and slogans: We think ‘Kids on Strike’ is a pretty good slogan – but several teachers, some kids, and most school principals – are nervous about it. You can, of course, choose a new title for the play. (It was, originally, called ‘Green Peace Child’ – and then ‘Earth on Strike’ - so we are really happy if you come up with a new title for your show!) Get each member of the cast to come up with a slogan to chant – either in the Green March in Act ONE (Page 9) or when the school strike begins in Act TWO (Page 44). Go round the cast – getting each member to state their slogan. Get the rest of the cast to repeat it three times. At the end of the exercise, give each cast member three votes – and record the votes for each slogan on a board. Take the top three – and ask each cast member to draw an outline logo – that could form the basis of the branding for the campaign. Put them up around the wall – and choose the best of them to make up into banners for either, or both, of the demonstrations.

THREE:

On Page (11), Lian introduces herself as being from China. Luke reacts with embarrassment – confusion – knowing that this is going to be a problem with Jake and the others. If you have cast members with other ethnicities or nationalities, get them to read the Lian character – and have Luke, then later Jake and the others lead the conversations off in a completely different direction. If you are short on variety of nationalities/ ethnicities – consider that the Lian character is the daughter of the CEO of Shell or Exxon or one of the big energy companies. See how that changes the direction of the story. You will end up with a whole new play –but if you like where that takes you – that is the point! Go for it!!

Some Homework:

• Re-write Jake’s speech on Page (10) and have him say what you would like to say if you were making a speech to a climate change Protest Rally. Have each cast member make their short, 1-minute speech to the rest of the cast – and have them decide which moves them the most!

• Choose a protest movement – any movement: analyse why it succeeded or failed. Bring your analysis back to your class/cast/group – and make a 2-3 minute presentation of your findings.

Some ideas for New Enquiries: New Scenes, New Characters, New Story-line, New Songs:

The big question at this stage is to identify characters. We identify FIVE main ones – Luke, a sweet, likable lad –with great people skills and considerable courage. He is a national of the country in which you are doing this show. Jake – the slightly cynical leader of the protest movement; Hassan – the muslim activist; the Boffin – a young science student with a immense skill in IT computers. And Lian – the girl from overseas (China!)–who is keen to find out what is going on with protest in the country she is visiting. Feel free to develop any characters you wish though if you want to introduce faith songs later, you should retain a Muslim character. You can think about the nature of the protest – maybe having the whole protest be done via the internet.

Further Discussion:

A major point of Kids on Strike is to show that traditional, adversarial methods of protest do not work. It is only when the kids take it upon themselves to really learn the detail of the climate change debate, adopt a position, and push that position through on the political level that real change is made. Petitions, street demonstrations – none of that works, as those of us who, in our millions, came out to protest the insanity of the Iraq war know to our cost. Or do we? Isn’t it something to do with the strength of that protest that has delivered the president that the USA has today? Is there any other way to change a policy except being prepared to struggle and fight, and perhaps lay down our lives for the cause about which we are protesting?

The Individual Path:

Towards the end of the play, on Page (43), Luke lays out the individual path he is going to take: to get his law degree, go into politics, and change things from the inside. Do you think that is tenable? Don’t you agree that, in the final analysis, it has to start with what you do in your own life? And, until we make our own personal commitments to change, all the rest of it is hypocritical. Ultimately, Luke ends up doing both – but do you agree that he is a stronger character because he has determined his own individual path first? What are your individual paths?

The UN and Protest:

It is self-evidently silly to protest against the bureaucrats who run the UN. They are only following the orders of the member states who pay for the UN to exist. All effective protest must be directed at the member states – to get them to come to the UN negotiating tables defending positions that will seriously deal with the challenge of global warming. However, with its convening power, and its agenda-setting skills, the UN is in a powerful position to influence those positions. So – even as we realize that our own governments are where we should be targeting our messages about climate change, so we should think about the best way to influence the way the UN operates the Climate Change agencies – and the ways that it engages civil society in them.

Protest in the Classroom:

we have looked and we cannot find a single example in living memory of where students have changed the curriculum or any significant aspect of the running of a school.(At college level, there have, of course, been many – from the anti-Vietnam sit-ins, to protests about student fees, to one extraordinary protest for more lectures!) And in fiction protests abound: from ‘If’ and ‘Zero de Conduite’ at one end of the spectrum to ‘St Trinians’ at the other, fictional schools have been over-run by student protest. So – what do we think of students demanding the right to be taught about Climate Change? Are they right to protest? Do you think it would get anywhere? Think about it in relation to your school – and come up with more realistic lines and situations to establish the protest in your school.

AN INTRODUCTION TO CONTEMPORARY CHINA III

© Joao Felipe Scarpelini

AN INTRODUCTION TO CONTEMPORARY CHINA

Introduction:

This is an informational lesson – not one to use to change the course of the story. Even if you decide to change the nationality, background or ethnicity of the Lian character, we urge you to take the time to learn about China and its approach to the Climate Change Crisis. It is extremely relevant to the global climate situation.

So what do you know about China? Probably just the Basics:

• It’s very big!

• It put on a heck of a no-expense –spared show for the 2008 Olympics!

• One in five people on earth are Chinese. You might also know that it has a powerful communist government that is not too fussy about human rights – and which executes more people than any other nation on earth. You might also have heard of China’s dependence on badly-polluting brown coal – opening a new power station every week – to keep its red-hot economic growth rates going, producing goods for the voracious consumer appetites of the West!

But let’s go into a little more detail about the sheer scale of China’s size and impact on the earth:

• about half the world’s clothes, footwear, computers are ‘Made in China.’

• China consumes about 40% of the world’s cement;

• A new city the size of London is built on the Pearl River Delta every year.

• It consumes 40% of the world’s annual coal production, 30% of the world’s steel etc. etc.

• China’s economy grew at 11.9% in 2007 and, though its growth is expected to slow in 2008/09 – it will remain one of the world’s fastest growing economies.

This growth comes at the expense of the environment.

• China’s farmers still use chemicals on their land that are banned in the rest of the world.

• 75% of its lakes are polluted;

• a quarter of China’s land area has turned to desert as a result of de-forestation

• 700 million people drink water polluted with agricultural and human waste.

Environmental Issues:

The environmental fight back has begun: there are over 50,000 environmental protests every year in China –some of which attract 10,000 demonstrators. But – as recent Party policy documents have shown: the priority for the Chinese Government remains development and, though increasing attention will be paid to environmental matters [ - two or three zero carbon cities are being built in the coastal regions, and China is looking to develop its own Carbon Capture & Storage (CCS) systems, wind farms and solar farms] - the environment will never be allowed to get in the way of China’s massive economic growth plans. Pan Hue heads China’s State Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) – and he has spoken out loudly about ‘China’s environmental suicide.’ But his agency is tiny in comparison with others in China and his excellent plan for Green GDP calculations based on the use of 5 x natural resources (land, minerals, forests, water and fisheries) has been quietly shelved. The only thing that keeps China’s environmental lobby alive inside the Politburo is the desire not to be seen as an International pariah in the climate change negotiations.

China’s Rape of Africa:

European Development Commissioner, Louis Michel, gave a famous lecture at the London School of Economics in which, rather than promote European development initiatives, he spoke almost exclusively about the dangers inherent in China’s resource grab for Africa. Others agree that he is right to be concerned: as Mark Leonard writes, “China will literally transplant its growth model into the African continent by building a series of industrial hubs linked by rail, road and shipping lanes to the rest of the world. Zambia is the metals hub, providing China with copper, cobalt, tin, uranium and other metals it needs. There will be four other hubs across Africa – and a whole series of roads and railways criss-crossing the Continent to make it easier for China to ship out the minerals it needs.” China, famously, is not squeamish about defending the human rights of the people’s whose countries they plunder: why should they defend the rights of foreigners when they fail to defend the rights of their own people. So they defend dictators like Bashir in Sudan and Mugabe in Zimbabwe, offering them political, economic and technical support. After Uzbekistan’s dictator, Islam Karimov, massacred hundreds of protesters at Andihan in 2005, he was given a red carpet welcome in Beijing and offered a $600m oil deal and training in crowd dispersal.

China’s Financial Muscle:

As we witnessed with the billions lavished on the Olympic Games, China is massively wealthy. And it can now use its financial might to buy off African and other developing country Governments in a way that undercuts the power of the World Bank, the IMF and other ‘Washington Consensus’ funders. China supports the SLORC regime in Burma with billions of dollars worth of military hardware and other unspecified political support. In Angola, the IMF spent years negotiating a loan with the government, only to be told, hours before the deal was to be signed, that the government was no longer interested: it had received a $2Bn. no strings attached, soft loan from China. China’s $1.3 Trillion dollar assets dwarfs the IMF’s paltry $35 billion loans portfolio. This allows China to blow ‘conditionality’ - beloved of Western donors - out of the water. It is not just African governments that are flocking to the Chinese money trough in a feeding frenzy: Brazil, Vietnam, even India are looking to China for financial support and investment. The whole landscape of overseas development is shifting following the entry of China into the Development Marketplace.

The China Model:

Mark Leonard argues in his book, as several others do, that if the West thinks it can “manage China’s growth” and that China will soon emerge from the chrysalis of Communism to become the colourful new butterfly of liberal, democratic capitalism – it is kidding itself. China has its own policy wonks who all predict the slow demise of western capitalism – and its replacement by the Chinese central authority model. China is the world’s biggest champion of autocracy, supporting deliberative dictatorships around the world. It also believes fervently in National Sovereignty resisting with a passion – and sometimes with its UN veto – any attempt by the ‘international community’ to intervene in the domestic affairs of other nations – like its ally, Sudan, from whom it gets a considerable percentage of its oil. But it does it in a very clever way: for example, it hid behind the European Powers – France and Germany – to oppose the 2003 invasion of Iraq, rather than coming straight out and offending the USA by opposing it. Likewise, it opposes the expansion of the UN Security Council – but it doesn’t come out and say so – thus offending its close trading partner, Japan – which feels it deserves a seat. Instead, it persuades its African allies to push for an African seat – which nobody wants, and thus, surreptitiously, scuppers any progress on the issue.

Mark Leonard reports that China is becoming increasingly successful on the world stage: in 1995, the USA ‘won’ 50.6 of the votes in the UN General Assembly. By 2006, that figure had fallen to just 23.6%. On Human Rights, the change is even more startling: China’s win-rate has soared from 43% to 82% while that of the USA has fallen from 57% to 22%.

The Great Wall of China is over 1,000 years old – but the ‘wall mentality’ still exists in China. As Leonard concludes: “China’s emancipation from the West has created an alternative, non-western path for the rest of the world to follow. It is the ideal of a ‘walled world’ where independent nation states can trade freely with each other but maintain control over their economic future, their political system and their foreign policy. It comes as an ideological challenge to both the US and European preferences for liberal multi-lateralism. In the 21st Century, China will join these two other powers as a shaper of the world order – and when Bono and Bob Geldof next attempt to save Africa, they may hold their largest concert in Beijing’s Olympic Stadium rather than London’s Hyde Park.”

Background Reading:

‘What does China think’ – Mark Leonard, Abacus 2008; ‘How China runs the World’s Economy’ The Economist, 28 July 2005; The Journal of Contemporary China

Some Questions and Answers:

What is the best way to engage with China?

Information on the Chinese government positions on most issues is available through the Information Departments of Chinese Embassies everywhere. They are extremely helpful – and will respond to enquiries by phone, letter or e-mail. To get deeper into Chinese thought, history and attitudes, you need to meet ordinary youth and families – and read western scholars on Chinese history. There are thousands of Chinese exchange students in most European and North American countries – and many recent immigrants. They will explain, far better than PCI researchers, what it is really like to live in China in 2009. That is the kind of relationship that Luke and Lian develop in the story. You can develop a similar one for real!

Might China emerge as the ‘good guy’ in the challenge of building a green economy? it is possible, yes! Already they are, apparently, producing the cheapest, most cost-effective solar voltaic panels. Soon their wind, tidal and wave generators will lead the world. And – if they can make a success of their zero carbon eco-cities, they will be exporting that technology too. The advantage of a centrally planned economy is that, if the central authority can be persuaded of the social and economic benefit of a green plan, they can take a decision that will mobilize the people, the finance and the state-owned enterprises that can deliver it in a very short space of time. This is why PCI seeks to engage with China: why we hope a version of Kids on Strike will soon be performed there!

How can you stop the Chinese ‘rape of Africa’? probably you can’t. Sadly. African governments are notorious in their self-interest and the no-strings-attached soft loans, gifts and grants currently being handed out by the Chinese government are hard to resist even if they do impoverish citizens and sell off national resources for a song. The only way to resist is to empower the youth and citizenry of the African and other nations whose assets are being stripped by China – but don’t think that China is alone in stripping assets from so called ‘developing countries.’ Europe and North America have been doing it for years: what frustrates them is China is getting better at it!

Some Homework:

almost every statistic you read about China makes it seem gigantic! Challenge the cast to find some new, astounding statistic about China – that resonates with them.

Some ideas for New Enquiries: New Scenes, New Characters, New Story-line, New Songs:

Find out what China’s youth are thinking? The All China Youth Federation (ACYF) – has considerable power in China: see what you can find out about it, and bring back a report to the rest of the cast.

Absolutely no need for the Lian character to be Chinese: think about what would happen to the story if she was Indian, or Russian, or Brazilian, or Australian etc. Every scene would need to change – but would the story retain the same interest? How would you deal with the Chinese government not being called upon to call a special meeting for the youth to address at the end?

Imagine how you would change the story – and this lesson(!) – if you were going to promote the play in China?! Step into Chinese shoes and improvise a discussion between a young, Chinese environmentalist who wants to do the play – and a Chinese official who wants to prevent it. What do you learn from the effort of trying to become an actual Chinese person?

THE PROBLEM WITH COAL IV

THE PROBLEM WITH COAL

Introduction:

It is commonly assumed that, unlike oil and natural gas, there is plenty of coal to last us several hundred years on Planet Earth. Recent facts suggest that coal is not so plentiful: in 2006, the World Energy Council put global coal reserves at 847bn tonnes. With world coal consumption at just under 6bn tonnes, this should last us a little over 140 years. With carbon capture and storage (CCS) offering the possibility of reducing CO2 emissions by 80-90% - shouldn’t coal then be the answer to the energy crisis AND climate change?

Well – No! There are many problems with CCS, not least that no demonstration plants have been built yet. The energy consumed by the capture and storage process is between 25%-40% more than a traditional coal-fired power statement. With the costs of transporting the captured carbon by pipeline or rail to the nearest storage site ( - a disused mine or aquifer, or under-sea tank) + the costs of insurance against accidental leakage of the compressed CO2 – will make the price of energy from a power plant with CCS 21-91% higher than from a normal plant. But – there are new techniques coming down the pike: one of these mixes the captured CO2 with Algae in sea-water: the algae can be harvested and turned into bio-fuels and/or paper. And –if governments start charging for carbon-emissions in the way that climate change experts are arguing that they should, making electricity from non-CCS power stations pay for the carbon they emit, it is possible that sequestered coal-based electricity generation in 2025 will cost less than unsequestered coalbased electricity generation today.

But there is another problem: just as experts say oil production is likely to peak around 2010 – peak coal production may not be so far behind. That ‘140-years-left’ figure was 255 years in the year 2000. In 1900, it was 10,000 years! With the increases in coal production required by the depletion of oil reserves – set to double by 2025 – and the reserves confidently assumed by governments for decades now being questioned by many experts as ‘far too high’ – peak coal production may be reached by 2020 -2030.

Far more serious than any of this though is the problem that, if the coal energy experts imagine that being burned to satisfy the world’s growing hunger for cheap energy coal is actually burned without 100% CCS systems, the CPPM(Carbon Parts Per Million) figure will rocket way beyond the 350 ppm needed to stabilize and reverse global warming.

So - the problem with coal is that, at best, it is a stop-gap measure. Storage of the CO2 is envisaged either in deep geological formations, in deep ocean masses, or in the form of mineral carbonates. In the case of deep ocean storage, there is a risk of greatly increasing the problem of ocean acidification, a problem that also stems from the excess of carbon dioxide already in the atmosphere and oceans. Geological formations are currently considered the most promising sequestration sites. In its 2007 Carbon Sequestration Atlas, the National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL) reported that North America has enough storage capacity at our current rate of production for more than 900 years worth of carbon dioxide.

In March 2008, David Strahan, wrote in the Guardian, UK: “For weeks, South Africa has suffered rolling blackouts caused in part by a shortage of coal. Gripped by unusually bitter snowstorms, China recently banned coal exports for the next two months. And at Newcastle, Australia, the world’s largest coal export terminal, the queue of carriers waiting to load has been known to stretch almost to Sydney, 150km to the south. Suddenly, coal is in desperately short supply.” The world’s biggest producers and exporters are struggling, and the price of imports to Europe has doubled to almost $140 (£70.5) per tonne over the past year This makes the world’s looming energy crisis even more severe than anyone imagines: to satisfy economic growth, global coal consumption needs to rise 60% by 2030, and coal-fired electricity generating capacity has to double. But there is little chance of those things happening: as global oil production goes into terminal decline within the next decade or so, there is even less chance that synthetic coal-to-liquids fuels can make up the crude deficit. The good news is that the imperatives of climate change and peak oil are identical. In the long run, economies that rely on depletable resources are doomed to fail. The coal peak makes it even more urgent to switch to renewable energy without delay.”

Some Quotes:

Coal research and development provides huge benefits for the nation, and pay for itself many times over through taxes flowing back to the Treasury from expanded economic activity.

Tim Holden

Just as nuclear weapons were the subject of the original Peace Child musical, coal-fired power stations must be the subject of the new one. They pose the greatest threat to our collective future.

Not all the coal that is dug warms the world.

One pound of uranium is worth about 3 million pounds worth of coal or oil.

David Gordon

Mary H. Jones

James Lovelock

My great-grandfather was a coal miner, who worked in Pennsylvania mines when carts were pulled by mules and mines were lit by candles. Mining was very dangerous work then. The coal industry has helped fuel this Nation for 150 years, and coal can be used to heat our homes, power our economy, and protect our Nation for at least another 150 years if we continue to use it.

Tim Murphy

Coal companies have a lot of power in the media, and unfortunately a lot of information doesn’t get out.

Kevin Richardson

The government is shutting down the UK coal industry. They say it’s cheaper to draw nuclear power off the French grid and cheaper to buy coal from Colombia.

Martin C. Smith

Background Reading:

Websites on Coal: www.ccsassociation.org.uk

http://www.bellona.org/subjects/CO2_sequestration

http://www.nrcce.wvu.edu/

http://www.grinningplanet.com/2003/parents-say/environmental-issue-27.htm

http://blogpublic.lib.msu.edu/index.php/2008/12/14/the-problem-with-coal-plants?blog=33

http://www.onlineopinion.com.au/view.asp?article=7289

Books on Coal:

Big Coal: The Dirty Secret Behind America’s Energy Future by Jeff Goodell (2007)

Coal: A Human History by Barbara Freese (2004)

Some Questions and Answers:

Why don’t Luke, Lian and the Boff probe the President of the Mining Company further in their dialogue with him?

well, you re-write it – and probe as far as you like! But – remember your audience! You may be defeated by their snores long before you have gotten to the end of your arguments! Ernest Hemingway often said that the skill in writing is what you leave out. “The Sun also rises? – I left almost everything out of that…” So – you have to choose what you leave in and what you leave out. The scene as it stands is probably too long even now – so extending it with deeper discussions of CCS and climate change politics might defeat the issue. But – you could start again from scratch and build the whole play around this dialogue.

How many tons of primeval forest does it take to create a gallon of petrol/gas? 100 tons!

How many tons of primeval forest does it take to create a ton of coal? 10,000 tons!

Fossil fuels are natures one-time gift to mankind. They took 300-500 million years to create – and we have squandered them in rather less than two centuries.

Some Games:

ONE:

Full dress debate: the motion should be along the lines of: “This house believes that Coal is the answer to the energy Crisis.” Divide the cast and allow them to assemble arguments for both sides. Have a proposer and a seconder for each side – followed by interventions from the floor. Then have a summing up from both sides – and take a vote. Be sure to capture all the best lines for use in the script!

TWO

Family Debate: Imagine the scene around the family breakfast table: teen-age greenie daughter wants the family to switch to buying ‘green electricity’ – Dad is totally opposed – more expensive! Who says it is green any way? Global warming is a myth etc. Teen age daughter or son argues forcefully the reasons for buying electricity from a source that is not a coal-fired power station. Have a Mum character who tries to find common ground between the three of them. Keep changing the cast members in each of the roles – so the the cast-member improvising the Dad has to become the Teen-ager, and the cast-member improvising the Teenager has to become the Mum etc. No resolution desired or needed – just, again, some great lines for the play – and perhaps a whole new scene.

THREE:

Climate Change Career Tombola: Get every cast member to write down on a piece of paper the career they would really like to pursue in later life. Fold each piece of paper up and put it in a large can or basket. Shake it up, and get each cast member to pick out one piece of paper. Then, have a succession of job interviews where the prospective employer asks each interviewee: “How do you think that your work in this career could advance the building of the green economy?” Keep changing the roles until each cast member has had the chance of being both the interviewee and the interviewer.

Some Homework:

What – for you – is the right answer for the President of the Mining Company? What should he be saying to Luke, Lian and the youth? Write a prepared statement that he might, if he suddenly saw the light, write when he gets home to signal his change of view. Or to confirm his opposition to the young people’s ideas. If you are up for it, write both statements.

Some ideas for New Enquiries: New Scenes, New Characters, New Story-line, New Songs:

ONE:

Stick with this scene! Don’t allow it to end UNTIL the President of the Mining Company has changed his mind. This could be a new end of the play – because then he will go to Washington, argue the kid’s case –and bring home the proverbial bacon in the form of a new law.

TWO:

Imagine he is the President of another kind of company – an oil company, an energy company or a shipping company, or an airline. Or – change it even more: Imagine he is the head of VESTAS – the Danish Wind Power company – or another renewable / green energy company. Or maybe he – or she – is a head of state, or Minister for Energy; or an EU Commissioner – some one else entirely! Start a different conversation – and see where it goes. It will change the tenor and the direction of the show completely – but that is the point: see where the new scene takes you! It might be better than the existing one!

THREE:

Bring in new characters: a company scientist to argue with the Boffin; or bring in a marketing expert to argue for the company’s branding and image in the world. Or bring in the Chief Accountant – who would argue the impact on the bottom line.

FOUR:

Write a new song – for the youth to sing and, also, for the President to respond with: it could be a rap from the youth –and an aggressive rock anthem from the Mining Company president to respond with – and have him sing it with a backing group of secretaries, or company accountants.

FIVE:

We have in mind just to put up the company logo on a powerpoint screen – and create the furnishings with a couple of chairs and the President’s table. Without crowding out the stage, what other inventive thoughts do you have about staging this, one of the most important scenes in the story.

Further Discussion:

There are several other points for further discussion:

Environmental Damage of Mining:

The damage done to the environment of open-cast coal-mining: look at these pictures of Montana and West Virginia in the USA – coal mining has trashed thousands of acres of wilderness – destroyed millions of habitats – just to get it out of the ground. That is a point that the youth might like to raise with the President.

Transport challenge:

The rivers and canals of our world plus our railway lines, shipping lanes and increasingly roads are clogged with barges, boats and trucks transporting coal from the mines to the power stations where it will be burned. Surely it makes sense to have the power-stations close to the mines – and have DC-Smart Grids shipping the electricity in clean, non-polluting ways to where it needs to be used?

The Job from Hell:

Mining for coal has to be one of the most dangerous, disheartening, dirty jobs known to humanity: why do we allow it to continue? Few go ‘down the pit’ voluntarily: they go down because there is no choice –because their families depend upon the wages they get from it. The miner’s lot is bad enough in Europe: in China and other parts of the developing world, working in a coal mine is as close to working in hell as it gets this side of the grave. Last year, 3,422 miners died in mining accidents in coal mines around the world: and being buried alive in a coal mine must be one of the most frightening, horrible, nastiest of deaths.

Killing the Earth with Public Funds:

In the UK in 2007, the coal industry was given subsidies worth £100 million. In the USA, the figure is $9 Billion. This is not for clean coal or carbon capture: this is just to keep some inefficient coal mines open –and keep workers in their killer jobs, the managers on their fat salaries and ensuring that more dirty coal is burned to clobber the environment and contribute to global warming. Madness! Stop it.

THE LIMITS OF DEMOCRACY V

THE LIMITS OF DEMOCRACY

Introduction to the issue:

The purpose of this lesson is to flesh out the feeling of helplessness that Lian feels at the end of the first Act when she feels that there is no way in a democratic society that the needs of the unborn, or the planet’s environment, can be protected by a government answerable only to those alive at this moment.

Frustration with governments has been endemic since the first cavemen said, “Let me be your leader!” Shakespeare’s Hamlet put it well:

“For who would suffer the law’s delay and insolence of office…”

At the Poznan Climate Change summit, a young person surveyed the scurrying, endlessly busy diplomats, ministers and government officials charged with the task of negotiating an agreement to prevent catastrophic climate change and concluded: “If the fate of our earth is in the hands of these guys, God help us!” The problem with democracy is that governments elected by them deal in the here and now. They elect politicians for 4-5 year terms. They may speak airily of 80% cuts in carbon emissions by 2050 comfortable in the knowledge that their time in government will be long over before any one comes to check if they achieved that goal.

Most voters, if asked, would probably profess unconditional love for their children and grand-children. But, when push comes to shove in the voting booth and the choice is between tax cuts today and preventing global warming tomorrow – you have to bet that the majority would vote for tax cuts today. Confusing, isn’t it? Does this mean that democracy is not in the long term interests of the planet’s environment? Yes! - if it could be proved that the majority of humanity is greedy, venal and bad. But – you have to believe that the opposite is true: that the majority of humanity would make sacrifices for future generations. When it comes to the survival of the planet, wouldn’t most people choose life over contributing to the demise of all life on earth? Perhaps. But what if they didn’t? Should we, as Jefferson, suggests, just keep educating them? – (about climate change in particular!) – Or is that, as Paulo Freire and Goering seem to be saying, just another form of dictatorship. We can never forget in the UK that opinion was very much against joining the European Union in 1982 until politicians of all parties, all newspapers, church and other leaders told us it was a good idea: meekly, the British Public followed their lead and voted in favor of joining. This year, the Irish people are to be told that they got their vote wrong the first time – and that they should now vote the right way and accept the Lisbon Treaty on the revised European Union.

And what about special interests? The history of the last 8 years in the USA is all the proof you need to understand that governments can be co-opted by special interests. Flouting international law and world opinion, they barged into Iraq to get their hands on the real estate of the world’s 4th largest oil reserve. A rich reward for funding the candidate’s election campaign – although, of course, it wasn’t. The government, having won the war, botched the peace – and left the situation far worse than it was when it started. At the same time, the special oil lobby interest made sure that their government did its best to obstruct an agreement on climate change, or any reduction in the statutory fuel consumption of automobiles – even while state governors were doing their best to limit them. Given the performance of the Bush administration in the USA, and the stalemate forced by the EU New Member states with Italy, and supported by the feebleness of Germany –Lian’s skepticism about democratic process is probably well justified. Perhaps the Obama administration will work to change her mind. Watch it closely and pick on those issues that reflect Lian’s concerns.

Some Quotes:

The spirit of democracy cannot be imposed from without. It has to come from within.

Mohandas K. Gandhi

When I despair, I remember that all through history the way of truth and love has always won. There have been tyrants and murderers and for a time they seem invincible, but in the end, they always fall - think of it, ALWAYS.

Mohandas K. Gandhi

Decision by democratic majority vote is a fine form of government, but it’s a stinking way to encourage creativity.

Lillian Hellman

If there is any one out there who still doubts that America is a place where all things are possible, who still questions the power of our democracy, tonight is your answer. It is the answer that led those who have been told for so long by so many to be cynical and fearful and doubtful about what we can achieve to put their hands on the arc of history and bend it once more toward the hope of a better day.

Barack Obama

It has been said that democracy is the worst form of government except all the others that have been tried.

Sir Winston Churchill

I know of no safe repository of the ultimate power of society but people. And if we think them not enlightened enough, the remedy is not to take the power from them, but to inform them by education.

Thomas Jefferson

Education either functions as an instrument which is used to facilitate integration of the younger generation into the logic of the present system and bring about conformity or it becomes the practice of freedom, the means by which men and women deal critically and creatively with reality and discover how to participate in the transformation of their world.

Paulo Freire

It is the leaders of the country who determine policy, and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy, or a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. Naturally the common people don’t want war; neither in Russia, nor in England, nor in America, nor in Germany. But voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is to tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country.

Hermann Goering

The Lack of a Global Democracy:

The other limit to Democracy is the fact that it applies only to nation states: there is no global democracy – so however good-willed and generous the people of one country are towards future generations, their generosity can be immediately cancelled out by the greed and self-interest of another, less charitable democracy.

So what about the United Nations? – well, it’s not a democracy: far from it! It is a Conference Facility open to member governments who meet and make up rules with absolutely no consultation with their electorates. Certain matters are put to a majority vote in the General Assembly, but few are binding on the member governments – and the most important ones are decided by the Security Council with its 22 members – five of whom have the power of veto over everyone else. Also, in the General Assembly, the People’s Republic of China has one vote, just like the people of Luxembourg with 300,000.

And yet the United Nations is all we have – and there are some very, very, bright idealistic people working within its agencies and secretariats. The fact is – we have no other body where governments meet and determine the future of our planet. John McCain, in his presidential campaign in the USA, spoke compellingly of his desire to create a new World Association of Democracies – governments freely and fairly elected by their citizens and conforming to the key elements of democracy and the rule of law. But – in retrospect, it was another fanciful element of a failed campaign: no one had a good word to say about it – though, in rational terms, it is the obvious way to get better laws, passed more quickly for the international community intent on making the world a better, safer place.

Background Reading: some Books on Democracy:

The Civic Conversations of Thucydides and Plato on Classical Political Philosophy and the Limits of Democracy by Gerald M. Mara (2008)

Democracy and Its Limits: Lessons from Asia, Latin America, and the Middle East by Helen Kellogg Institute for International Studies, Howard Handelman, and Mark A. Tessler (2000)

The Limits of Liberal Democracy by Scott H. Moore (2009)

The Limits of Pure Democracy by William Hurrell Mallock and H. Lee Cheek Jr. (2007)

Property Rights and the Limits of Democracy by Charles Kershaw Rowley (1993)

Unequal Democracy by Larry M. Bartells (Kindle, 2008)

The Challenge Of Democracy by Kenneth Janda, Jeffrey M. Berry, and Jerry Goldman (2006)

Restoration: the Recovery of Deliberative Democracy by George F. Will (1993)

Some Questions and Answers:

What would be the ideal form of global governance?

Perhaps, an over-arching, inter-generational court of review that balances present wants against future needs: what the Russians and the Germans have talked about for a long time - “An Environmental Security Council” – which passes world laws which governments have to obey or face prosecution if they breach them.

Is Goering right? Can citizens always be manipulated by governments to do what they want?

History would seem to support Goering: in recent history, the silliest war of modern times was declared on Iraq with almost zero support from the International Community – huge resistance from the public – and yet governments just surged ahead with it. And when the war was won, most people interviewed seemed to think it had been a good idea. They don’t now – of course. And the power of popular resistance – the General Strike – can overwhelm any government or company. Witness Greenpeace’s action against Shell’s Brent Spar: all the scientists – both from Greenpeace and Shell, - agreed that sinking the oil rig was the most effective way of getting rid of it. But the public was roused by the campaign teams – and they proved mightily effective at whipping up public distaste for the sinking of the rig. The public boycotted all Shell filling stations and forced the Shell management to renege on what they knew to be the right course. They towed Brent Spar to a Norwegian fjord where, at huge expense both to the company and to the environment, they cut the rig up and sold it on for scrap. Moral: when the public get the bit between their teeth, they can overcome the forces of big business. Goering: against powerfully motivated public will – even if wrong – governments cannot stand. Indeed, that was what brought him to power in the first place!

Are educated electorates necessarily the best guardians of the future of the planet?

David Suzuki, the famous Canadian environmentalist, tells the story of sailing up Vancouver Sound with some friends of his from an aboriginal tribe living in Papua New Guinea. David was ranting on about the clear-cutting of virgin forests on either side of the sound – until the aboriginal native stopped him and said: “But David – you told us that Canadians were amongst the best educated people on earth: how can people who are educated do something as stupid as this….?” He had no answer – except to say that it was the wrong sort of education. Education must include planetary literacy as well as verbal, economic and financial literacy. Education for sustainable development – or something like it – must find its way to the heart of every school’s curriculum if the planet is to survive. Educating another generation of hedge fund managers and corporate advertising executives just won’t hack it when it comes to saving the planet.

How can governments stop political parties being taken over by big business or other special interests?

In the play, as written, the young people are working chiefly on getting the Big Industries to see sense and support them: strategically, is that the best approach? We think so – as if the big industry supports the idea of building the green economy, rather than clinging on to the dregs of the old, carbon-based economy, governments will have to follow their lead. But – as the Mining Company president, explains – peer pressure from other CEOs in his industry is very strong. It is a hard nut to crack.

Some Games:

ONE:

Throw a World Banquet: If you’ve never done one of these before, there is no better way of waking your cast up to the challenges of global democratic governance than organizing one. Take the number of your cast – or a larger group if you wish! (it’s best with a group of about 100 students) Divide the group number into the world’s population (roughly 6.3 billion) – and you serve them all a meal. The percentages can be calculate with great accuracy if you choose to go to the UNDP Human Development Report Website – and calculate the numbers of people in each per capita income bracked. But – basically, if you have 100 people – 6 get to eat a 6-course banquet; 14 get a substantial 3-course meal; 30 get one course, with meat and a vegetable; another 30 get a plate just with the vegetable; and the final 20 get a small cup of cold rice. Divide the group up by drawing lots – or having 100 scraps of paper with a number on it in a bucket or Tombola. Don’t say a thing – but after you have served the meal, watch as the kids intuitively share their food with each other – or not! Then discuss afterwards what should be done about the reality of our extremely unequal world – which is getting more, rather than less, unequal by the minute. (The combined wealth of the four richest men on the planet, would feed, clothe and provide shelter for the billion poorest people on the planet. Is that fair?)

TWO:

Play a Needs and Wants game: This game is downloadable from the Peace Child Be the Change Challenge Ambassador materials – but you can easily make it up with your cast. Tear up some slips of paper (about five per cast member) and get each member of the cast to write on it the things that they think are most important for ensuring the survival of human life on earth continues. (You can prompt them a little bit – water might be necessary, seeds for vegetables, chickens, cows for milk etc.) Then go round the cast and ask them to read out their priorities for life on earth. Toss out the duplicates. And then ask them: “If you were told you had to pack a space-ship for a distant planet that had been made habitable with an atmosphere, air – oxygen etc. – and you need to put on the spaceship those ten things that you think are absolutely necessary for life on the new planet, which ten things from the pile you have in front of you would you take with you? DECIDE BY DEMOCRATIC MAJORITY VOTE!!” So – each cast member has ten votes – and the ten things with the most votes gets on the spaceship. You can then reduce it to five things – then three – then one, if you want. Each time, the efficiency of the democratic vote should become apparent to the young cast – and you can discuss why their democracy works well – and other forms of democracy (like at national or international level) might not work so well.

THREE:

The Crowded Island game: this is a variant of the ‘Englishman, Irishman and Scotsman’ jokes that are probably well known throughout your cast. This is slightly more complicated – and it can be played in an infinite variety of forms – with different casts of characters. This is the basis: you are ship-wrecked on a remote island which has everything a human being could possibly want – but some one has to row out across the sea on the one surviving dinghy to try to fetch help. It’s a long voyage, and the rower might get lost at sea – so who is the most dispensible?? You have a lawyer on the island; an accountant; an entrepreneur, a teacher, an artist, a musician, a nurse, a doctor, an economist, a banker, a craftsman (plumber, carpenter, brick-layer), an IT specialist with a laptop – and a politician. Who do you send away? What profession is the most disposable? Sit the cast in circles and argue it out fiercely!

Some Homework:

So you’re a kid who sees the older generation trashing the planet you’re trying to grow up on: invent a system of governance that will secure the planet’s environment for your own, and future, generations.

You’re an elderly grand-father or grand-mother who, in your declining years, wants to do something that will secure the planet’s environment for your children and grand-children. Decide what you think you might do –and give good reasons for doing so.

Some ideas for New Enquiries: New Scenes, New Characters, New Story-line, New Songs:

• Think about how the story might develop if the Mining Company president did say ‘Yes!” to coming to the capital and promoting the Carbon Capture and Storage bill. No need to go to the UN – another kind of story all together. More interesting? You decide!

• “Mr President” is a bit dated now: try to re-write it as a rap; and have the President rap back with his ‘I’m Sorry’ number.

• The Mining Company president is an old guy in a suit, right? Inter-generational battle, yes?! Think again – try making him the President’s son – not much older than the young people confronting him. Beautifully dressed in designer shirts, cool shades, $1000 shoes. See how that changes the dynamic of the scene.

• Al Gore, the nobel-prize winning environmentalist, was recently asked if he would go to jail to save the environment. He was very surprised by the question because, as a senator rather than a citizen activist, he had never considered it. After thinking it over for 24-hours, he reckoned that the situation was so serious, he actually would. Now, if a former vice president of the USA is considering civil disobedience, wouldn’t these young heroes? Take the confrontation with the Mining Company guards to the next level: sit down strikes, chaining themselves together; using super-glue on the guards feet etc. Have them defend their action. Loudly and Intelligentily!

Further Discussion:

• So – democracy is not all that it’s cracked up to be. So take a moment to discuss the alternatives: how would Adolf Hitler and Josef Stalin – assuming they had been friends – have addressed the challenge of global warming. How might they have adjusted their plans for world domination? Add Robert Mugabe and Saddam Hussein to the mix – and see where the conversation takes you. Then introduce George Bush, Barack Obama and Angela Merkel and try to bring the conversation to a close.

• The people have spoken! They no longer have any faith in the United Nations and want a new international system of governance to be set up. Back to the drawing board, every one: what should the new, 21st Century United Nations look like? What would it be called? What powers would it have? Think it – dream it – then figure out if it might actually work!

INTERCULTURAL DIALOGUE: GETTING AGREEMENT ACROSS THE CULTURES AND RELIGIONS

© Matthias Schmidt

INTER-CULTURAL DIALOGUE: GETTING AGREEMENT ACROSS THE CULTURES AND RELIGIONS

Introduction:

The main – indeed the only question – for producers in this Lesson is: “Do you leave the religious stuff out completely?” In the USA, where the mixing of religion in education, is greatly frowned upon, perhaps the wisest course is to leave it all out. However, I would argue that the line where Hasan says:

“Just have faith: I don’t believe our Father in the Sky has plans to wipe humanity off the face of the planet. I have faith that, in all this chaos we see around us, he – or she – is working things out. And I sure hope she is because I don’t see a single politician alive today who has a clue how to sort it out.”

- is a major justification for leaving some of it in. The study of comparative religion is not forbidden in any school system. Indeed, it is a fundamental component of the study of any culture, anthropology or philosophy. In the business of saving the earth from catastrophic climate change, it seems to me to be essential to explore the nature of faith, the existence of belief, the make-up of a soul – and so on. These are issues explored in the work that gave birth to the original Peace Child play – David Gordon’s Alpha Omega. And I feel it important to raise them here – in a way that the original Peace Child did not.

However, this recommendation comes with an important warning: for those students who have faith, religion is an intensely personal matter. Not for them the games and improvisations of the earlier lessons. Those who are atheist – or who have never thought much about religion – can be incredibly hurtful to those of faith. In urging you to explore the ideas of the play in relation to faith issues and build the peace and self-esteem between those of different faiths, and those of no faith – be very sensitive: do not push your cast into conversations where they don’t want to go.

Some Quotes:

“Love is my religion - I could die for it.”

“There exists more faith in honest doubt than any of your creeds”

“Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.”

John Keats

Alfred Lord Tennyson

Hebrews 11:1

“Whether your faith is that there is a God or that there is not a God, if you don’t have any doubts, you are either kidding yourself or asleep. Doubts are the ants in the pants of faith. They keep it awake and moving.”

“Believe those who are seeking the truth. Doubt those who find it.”

Faith embraces many truths which seem to contradict each other.

Human beings must be known to be loved; but Divine beings must be loved to be known.

Frederick Beuchner

Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it from a religious conviction.

Andre Gide

Blaise Pascal

Blaise Pascal

Blaise Pascal

There is a God shaped vacuum in the heart of every man which cannot be filled by any created thing, but only by God, the Creator, made known through Jesus.

Blaise Pascal

Belief is a wise wager. Granted that faith cannot be proved, what harm will come to you if you gamble on its truth and it proves false? If you gain, you gain all; if you lose, you lose nothing. Wager, then, without hesitation, that He exists.

Blaise Pascal

“To believe that the world was created without the guiding hand of the Almighty, is like thinking that you can throw a thousand car parts up in the air and they will come down looking like a Rolls Royce.”

Prince Charles

“When the missionaries came to Africa they had the Bible and we had the land. They said “Let us pray.” We closed our eyes. When we opened them we had the Bible and they had the land.”

“We have just enough religion to make us hate, but not enough to make us love one another.”

“I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ.”

“Religion is what keeps the poor man from murdering the rich.”

“Religion is the opium of the people.”

Desmond Tutu

Jonathan Swift

Mohandas Gandhi

Napoleon Bonaparte

Karl Marx

“Environmentalism is the new opiate of the intellectuals.”

Freeman Dyson

Environmentalism has replaced socialism as the leading secular religion. Scientists and economists can agree with Buddhist monks and Christian activists that ruthless destruction of natural habitats is evil and careful preservation of birds and butterflies is good. The worldwide community of environmentalists - most of whom are not scientists—holds the moral high ground, and is guiding human societies toward a hopeful future. Environmentalism, as a religion of hope and respect for nature, is here to stay.

Unfortunately, some members of the environmental movement have also adopted as an article of faith the belief that global warming is the greatest threat to the ecology of our planet. That is one reason why the arguments about global warming have become bitter and passionate. Much of the public has come to believe that anyone who is skeptical about the dangers of global warming is an enemy of the environment. The skeptics now have the difficult task of convincing the public that the opposite is true. Many of the skeptics are passionate environmentalists. They are horrified to see the obsession with global warming distracting public attention from what they see as more serious and more immediate dangers to the planet, including problems of nuclear weaponry, environmental degradation, and social injustice. Whether they turn out to be right or wrong, their arguments on these issues deserve to be heard.

However the “moral high ground” is perhaps an illusory elevation achieved by a gaseous mixture of self-righteousness and political correctness. Yes, waste is bad; yes, we are stewards not only of the earth, but also of civilization, and it is incumbent upon us to regard both with just solicitude. Attending to both may sometimes pull us in different directions: it is a sign of maturity to ignore neither. But something profoundly damaging occurs when habits of regard harden into ideological animus. We then move for intelligent regard for the environment–three cheers for that–to environmentalism. And as with most isms, this hankering after utopia is as eager to identify and segregate heretics as it is impervious to suasion by facts.

“Revolution is the opiate of the intellectuals.” Graffitti from the film

Freeman Dyson

‘O Lucky Man’

“Just in terms of allocation of time resources, religion is not very efficient. There’s a lot more I could be doing on a Sunday morning.”

Bill Gates

“Science investigates; religion interprets. Science gives man knowledge which is power; religion gives man wisdom which is control.”

Martin Luther King, Jr.

I recently visited a Benedictine monastery: I went there full of doubts and immediately shared them with the monks. They did not seem the slightest bit concerned about my doubts. Instead, they made sure I came to all the regular worship, prayer, and liturgy. They taught me how to love God, how to speak with God, how to give my heart to God. Instead of answering my questions, they taught me how to worship. The Greek word for believe means, “to give one’s heart to.” It’s not an intellectual exercise truly to believe in God. It’s an act of worship and love and trust.

Kathleen Norris

Imagine there’s no heaven: it’s easy if you try No hell below us - above us only sky Imagine all the people living for today...

Imagine there’s no countries: it isn’t hard to do Nothing to kill or die for - And no religion too Imagine all the people Living life in peace...

You may say I’m a dreamer, but I’m not the only one I hope someday you’ll join us and the world will live as one

Imagine no possessions - I wonder if you can? No need for greed or hunger: a brotherhood of man Imagine all the people sharing all the world...

You may say I’m a dreamer, but I’m not the only one I hope someday you’ll join us and the world will live as one

John Lennon

Background Reading:

For this lesson, a close reading of the lyrics of the songs ‘I Believe’ – ‘Father in the Sky’ – ‘The Lords Prayers’ is a good place to start. Then, of course, get your heads around the Bible, the Qu’ran and the Torah. After that, as with the quotes, the list is long: Introduction to the Koran: http://www.infoplease.com/t/rel/koran/pr01.html

Introduction To Christianity by Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, Pope Benedict XVI, (2004)

Judaism: A Very Short Introduction by Norman Solomon (2000)

The Koran: A Very Short Introduction by Michael Cook (2000)

An Introduction to Islam for Jews by Reuven Firestone (2008)

Children of Abraham : An Introduction to Islam for Jews by Khalid Duran (2001)

The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins (2006)

God is No Delusion: A Refutation of Richard Dawkins by Thomas Crean (2007)

The Dawkins Delusion? : Atheist Fundamentalism and the Denial of the Divine by Alister E. McGrath and Joanna Collicutt Mcgrath (2007)

God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything by Christopher Hitchens (2007)

The End of Faith: Religion, Terror, and the Future of Reason by Sam Harris (2005)

There Is a God: How the World’s Most Notorious Atheist Changed His Mind by Antony Flew and Roy Abraham Varghese (2008)

The Faith Club: A Muslim, A Christian, A Jew-- Three Women Search for Understanding by Ranya Idliby, Suzanne Oliver, and Priscilla Warner (2007)

Nature’s Witness: How Evolution Can Inspire Faith by Daniel M. Harrell and Tony Jones (2008)

Faith in Nature: Environmentalism As Religious Quest by Thomas R. Dunlap and William Cronon (2005)

The Case for Faith: A Journalist Investigates the Toughest Objections to Christianity by Lee Strobel(2000)

Ideas for Discussion - Some Questions and Answers:

Is God a delusion? – it isn’t necessary to read Dawkins or Hitchens to engage your cast in a discussion of this issue. The John Lennon lines in ‘Imagine’ are a good place to start. And the Pascal dichotomy. Be very democratic about it – “Hands up those who believe Lennon / Dawkins?” Build the play around the majority view – with space and time, and intelligence to defend the views of the minority.

Some Homework:

Fieldwork would be best here: take your cast to Friday prayers at the Mosque and the Synagogue; take them to a family communion on Sunday. Go to a meeting of a Humanist Association. Talk with the people there about their faith.

Some ideas for New Enquiries: New Scenes, New Characters, New Story-line, New Songs:

If you miss out the Faith stuff, you need a new engine to drive the plot: what passion can replace the Faith of Hassan and Lian to drive their efforts forward? Thirst for peace perhaps – an end to the post-9/11 tensions between Americans and Arabs? Think about it.

In the middle of the sixties, the Beatle’s music was transformed by their visits to the Maharishi in India. Suddenly there were Indian sitars in their music: George Harrison was inspired by the new vision that this faith gave him. Think about how songs from different cultural traditions – Hindu, Buddhist, Jewish, Islamic – would open up new avenues in this story. Pursue them if you wish.

Some people think that priests and imams and rabbis are figures of fun: Peace Child Intl. begs you not to trivialize these people. We know it is easy to do – but not the comment at the start of this lesson. For those with faith, it is an intensely personal, defining matter of life. NOTHING should be done in this play, or in the name of Peace Child, to offend or undermine their faith.

THE SCIENCE OF CLIMATE CHANGE: GETTING THE PPM RIGHT VII

© Trudy Veitch, Canada

THE SCIENCE OF CLIMATE CHANGE: GETTING THE PPM RIGHT

Introduction:

There cannot be many times that a playwright encourages a theatre director to invite the science department to come to a rehearsal, but for this lesson, you absolutely should! A geography teacher too perhaps. For your cast need to understand the science of climate change if they are to be able to present characters like the Boffin convincingly – and convince the audience that they understand what he is talking about.

The science of acid rain was relatively simple: Sulphur dioxide spews out of the factory chimneys, mixes with the water vapour in the clouds and creates sulphuric acid. [SO2 + H2O = H2SO4]. Even my science can cope with that. But the science of climate change is vastly more complicated. For a start, there are many more gases that cause global warming: it is NOT just CO2 – carbon dioxide. Methane is 20 x more powerful as a global warming gas – which is why flatulent cows are such a potent cause of global warming. (Seriously! There are scientists all over the world researching food mixes for cows that will stop them farting so badly…)

The PPM – or carbon equivalent parts per million – is the key measure to understand.(By talking about carbon ‘equivalent’ – you are taking into account all the global warming gases, and expressing them in carbon terms.) Global warming is caused by particles of carbon and other elements floating up into the atmosphere and reflecting warmth back on to the earth. That’s what the atmosphere does: that’s why we have life on earth! But the problem is that there are now too many particles up there – so the greenhouse effect is working too well: before – when, for thousands of years before the industrial revolution, the ppm was about 270ppm. And the earth was in balance – no global warming. Civilisations grew. Now – with ppm at 387ppm –we see the wholesale melting of glaciers and ice caps. And the ppm is growing at 2-5ppm per year.

The other measure which many use is the 1 or 2 degree threshold: it is important to understand this ‘threshold’ idea (some call it a ‘tipping point’ – or just ‘point of no return’) – for this is where we cross into unknown territory: the world of irreparable and irreversible ‘catastrophic climate change’. We don’t know exactly what will happen – but we do know that things may start unraveling fast – and, as one thing unravels, others may do so too – very quickly, in ways that no one could predict or expect. Climate Change prediction and science are far from being exact: all good scientists will tell you that – and point at the way the Arctic Ice Sheet is melting much faster than any of their calculations or fancy computer modeling programmes predicted. So they will urge you, and every political leader, to adopt what they call the ‘precautionary principle’ – the principle that it is better to prepare for the worst and take steps to deal with it – rather than wait for the unexpected to leap up and bite you when you’re not ready.

That’s why the 350ppm is so important to understand. It is the key to saving the planet!

Some Quotes:

“The truth is – the goals we are reaching towards are incredibly difficult: and a goal of 450ppm, which seems so difficult today, is inadequate. We will soon have to toughen that goal to 350ppm…”

Al Gore

“Just as science and technology have given us the evidence to measure the danger of climate change, so it can help us find safety from it. The potential for innovation, for scientific discovery and hence, of course for business investment and growth, is enormous. With the right framework for action, the very act of solving it can unleash a new and benign commercial force to take the action forward, providing jobs, technology spinoffs and new business opportunities as well as protecting the world we live in.”

Tony Blair, Former British Prime Minister

“The issue of climate change is one that we ignore at our own peril. There may still be disputes about exactly how much we’re contributing to the warming of the earth’s atmosphere and how much is naturally occurring, but what we can be scientifically certain of is that our continued use of fossil fuels is pushing us to a point of no return. And unless we free ourselves from a dependence on these fossil fuels and chart a new course on energy in this country, we are condemning future generations to global catastrophe.”

President-elect Barack Obama

“The current global climate situation is like being in a car with bad brakes driving toward a cliff in the fog.”

John Holdren, President-elect Obama’s Science Advisor

“Scientists continue to learn more about global climate change, its causes, potential impacts and possible solutions.”

The one mention of climate change in Dick Cheney’s 170-page Review of Energy Strategy for the Bush Administration.

“In the past, we didn’t understand the effect of our actions. Unknowingly,we sowed the wind and now, literally,we are reaping the whirlwind. But we no longer have that excuse: now we do recognise the consequences of our behaviour. Now surely, we must act to reform it: individually and collectively; nationally and internationally — or we doom future generations to catastrophe.”

Sir David Attenborough

“Where Martin Luther King said, “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere!” - I say, ‘increased CO2 emissions anywhere are a threat to this planet’s climate balance and integrity everywhere.’ The old divide between North and South is obsolete. We must, together, embrace today what few generations have ever had the privilege of embracing – a generational mission. A compelling moral purpose. Because ultimately this is not a political issue. It is a moral issue, and a spiritual issue. A question of right vs. wrong. It is clearly wrong for this generation to destroy the habitability of our planet and ruin the prospects of every future generation. Our children have a right to hold us to a higher goal. They deserve better than politicians who sit on their hands in the face of the biggest challenge that humanity has ever faced and a public that seem more interested in the fortunes of OJ Simpson, Paris Hilton and Anna Nicole Smith than the survival of civilisation.”

Al Gore

Background Reading:

There are loads of books you can read – but the main paper that relates to this play is John Hansen’s paper: Target Atmospheric CO2: where should humanity aim? You can download the whole paper by clicking here – but, be warned, it’s deeply complicated – talking about the ‘Cenozoic’ and ‘Holocene eras’, ‘albedo feedbacks’ and ‘paleoclimate’ study. Paleoclimate is, in fact, just a smart word for the study of the history of the earth’s climate. Paleoclimatology is what Hansen and his colleagues do: drilling holes in rocks and ice-caps to measure historic levels of carbon from tens of thousands of years ago. Understanding why there were periods in the earth’s history when the planet was ice-free, just as there were several ice ages, is the best way to predict – and prepare for – what will happen next.

To give you a flavor of Hansen’s paper – and a sense of the authority with which he and other scientists lay out the extremely scary future for our planet which lies in store for us if we do nothing, here are some quotes from his paper:

“Decreasing CO2 was the main cause of a cooling trend that began 50 million years ago. The planet was almost completely ice-free until CO2 fell to about 450 ppm. Without immediate changes in policy, that critical level will be passed, in the opposite direction, within decades. So, if humanity wishes to preserve a planet similar to that on which civilization developed and to which life on Earth is adapted, paleoclimate evidence suggests that CO2 will need to be reduced from its current 385 ppm to at most 350 ppm, but probably even less than that. An initial 350 ppm CO2 target may be achievable by phasing out coal use except where CO2 is captured and adopting agricultural and forestry practices that sequester carbon. If the present overshoot of this target CO2 is not brief, there is a possibility of seeding irreversible catastrophic effects.”

“A large fraction of fossil fuel CO2 emissions stays in the air a long time, one-quarter remaining airborne for several centuries. Thus moderate delay of fossil fuel use will not appreciably reduce long-term human-made climate change. Preservation of a climate resembling that to which humanity is accustomed requires that most remaining fossil fuel carbon is never emitted to the atmosphere. Coal is the largest reservoir of conventional fossil fuels, exceeding combined reserves of oil and gas. Thus, the only realistic way to sharply curtail CO2 emissions is to phase out coal use except where CO2 is captured and sequestered.”

“Our desire to reduce airborne CO2 raises the question of whether CO2 could be drawn from the air artificially. Currently, there are no large-scale technologies for CO2 air carbon capture, but if we invest heavily in research and development and sustain industrial-scale pilot projects over decades, it may be possible to capture a ton of carbon at a cost of $200 per ton. At that price, reducing atmospheric CO2 from 450ppm to 350ppm would be $40 trillion. Improved agricultural and forestry practices offer a cheaper, more natural way to draw down CO2: a 50 ppm drawdown via agricultural and forestry practices seems plausible. Deforestation contributed a net emission of about 60 ppm over the past few hundred years, so largescale reforestation could absorb a substantial fraction of that.”

Conclusion:

“Humanity today, collectively, must face the uncomfortable fact that industrial civilization itself has become the principal driver of global climate. If we stay our present course, using fossil fuels to feed a growing appetite for energy-intensive life styles, we will soon leave the world of human history to date. The eventual response to doubling pre-industrial atmospheric CO2 likely would be a nearly ice-free planet, preceded by a period of chaotic change with continually changing shorelines.

“Humanity’s task of moderating human-caused global climate change is urgent. Ocean and ice sheet inertias provide a buffer delaying full response by centuries, but there is a danger that human-made forcings could drive the climate system beyond tipping points such that change proceeds out of our control. Thus remaining fossil fuel reserves should not be exploited without a plan for retrieval and disposal of resulting atmospheric CO2.

“Paleoclimate evidence and ongoing global changes imply that today’s CO2, about 385 ppm, is already too high to maintain the climate to which humanity, wildlife, and the rest of the biosphere are adapted. Realization that we must reduce the current CO2 amount has a bright side: effects that had begun to seem inevitable, including impacts of ocean acidification, loss of fresh water supplies, and shifting of climatic zones, may be averted by the necessity of finding an energy course beyond fossil fuels sooner than would otherwise have occurred.

“We suggest an initial objective of reducing atmospheric CO2 to 350 ppm, with the target to be adjusted as scientific understanding and empirical evidence of climate effects accumulate. This target must be pursued on a timescale of decades, as paleoclimate and ongoing changes, and the ocean response time, suggest that it would be foolhardy to allow CO2 to stay in the dangerous zone for centuries.

“A practical global strategy almost surely requires a rising global price on CO2 emissions and phaseout of coal use except for cases where the CO2 is captured and sequestered. The carbon price should eliminate use of unconventional fossil fuels, unless, as is unlikely, the CO2 can be captured. A reward system for improved agricultural and forestry practices that sequester carbon could remove the current CO2 overshoot. With simultaneous policies to reduce non-CO2 greenhouse gases, it appears still feasible to avert catastrophic climate change.

“Present policies, with continued construction of coal-fired power plants without CO2 capture, suggest that decision-makers do not appreciate the gravity of the situation. We must begin to move now toward the era beyond fossil fuels. If most of the CO2 in coal is put into the air, any “natural” drawdown of CO2 to 350 ppm is not feasible. Continued growth of greenhouse gas emissions, for just another decade, eliminates the possibility of near-term return of atmospheric composition beneath the tipping level for catastrophic effects.

“The most difficult task is the phase-out over the next 20-25 years of coal use that does not capture CO2, That task is Herculean, yet feasible when compared with the efforts that went into World War II. The stakes, for all life on the planet, surpass those of any previous crisis humanity has faced. The greatest danger is continued ignorance and denial, which could make tragic consequences unavoidable.”

John Hansen, Director, NASA Goddard Space Research Institute

I have to say, I take the above as our marching orders: we HAVE to do something to persuade our governments to aim for the 350ppm target: you don’t have to be a scientist to recognize that, as Hansen tells you, even at current levels of global warming, we are going to lose most of the planet’s ice. And if we lose that, as the characters in the play say, 2 billion people will be forced to move from South-East Asia; London and other major coastal cities will disappear beneath the waves – and the march of human progress will become a headlong retreat to the hills.

As the great American environmentalist, David Orr, put it, some years ago:

The generation now being educated will have to do what our generation has been unable or unwilling to do: stabilize a world population which is growing at the rate of quarter of a million each day; stabilize and then reduce the emission of greenhouse gases which threaten to change the climate; protect biological diversity, now declining at an estimated rate of 100-200 species per day; reverse the destruction of rainforests now being lost at the rate of 116 square miles each day; and conserve soils now being eroded at the rate of 65,000,000 tons per day.

Future generations must also learn to use energy and materials with greater efficiency. They must learn to utilize solar energy in all its forms. They must rebuild the economy in order to eliminate waste and pollution. They must learn how to manage renewable resources for the long term. They must begin the great work of repairing the damage done to the Earth in the past 200 years of industrialisation. And they must do all of this while addressing worsening social and racial inequities.

No generation has faced a more daunting agenda.

Professor David Orr, Oberlin College, USA

Here are some other books on Climate change which I enjoyed – or found compellingly authoritative: A Hot Planet Needs Cool Kids: Understanding Climate Change and What You Can Do About It by Julie Hall and Sarah Lane (2007)

The traditional view from scientists of the Royal Society http://royalsociety.org/page.asp?id=1279

http://royalsociety.org/page.asp?id=6229

For a look at the pros and cons of the climate change debate from non-IPCC supporters http://www.rightsidenews.com/200812273111/energy-and-environment/a-glimpse-inside-the-global-warmingcontroversy.html

More direct quotes from the sceptics http://mediamatters.org/items/200812230010?f=h_popular

The Science and Politics of Global Climate Change: A Guide to the Debate by Andrew E. Dessler and Edward A. Parson (2006)

Climate Change: Picturing the Science by Gavin Schmidt, Joshua Wolfe, and Jeffrey D. Sachs (2009)

Climate Change 2007 - The Physical Science Basis by Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (2007) (warning – find it in a library! It costs: $177.00)

Global Warming: The Science of Climate Change by Frances Drake (2000)

Climate Confusion: How Global Warming Hysteria Leads to Bad Science, Pandering Politicians and Misguided Policies that Hurt the Poor by Roy Spencer (2008)

A History of the Science and Politics of Climate Change: The Role of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change by Bert Bolin (2008)

Some Homework Questions:

Get the cast to read up on climate change science – and come back with some views, perceptions, reports on what they have learned. Then get them to answer simple questions:

• What are carbon equivalent parts per million?

• What are the main gases that cause global warming?

• What is the threshold of dangerous climate change? Etc. Read the Hansen paper then, as a scientist – in cool, firm statistical terms, defend your decision to demand a 350ppm target at the Copenhagen Summit;

Some Games:

ONE:

Have a Question Time: with some students and family members NOT in the cast; get the cast to sit on stage, and gather in a bunch of questions from the ‘audience.’ Go through the questions submitted very carefully, and choose only those that you think your cast should, following their homework, be able to answer or express an intelligent opinion upon. Then set up the audience members to ask their questions, and get the cast members to volunteer to answer them.

TWO:

Sudden Death: Split the cast in two groups. Put one group on stage, the other in the audience. Get the group in the audience to fire scientific questions at the group on stage. The stage group puts one member forward at a time to answer – and s/he can pass on three questions but then, if they get one wrong, they ‘Die’ – and go back stage. Reverse the groups – and award a prize to the cast member who survives the greatest number of questions. Be ready with a list of back-up scientific questions should the audience group run out of ideas.

THREE:

Field work: get the cast to identify examples of global warming from their own homes, or from a chosen country around the world. Get them to find and bring in a photograph or news report of their example – and create a small exhibition of the effects of climate change. Then use the exhibition to discuss the scientific explanations for each item in the exhibition.

Some ideas for New Enquiries: New Scenes, New Characters, New Story-line, New Songs:

The Boffin:

The first person to play the ‘Boffin’ character was a young woman – and I have always seen the character as a female. But – here I have written the character as a boy. Tough casting decision, this – as lots of stereotypes are going to fall out of the closet which-ever way you do it. Yes – we all know that girls do better in science at school – and so therefore, naturally, a character like the Boffin should be a girl. But the mad scientists of this world are traditionally seen as male – in everything from Albert Einstein to Back to the Future. Let the group decide – but think about the dynamics of the cast – and the conversations of the Story-teller’s group – and how these will change whichever way you cast it. And be sure to make him/her a really attractive character: the one that Tom Cruise or Nicole Kidman would play!

Complexity:

Many say that complexity is the enemy of good drama – and that people will get bored by deep scientific discussion and facts. Well – you know your audience but Michael Frayn wrote a great play called ‘Copenhagen’ about atomic physicists full of facts and science. Great recent novels by Ian McEwan and Sebastien Faulks dealt with the high science of psychotherapy and neuro-science – and also proved intriguing and entertaining. So – don’t be put off: if you are interested and excited by the science, the chances are that you can make an audience interested and excited by it too. BUT – and it is a huge but – the people who say that audiences could be bored by it are often right and it would be smart to err, as I have, on the side of less science. It’s hard to write compelling dialogue at the best of times – and it is hardest of all to write compelling dialogue about science. So – think about the balance between fun, adventure and ‘drama’ – and fine, interesting dialogues about the science. Always try to get the balance right for the whole cast – not just the smartest, or the most vocal members within it.

2 x New Scenes:

There are two new scenes that I wish I could write and find a place for in the play: one is the scene in the Science Lab in China when Lian presents the Planet Dashboard with her father to a bunch of top scientists. She talks about it – and it would all be in Chinese, of course. So perhaps it could be another scene where the students confront skeptical scientists with all that they have learned – and argue for the scientific necessity of action, rather than just the economic or political necessity. It could be a scene that could be acted out by staff and students. It could analyse the science in detail and then move on to discussint the politics – the art of the possible – and science – the art of the essentials.

The other new scene I would love to see in the play is one where the children meet John Hansen. They have a dialogue with him – urging him to think of another way: begging, pleading that it is completely impossible to get the politicians to move to a 350ppm target – and that science must have a way of fixing things without having to resort to this politically inconceivable target? Of course, I would expect him to say: “No!” – so perhaps you could give him a song: “I’m sorry!” – or a variation on that theme!

Further Discussion:

If you don’t feel you have punished yourselves enough already in this lesson, the only other discussion you could have is the debate between science and faith. You don’t have to be a ‘creationist’(one who believes that the first book of Genesis was actually how the world was created) to believe that God can find a way to save the world when science hits a roadblock. How does a good Muslim or committed Christian or Jew, who has complete faith in his or her Almighty, square that faith with the scientific certainty that, if we do not change our ways, we shall almost certainly face the start of catastrophic climate change in our lifetimes.

THE MODEL UN: AN INTRODUCTION TO THE UNITED NATIONS VIII

THE MODEL UN: AN INTRODUCTION TO THE UNITED NATIONS

Introduction:

HG Wells argued that the world would only find peace – lasting peace – when it was invaded by an external force that threatens the existence of all humanity. That’s why he wrote ‘War of the Worlds.’ Now it has been invaded by an outside force – called global warming. And it does threaten the existence of all humanity. That’s why some feel that the time for the United Nations has now, at last, come. We need a global body to fight a global threat – and the United Nations is it. However, those that know the organization – those who have experienced how its members have rendered it almost completely dysfunctional and frequently delusional – know well how ill-equipped the UN is to take on this, or indeed, any major planet-saving task.

However, help is at hand: every year, in thousands of schools across the world, and in some larger venues like the International Congress Centre in the Hague in the Netherlands, tens of thousands of young people gather for meetings of Model UNs (MUNs or MUNGAs – Model UN General Assemblies). At these meetings, the students select a country to represent – often by drawing lots. They then research that country’s position on major issues – and any issues that are likely to come up in discussion. The General Assembly and/or the UN Security Council is then assembled – committees are formed – and the major problems of the world are discussed. Almost always, major problems are resolved within a few hours: hatchets are buried, peace reigns – and all confirms the impression that young people are far better at Uniting Nations than the diplomats who are paid to work there.

Peace Child Intl. has had an uneasy relationship with the MUN mandarins: though we recognize and celebrate its value as an educational tool – we are suspicious that it must create a sense of disillusion amongst the youth who participate in it. Most – like those in this play – recognize it for what it is: a fun educational exercise. But for those who, like Luke and Lian, feel that the fate of the planet is in the balance, seeing crucial agreements being shelved and ignored by the leaders who should be acting upon them is frustrating to the point of agony. It was never enough for Peace Child just to map out a way to end the Cold War between the USA and USSR: we needed to find a way to force its end, practically, The same with Climate Change: the challenge is how to move from MUN agreements to real agreements. Go figure!

Some Quotes:

“This organization is not created to take you to heaven. It is created to prevent you from going to hell.”

“The United Nations is our one great hope for a peaceful and free world.”

Henry Cabot Lodge Jr.

Ralph Bunche

“The UN is not just a product of do-gooders. It is harshly real. The day will come when men will see the U.N. and what it means clearly. Everything will be all right -- when people, just people, stop thinking of the United Nations as a weird Picasso abstraction, and see it as a drawing they made themselves.”

Dag Hammarskjold

“The heroes of the world community are not those who withdraw when difficulties ensue, not those who can envision neither the prospect of success nor the consequence of failure - but those who stand the heat of battle, the fight for world peace through the United Nations.”

Hubert H. Humphrey

“The United Nations cannot do anything, and never could; it is not an animate entity or agent. It is a place, a stage, a forum and a shrine... a place to which powerful people can repair when they are fearful about the course on which their own rhetoric seems to be propelling them.”

Conor Cruise O’Brien

“The primary, the fundamental, the essential purpose of the United Nations is to keep peace. Everything it does which helps prevent World War III is good. Everything which does not further that goal, either directly or indirectly, is at best superfluous.”

Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr.

“From this vision of the role of the United Nations in the next century flow three key priorities for the future: eradicating poverty, preventing conflict and promoting democracy.”

Kofi Annan

“If the United Nations is to survive, those who represent it must bolster it; those who advocate it must submit to it; and those who believe in it must fight for it.”

Norman Cousins

“We have actively sought and are actively seeking to make the United Nations an effective instrument of international cooperation”

Dean Acheson

“If the United States marches into Iraq without the backing of the United Nations, that will be done without the backing of the American People.”

Richard Gere

“We should not have attacked Iraq without the OK of the United Nations. Now we have to live with that mistake – and too many of our guys are dying with it.”

Andy Rooney

“The United Nations was not set up to be a reformatory. It was assumed that you would be good before you got in and not that being in would make you good.”

“United Nations: Where America feeds the hands that bite it”

John Foster Dulles

Gregory Nunn

Background Reading:

The Main UN Website: www.un.org

Other UN agency Websites: www.undp.org; www.unicef.org; www.unep.org; www.unfpa.org;

A World in Our Hands – a children’s history of the Past, Present and Future of the United Nations by Peace Child Intl. (1995)

Basic Facts About the United Nations by United Nations (2004)

Dag Hammarskjold by Brian Urquhart

No-Nonsense Guide to the United Nations by Black and Maggie (2008)

The United Nations: An Introduction by Sven Bernhard Gareis and Johannes Varwick (2005)

The Parliament of Man: The Past, Present and Future of the United Nations by Paul Kennedy (2007)

The Oxford Handbook on the United Nations by Thomas G. Weiss and Sam Daws (2008)

An Insider’s Guide to the UN by L Fasulo (2005)

The United Nations: Reality and Ideal by Peter R. Baehr and Leon Gordenker (2005)

Model United Nations: Student Preparation Guide by Linda S. Adams and Janet Adamski (2002)

Some Questions and Answers:

Why doesn’t the United Nations work better?

There is no simple answer – except to say that to work in a place where there are 192 bosses was always going to be hard. People disagree about what’s the right thing to do: governments disagree more vehemently – and they have the right to use guns and tanks and fighter planes to back up their opinions. And – in those countries, people don’t like to see their governments being told what to do by a bunch of diplomats in New York: the Palestinians have never really forgiven the United Nations for creating the State of Israel in 1948 – thereby sequestering much of their land. If you drive through certain parts of the USA – you will see signs on the roadside saying: “USA out of the UN.” Richard Gere was wrong: the American people didn’t care a fig whether the UN supported them or not going into Iraq. Though most of them would now agree with Andy Rooney that it was a mistake – and further that President Bush misled them by claiming that it was something to do with avenging the attacks of 9/11 – they have no residual sympathy with the UN’s refusal to back the war. As I write this in January 2009, Israel is once again killing civilians in Gaza – and Hamas soldiers are firing rockets into Israel – and the UN is powerless to stop them. It was set up to ‘save succeeding generations from the scourge of war’ – but if two gangs decide to go at each other, the UN is pretty much powerless to intervene – because none of the major powers want to equip the UN with an armed, quick response police force – or Peace Force that is trained and equipped to go in and break up the fight. Until it has such a rapid response force, the UN will be powerless to fulfil its mandate. As it is, it does quite well – with 16 peacekeeping missions currently in the field, everywhere from Dharfur to Haiti to East Timor to Kosovo and the Middle East, it is keeping the peace. Also, the World Food Programme feeds millions of people every day – the UN High Commission for Refugees takes care of millions of people who have fled from their home countries; UNICEF saves the lives of millions of children – and airplanes fly around the world without crashing into each other because IATA polices the flight lanes – and acts as an international policeman of the air. So – bits of the UN work very well, and, just because we only hear about the things that go wrong – and the shocking incompetence of some of its officers, foisted upon the UN Secretariat by its member governments, we cannot and should not write off the whole organization. As the Story-teller says, it is up to all of us to make the UN work better! Especially in the area of climate change!

Is UN Reform the answer?

I wish I could say ‘Yes!’ to this – but all the proposals I have seen in 20 years of working with and for the organization remind me of re-arranging the deck chairs on the Titanic. Until member states agree to surrender some of their power to the Central body – particularly their armies – there is no magic formula of reformulating the voting procedures to give another country permanent membership of the Security Council, or a veto, or a special place. Won’t change anything. If the UN were allowed to collect taxes, or punish governments that abuse their citizen’s human rights, or intervene to help victims of disasters to protect them, even when – as recently in Myanmar/Burma – the government didn’t want them to come in, then you would be seeing signs of real change and reform within the UN. But – I have waited thirty years to see it happen and, if anything, it has gone backwards. I hate to say it – but it needs something as cataclysmic as the effects of catastrophic climate change to force member governments to make the changes they need to make in the mandate and operations of the UN.

Have children or young people ever made a difference at the UN?

Some people will say that they have – but, in all honesty, probably not. At the World Summit for Children in 1991, all the children got to do was to read the statement agreed by the governments. Eleven years later, children were rather more fully involved – one boy from East Timor actually got to address the Security Council – but, when I asked a Save the Children representative to point out one line in the agreed statement that had been suggested or amended by a child, he could not point out any. UNICEF is, of course, one of the UN’s most successful and best-loved agencies. Excellent PR by Liv Ullman, Danny Kaye, Roger Moore and other celebrity ambassadors helps its image no doubt – but there are no mechanisms for enabling children to feed back their views to UNICEF staff on their satisfaction or otherwise with the agency’s performance. The UN Youth Unit, by contrast, is tiny: they advise member states on youth policy – and do their best to get more attention paid to the needs, and abilities of young people. Youth Caucuses do sometimes make an impact at the UN: the Youth Caucus at the Johannesburg Summit in 2002 coined a slogan which has stayed with the youth movement ever since: “See youth as a resource, not a problem…” And what a resource they were: in the round table discussions, youth representatives were allowed to participate in the themed discussions – and the representatives were chosen well. Brilliant young people, fresh from finishing their Phds on each theme ran rings around the elderly diplomats, often badly briefed and not on top of their subjects like the young people. So – hopefully, as time passes, elderly diplomats will see what a gift young people are to the UN. Things are certainly more fun when the young are around.

Is a children’s UN a good idea?

Several people have thought that, as diplomats are so unsuccessful at uniting nations, a children’s UN should be the answer to all the world’s problems. Self-evidently – it is a silly idea: children have no power apart from pester power – whining power – trumped up, self-important embarrassingly precocious power to be cheeky – as the kids are in our play. But I have always thought that pricking the bubbles of pomposity and deceit is a worthy task for any citizen, young or old. Having a special UN ghetto run by children would be an embarrassing waste of time. But it is strange how many famous people have supported the idea in one form or another. Even Mohammed Ali did!

Which is the priority for the UN – keeping the peace, ending poverty, or saving the environment?

Let’s get this straight: the UN has NO PRIORITIES except those agreed for it by the member states. It is a conference centre and secretariat serving the orders of the member states. It has opinions, of course – and it has tremendous convening power, and the power of advice and guidance from top scientists – like the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. But, as a body, it has no powers and no priorities except those granted to it by its member governments. From time to time, issues float to the surface and sparkle briefly in the spotlight – usually when a major world summit is coming up on the issue – like Copenhagen Summit in 2009. Climate Change will be high on everyone’s agenda this year. But – look back at the UN Charter: no question of what the Founders of the UN thought was the priority back then: “saving humanity from the scourge of war.” It all begins with peace: without peace, very little can be done to eliminate poverty, or save the environment. But – as you will have observed – making peace is probably the hardest task of the three: which is why the UN often finds itself trying to do everything else but make a priority of peace-making, peace-keeping and peace-building.

Some Games:

ONE:

Model Copenhagen Summit: Very simple - put the names of the member countries of the Conference of the Parties (the COP) in a hat – and have each cast member pull one out. Then download a discussion draft of the post-Kyoto treaty from the UNFCCC website. Get each cast member to research the positions of their selected country – and have a meeting: sit round a big table – and argue the treaty through, spotting the difficulties of reaching any kind of agreement. Capture the best lines – identify the countries you feel would be most interesting to have represented in the final scene – and see what else occurs to you to change in the dialogue. And in the songs: not necessary to have any songs, of course. Run the scene as a straight, dry dialogue only scene – and see if you think that suits your purpose better. Also – see how you want to introduce the business interests. No need to make them sinister figures of fun. Try to include them as the genuine lobbying groups they really are, drawing arguments from their websites.

TWO:

Carbon Trading Game: Imagine – the 6.3 billion people on the planet each have 100 tons of carbon to burn. You would need double that to do one European holiday – four times that to fly to Bangkok for a holiday. Do the research. We know that the average American consumes 200 times more carbon energy than the average Ethiopian. So keep your COP countries, and set up deals so that the citizens of richer countries can buy carbon permits from the citizens of poorer countries – and see how that re-distributes wealth. Do the math: richer countries currently give $100 billion a year in overseas development aid: how much would that go up to if all their citizens had to buy carbon permits from every man, woman and child in the two-thirds world just to run their washing machines, computers and to take their foreign holidays?? Do the research, play the game – and see where it takes you: President Obma is committed to start a carbon trading system in the USA. Carbon-trading will be present in all our futures: how can we make it work best for all of us?

Some Homework:

Greatest Success / Greatest Failures: ask the cast to do some research, and come back to the group with some ideas on what have been the greatest successes of the UN throughout its 64 year history. Also –it’s greatest failures. There are many candidate stories in both categories – but it will require some sifting through the history to identify them. Clue: look to the work of Dag Hammarskjold – and issues that have been raised up the global agenda because the UN shone a spotlight on them.

Further Discussion:

Towards a new United Nations: Everyone’s favorite parlour game is the discussion of the reform of the UN. John McCain, the Republican presidential candidate who lost to Barack Obama – promoted the idea of a new UN of the Democracies – a global union of those governments that stand up for human rights, the rule of law – fairness, decency and democracy. Not a bad idea: it is somehow offensive that the representative of the government of Robert Mugabe still sits in the UN General Assembly not far from diplomats representing governments like that of Sweden, France and the Netherlands. But the idea of a 2-tier UN has never had many advocates: as Winston Churchill said, “Always better to jaw-jaw than to war-war…” – and, if the government of the people you have a problem with are not in the club, you can’t talk to them. So – on balance – informed opinion favors inclusivity rather than exclusivity. The way to deal with the Mugabes and the Saddam Husseins is surely the International Criminal Court – set up in 2003. They have, at last, issued their first arrest warrant – to President Bashir of Sudan for his crimes against the citizens of the Dharfur region of his country. Not clear whether he will ever be apprehended: China gets a lot of oil from Sudan and it may well resist seeing its ally being hauled before the ICC in the Hague. And that’s the discussion again: how do you deal with a non-democratic regime like China – especially when it has a veto in the Security Council, the world’s biggest country by population and rapidly becoming an economic superpower. Several eminent thinkers have called for a directly elected 2nd Chamber – a kind of world parliament like the European Parliament in Brussels. Again – not a bad idea: but how would you divide up the seats? Regionally? – or nationally by population? If you did the latter, one sixth of the members would be from China. And – it would cost a fortune to organize and administer. I doubt it will ever happen – and, even if it did, I doubt the governments in the 1st Chamber would ever allow themselves to be over-ruled by the ‘people’s chamber. So - effective global governance seems further away than ever: what can we do to bring it closer? Would it really help to solve our problems – especially those in relation to climate change? Your decisions on this question will really help shape the conclusion of your version of this play!

A POST CARBON FUTURE: AND HOW TO CONSTRUCT IT IX

A POST CARBON FUTURE: AND HOW TO CONSTRUCT IT

Introduction:

Pretty much every one agrees that there are three inescapable solutions to the Climate Change crisis:

ONE:

Put a price on the emissions of carbon and all greenhouse gases. Measure it, price it – like a tax – and encourage people to produce less of these GHGs.

TWO:

Put legally enforceable ‘caps’ or limits to the amounts of GHGs any one country can emit in the course of a year;

THREE:

Move quickly to build a green economy with a non-carbon consuming or emitting energy infra-structure. Easy to say. Hard to do! How do you tell a comparatively poor member of the European Union, like Poland – which gets 95% of its energy from coal – to accept a global tax on the amount of carbon it emits from its economy which is almost totally dependent on coal? Also, although the technologies needed to build a Post carbon infrastructure are available now, they will cost billions to build. However, as the world currently spends $6 -7 trillion every year on oil, the economic incentives for building it are high. Also, as President Obama, promised ‘I will create 5 million new jobs in the new green economy!’ – so the promise for working people is good too. Other politicians are beginning to get on board, as the articles below show:

Some Quotes:

“The first essential element of climate change policy is carbon pricing. But the presence of a range of other market failures mean that carbon pricing alone is not sufficient. Innovative technology policy and the removal of barriers to behavioural change are also critical.”

Nicholas Stern

former Chief Economist to the World Bank; author, the Stern Review into the Economics of Climate Change

Boosting the cost of anything containing carbon – the main greenhouse gas – would compel industries and consumers to seek cheaper alternatives. They’d switch to cleaner fuels or consume less – either by adopting more efficient technologies or simply reducing their activity. Problem: No government appears willing to impose a cost high enough to actually change behaviour. And while several industry groups argue pricing carbon is a good idea, their enthusiasm is less than it seems.

The Oil Drum.

“First, I worry about climate change. It’s the only thing that I believe has the power to fundamentally end the march of civilization as we know it, and make a lot of the other efforts that we’re making irrelevant and impossible”

Bill Clinton

“None of the global warming discussions mention the word “nanotechnology.” Yet nanotechnology will eliminate the need for fossil fuels within 20 years. If we captured 1% of 1% of the sunlight (1 part in 10,000) we could meet 100% of our energy needs without ANY fossil fuels. We can’t do that today because the solar panels are too heavy, expensive, and inefficient. But there are new nanoengineered designs that are much more effective. Within five to six years, this technology will make a significant contribution. Within 20 years, it can provide all of our energy needs. The discussions talk about current trends continuing for the next century as if nothing is going to change. I think global warming is real but it has been modest thus far - 1 degree f. in 100 years. It would be concerning if that continued or accelerated for a long period of time, but that’s not going to happen. And it’s not just environmental concern that will drive this, the $2 trillion we spend on energy is providing plenty of economic incentive. I don’t see any disasters occuring in the next 10 years from this. However, I AM concerned about other environment issues. There are other reasons to want to move quickly away from fossil fuels including environmental pollution at every step and the geopolitical instability it causes.”

Ray Kurzweil, Washington Post: June 19, 2006

“Presidential candidates talk about the promise of “green collar” jobs-an economy with millions of workers installing solar panels, weatherizing homes, brewing biofuels, building hybrid cars and erecting giant wind turbines. Labor unions view these new jobs as replacements for positions lost to overseas manufacturing and outsourcing. Urban groups view training in green jobs as a route out of poverty. And environmentalists say they are crucial to combating climate change.”

Reported by the New York Times ‘08

“I think the trick with clean energy is not to be able to charge more. Because you can’t see global warming, I don’t think people are willing to pay more for it. It’s got to be a viable investment if it’s going to be successful.”

Richard Branson

“The global market for environmental products and services is projected to double from $1.37 trillion per year at present to $2.74 trillion by 2020, creating millions of new “green jobs”, says a recent report commissioned by the UN. It says that India can generate 900,000 jobs by 2025 in the area of biogas alone. Of these, 300,000 would be in the manufacturing of stoves and 600,000 in areas such as processing into briquettes and pellets and the fuel supply chain. Other key findings of the report include:

• The global market for environmental products and services is projected to double from $1.37 trillion per year at present to $2.74 trillion by 2020.

• Half of this market is in energy efficiency and the balance in sustainable transport, water supply, sanitation and waste management. In Germany, for example, environmental technology is to grow fourfold to 16 percent of industrial output by 2030.

• Sectors that will be particularly important in terms of their environmental, economic and employment impact are energy supply, in particular renewable energy, buildings and construction, transportation, basic industries, agriculture and forestry.

• Clean technologies are already the third largest sector for venture capital after information and biotechnology in the US, while green venture capital in China more than doubled to 19 percent of total investment in recent years.

• 2.3 million people have found new jobs in renewable energy. The potential for job growth in the sector is huge. Employment could rise to 2.1 million in wind and 6.3 million in solar power by 2030.

• Renewable energy generates more jobs than employment in fossil fuels. Projected investments of $630 billion by 2030 would translate into at least 20 million additional jobs in the renewable energy sector.

• In agriculture, 12 million could be employed in biomass industries. In a country like Venezuela, an ethanol blend of 10 percent in fuels could provide one million jobs in the sugarcane sector by 2012.

• A worldwide transition to energy-efficient buildings would create millions of jobs, as well as “greening” existing employment for many of the estimated 111 million people already working in construction now.

• Investments in improved energy efficiency in buildings could generate an additional 2-3.5 million green jobs in Europe and the US alone, with the potential much higher in developing countries.

• Recycling and waste management employ an estimated 10 million in China and 500,000 in Brazil today. This sector is expected to grow rapidly in many countries in the face of escalating commodity prices.

Reported by the Times of India

Background Reading:

Island Planet: A Survival Guide for The End of The Fossil Fuel World by Matthew Henley (2005)

Urban Energy Transition: From Fossil Fuels to Renewable Power by Peter Droege (2008)

Farewell Fossil Fuels by S. Borowitz (1999)

Green Jobs: Towards Decent work in a Sustainable, Low-Carbon World by the The Worldwatch Institute with support from the UN Environment Programme (UNEP), the International Labour Office (ILO), the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) and the International Organization of Employers (IOE).

The promise of Green Jobs http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/26/business/businessspecial2/26collar.html?ex=1364270400&en=0d97366 aca273a0c&ei=5124&partner=permalink&exprod=permalink

British Government Sponsored report on the Economics of climate change http://www.occ.gov.uk/activities/stern.htm

The great and the good come together to fight climate change and prepare for success in Copenhagen http://www.copenhagenclimatecouncil.com/

The Business alliance to fight Climate Change http://www.combatclimatechange.org/www/ccc_org/ccc_org/224546home/720282thex3/index.jsp

Science proposes an amazing solar solution to the creation of a Post-Carbon Green Energy Economy: http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=a-solar-grand-plan

The coming transport revolution: http://www.wired.com/cars/futuretransport/magazine/16-09/ff_agassi

Best sources of information: http://www.energybulletin.net/ http://www.postcarbon.org/ http://www.theoildrum.com/

Some Questions and Answers:

What does ‘post-carbon’ actually mean?

There are many definitions but, for us – it’s an absolute: a society in which no oil is drilled, no coal is mined and no gas is piped – and none of it is burned without 100% carbon capture technologies being in place. It means that, apart from energy, no fertilizers, no plastics, no drugs, no foodstuffs - NOTHING will be manufactured from fossil fuels.

What is a smart grid?

Most of today’s national and international electricity grids – or distribution networks – operate on ‘alternating current’ = AC. A ‘Smart Grid’ operates on Direct Current – which means that there is substantially less energy loss as the electricity travels from the source of power to its end use. A smart grid would, essentially, allow you to generate electricity from Solar farms in Arizona or the Sahara Desert, and use it in New York or Northern Europe respectively. Smart grids carry with them all kinds of additional features – like ‘micro-generation’ – the ability to pick up small amounts of energy from domestic solar panels or wind turbines, working through ‘smart meters’ – which enable a household to sell energy from their own wind turbine or solar panels when they don’t need it themselves, and buy power off the grid when they do.

What are Ground-Source Heat-Pumps?

GSHPs are becoming more and more common because they save up to 60% of a normal household’s fuel bills – and more than halve their carbon foot print. They operate on the same principle as refrigerators – but in the opposite direction. They take the warmth out of the ground, compress it and then use it for heating water for baths and hot-water heating systems. The unit is relatively small – like a tall, thin refrigerator, but it is connected to 100m of pipe which has to be buried at least 1 meter underground. An alternative is to drill a 50m borehole and bury the pipe in a U-bend in the hole. GSHPs are thus quite easy to install as you build a new house, but harder to put into old houses.

Why are some people nervous about bio-fuels?

Almost every one is nervous about bio-fuels because, in a world where close to a billion people go to bed hungry every night, why would we want to use up precious agricultural land that could be used to grow them food to grow fuel for our gas-guzzling SUVs? OXFAM and other poverty elimination agencies are noisily opposed to bio-fuel initiatives and, though some Latin American countries can use the waste from sugar cane industries to create ethanol to power at least part of their diesel requirement, it is not a great longterm solution.

What other ways, apart from batteries, are there to store electricity?

Scientific American’s brilliant Solar Grand Plan, mentioned above(http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=asolar-grand-plan) – proposes storing solar power by pumping compressed air into disused mines or aquifers. The air stored at high pressure underground could then be released slowly as electricity is needed to power the generators. Another way is to use electricity generated by the sun to separate the hydrogen from the oxygen in water – to create hydrogen for use in engines, compressors etc. And batteries are getting smaller and more efficient by the day. I am typing this on a wafer-thin laptop whose battery weighs a few ounces: a couple of years ago, it would have weighed over a kilogram and probably not have lasted so long.

Batteries are heavy so what other ways could you power aeroplanes in the solar hydrogen economy?

No battery in the world is ever likely to power a Jumbo jet across the Atlantic with 400 passengers on board! And – right now, it is very hard to see what would power such a plane in the post-carbon world. Flying is the one thing that, in his book, Heat, George Monbiot decides we are going to have to give up in the Post-carbon world. ‘Surely not!?’ I hear you say: well, Monbiot argues fairly convincingly that none of the technologies currently on offer provide a solution: bio-fuel is the most promising, but we would need about a third of today’s agricultural land just to keep current flight schedules in the sky. Hydrogen has a problem burning at altitude – and electricity? – well that would mean going back to propeller planes even if we could find a way to store, or transmit, it. Myself, I think the answer is out there somewhere waiting for the 21st Century’s Thomas Edison to discover it. But the airline industry is going to have to work a great deal faster than it is currently doing to find it. Something like the challenge, “Find a non-carbon fuel within 20 years or go out of business” –would concentrate their minds wonderfully!

Some Games:

ONE:

Retro-fit your neighbourhood! Lay-out a map of your town, village or neighbourhood. Gather the cast around it and get them to go over every inch of it, marking in the places that will have to change in the transition to a post-carbon economy. The petrol/gas filling stations will, of course, have to change into battery changing units – but what else? Windmills in the park? Supermarkets with only locally produced foods? An electronic Post Office?? Would banks be necessary? – or could we do all our banking online??

TWO:

Build a Post-Carbon Infrastructure for a poor country: Divide the cast up into four or five groups. Get each one to choose a Least-Developed Country – like Sierra Leone, Burundi, Niger – one of the fifty LDCs. The World Bank has offered a $100million loan to the one that produces the best plan for building a postcarbon infrastructure in their country. It’s a loan – remember: it has to be paid back. So take 20-30 minutes to prepare a business plan for your small, poor country to re-build it’s energy infrastructure for the post-carbon age. Set up a panel of two non-cast students (6th formers), a science teacher, a geography, business studies or an economics teacher – and have them listen to the ideas of each group – and choose a winner.

THREE:

A Poster Contest: If, as we hope, you are involving many teachers from your school in this production, this is the moment to call the Art Teacher(s). Ask them to get 6-10 of his/her best students and assign 2-3 cast members to them. The task? - to design a poster that advertises all the delights and advantages of a postcarbon world. It can be a collage of windmills, solar panels, smart grids and greenery – or it can be a single image – a blast of lightning from a green sun…. Something! You decide – and get your artist to create a stunning image which could – then – become the poster for the show.

Some Homework:

Four countries from three continents – Iceland, Norway, Costa Rica and New Zealand are currently racing to become the first carbon neutral country. Iceland is likely to be the winner: 90% of its electricity is generated by hydro and geo-thermal power. But do a little research: which country do you think is doing most to achieve carbon neutrality?(check out Denmark, Germany, China.) Which are doing least? (check out the USA, UK, Canada and Australia) Come – and present your reports to the cast – and see which diplomats you want to identify in the final UN scene – and what lines you want to give them?!

Some ideas for New Enquiries: New Scenes, New Characters, New Story-line, New Songs:

The Boff has most of the good lines about the Post-Carbon Infrastructure: how about a new character? A Super Boff who comes in, perhaps from another country (China) – when Lian returns. S/he knows even more than the Boff about post-carbon technologies. This would give the Boff some one to bounce new ideas off –and, possibly, bore the pants off the audience!! (Be careful!)

Several find the ‘Inventions’ song very confusing: it outlines the dilemma between – 1) good inventions –that can solve problems - and – 2) destructive inventions that could kill us all. So it’s meant to be confusing! Here’s an idea: discuss the two philosophies – and agree on which you think is right. Then re-write the song – or write a new song or rap – to express your thoughts.

One group did the Boff’s speech to the Model UN as a rap – another did it as an Elvis pastiche. How about a reggae number? Or a re-write of a Buddy Holly song – or a Bob Dylan tune? Think about an innovative way to present the information of the Planet Dashboard in a way that is going to make the audience sit up and listen.

Further Discussion:

One thing that always makes audiences sit up and listen is the prospect of making some money. Think about it – where are the fortunes going to be made in the green economy? A new superlight battery? A cheap solar electric panel? Do a little research with your cast – and try to identify the economic opportunities in the green economy. The story-teller’s group is right: people are interested in people who make money from initiatives. That is as true of the green economy as of any other. Isn’t it? - or is it? Should we take an idealistic approach to the post-carbon future that completely eschews the profit motive? Hands up all those who are completely without greed? Make your decisions about this based on the honest answer of your cast!

WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE?: THE CHALLENGE OF COPENHAGEN AND THE POST-KYOTO AGREEMENT X

WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE?: THE CHALLENGE OF COPENHAGEN

AND THE POST-KYOTO AGREEMENT

Introduction:

In the world of climate change activists, we are so up to our eyes in acronyms and significant documents, it is hard to remember that most people don’t have a clue what we’re talking about! So – just to make sure –here is a guide for those who wonder why we are talking so much about the city famous for its little mermaid, an ancient Japanese city of temples and lovely parks, Indonesia’s most famous holiday island, and a historic city in central Poland.

The Kyoto Protocol:

The story begins with the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), agreed at the Rio Earth Summit in June 1992 to “stabilise greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere at a level that would prevent dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system.” But while the Convention encouraged industrialised countries to stabilize GHG emissions, it was recognized that an additional treaty –or Protocol – was required to get them to commit to do it. So, recognizing that developed countries are principally responsible for the current high levels of GHG emissions in the atmosphere as a result of more than 150 years of industrial activity, the Kyoto Protocol sets legally binding targets for ‘Annex 1’ - 37 industrialized countries and the European community for reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. As of 2008, 183 countries have ratified the protocol agreed in December 1997 in Kyoto, Japan in which industrialized countries agreed to reduce their emissions of four greenhouse gases (GHGs - carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, sulfur hexafluoride) by 5.2% compared to the year 1990 over the five-year period 2008-2012. National limitations range from 8% reductions for the European Union and some others to 7% for the United States, 6% for Japan, and 0% for Russia. The detailed rules for the implementation of the Protocol were adopted at 7th Conference of the Parties(COP-7) in Marrakesh in 2001, and are called the “Marrakesh Accords.” The Protocol came into force in February 2005, but the USA never ratified it.

The Kyoto Mechanisms:

Under the Treaty, countries must meet their targets primarily through national measures. Among the Annex I signatories, all nations have established Designated National Authorities to manage their greenhouse gas portfolios and virtually all of the non-Annex I countries have also established Designated National Authorities to manage the Kyoto process, specifically the “CDM process” that determines which GHG Projects they wish to propose for accreditation by the CDM Executive Board

The Kyoto Protocol offers each member state additional means of meeting their targets by way of three market-based mechanisms.

• Emissions trading – known as “the carbon market”

• Clean development mechanism (CDM)

• Joint implementation (JI).

The mechanisms help stimulate green investment and help Parties meet their emission targets in a costeffective way. In practice, they mean that Non-Annex I economies have no GHG emission restrictions, but have financial incentives to develop GHG emission reduction projects to receive “carbon credits” that can then be sold to Annex I buyers, encouraging sustainable development. Annex I countries typically will want to acquire carbon credits as cheaply as possible, while Non-Annex I entities want to maximize the value of carbon credits generated from their domestic Greenhouse Gas Projects.

Monitoring Emission Targets:

• Under the Protocol, countries’actual emissions have to be monitored and precise records have to be kept of the trades carried out.

• Registry systems track and record transactions by Parties under the mechanisms. The UN Climate Change Secretariat, based in Bonn, Germany, keeps an international transaction log to verify that transactions are consistent with the rules of the Protocol.

• Reporting is done by Parties by way of submitting annual emission inventories and national reports under the Protocol at regular intervals.

• A compliance system ensures that Parties are meeting their commitments and helps them to meet their commitments if they have problems doing so.

Adaptation:

The Kyoto Protocol, like the Convention, is also designed to assist countries in adapting to the adverse effects of climate change. It facilitates the development and deployment of techniques that can help increase resilience to the impacts of climate change.

The Adaptation Fund was established to finance adaptation projects and programmes in developing countries that are Parties to the Kyoto Protocol. The Fund is financed mainly with a share of proceeds from CDM project activities.

The Road Ahead:

The Kyoto Protocol is generally seen as an important first step towards a truly global emission reduction regime that will stabilize GHG emissions, and provides the essential architecture for any future international agreement on climate change. By the end of the first commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol in 2012, a new international framework needs to have been negotiated and ratified that can deliver the stringent emission reductions the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has clearly indicated are needed.

Full Text of the Protocol: (in the 6 x UN Languages – English, French, Spanish, Russian, Arabic and Chinese)

http://unfccc.int/kyoto_protocol/items/2830.php

The Conference of the Parties Process:

The intergovernmental negotiation process primarily encompasses the Conference of the Parties, the Meeting of the Parties to the Kyoto Protocol, Subsidiary Bodies meetings and a series of workshops.

The Conference of the Parties (COP) is the “supreme body” of the original Convention signed in Rio; it is the highest decision-making authority. It is an association of all the countries that are Parties to the Convention. The COP meets every year, unless the Parties decide otherwise.

The Conference / Meeting of the Parties to the Kyoto Protocol (CMP) is the “supreme body” of the Protocol signed in Kyoto. The CMP meets every other year during the same period as the COP.

The Convention established two permanent subsidiary bodies: the Subsidiary Body for Scientific and Technological Advice (SBSTA) and the Subsidiary Body for Implementation (SBI). These bodies give advice to the COP and the CMP, and each has a specific mandate. The SBSTA and the SBI traditionally meet in parallel, at least twice a year. The next meeting of the SB bodies is 1-12 June 2009.

Report on Poznan Conference – COP14 / CMP4:

(This report was written for Positive News – it will give you a flavour of the kind of meeting that the young people of the story will attend in Copenhagen):

POZNAN CLIMATE CHANGE SUMMIT: “SURVIVAL IS NON-NEGOTIABLE!”

By David Woollcombe, Special Correspondent

Few would disagree with this slogan, bellowed by youth and other delegates at Ministers arriving to the highlevel segment of the 14th Conference of the Parties to the Kyoto Climate Change Protocol held in Poznan, Poland December 1-13, 2008. But, on the evidence of the Poznan meeting, survival is, sadly, absolutely a matter for negotiation. As Richard Helmer, MEP, put it: “The rich countries of the EU have to bribe the poorer, ex-Soviet EU members with a huge solidarity fund to get their backing for a climate deal in Copenhagen. Governments of the EU have to bribe big businesses from the key polluting sectors by giving, rather than selling, emission permits to get their support. And all rich governments have to bribe the rest of the world by pouring billions into an adaptation fund to get their agreement.”

And, as we saw, the negotiations were not successful at Poznan. Yvo de Boer, the lead negotiator, tried to put a positive spin on it: “This was a blue-collar conference that had to achieve practical results on the road to Copenhagen. And it has. We’ve got our work programme for next year agreed. We’ve launched the Adaptation Fund. We’ve made important progress on reducing emissions from deforestation – and there’s a significant change of mood in the negotiations: from now on, it’s for real.”

But others, like OXFAM, were quick to point out the failures: “The Conference has exposed a shameful lack of progress. By Poznan, Annex 1 (rich) countries were meant to have submitted their proposals on emissions reductions, finance and technology. They have not. They have tried to delay, shift the blame and, in the case of Canada, renege on their climate change obligations. In the face of bitter resistance from rich countries, an Adaptation Fund was finally agreed. That adaptation fund could be paid for by auctioning Carbon emission quotas at sensible prices – but the EU appears to have decided to give them away….” The Chinese lead negotiator, Yu Qingtai, told me that he feels the EU and other rich countries are in the middle of planning their “great escape from climate change commitments.” The US Negotiator, Harlan Watson, said in his first briefing: “We haven’t come here to discuss hard targets or numbers…” There was very little talk of the promising “Triple 20 objective for 2020: 20% cut in greenhouse gas emissions; 20% of energy from renewables; 20% improvement in energy efficiency.”

Events seem to have moved on: everyone, like Barack Obama, is talking of 80% cuts in emissions by 2050. As several pointed out, this is easy to do knowing you will be long out of office before any one comes along to check up on you.

But there were many positives about the Poznan meeting: it was held in a former Soviet era barracks converted into a massive conference area – and foot-soldiers in perhaps the most important battle that humanity has ever faced – the one against global warming which we absolutely have to win! – were stimulated by a variety of events, presentations and exhibits. There was a massive hangar devoted to 118 industry exhibits of post-carbon technologies – everything from windmills to a disco where dancers pounding the floor generate electricity! And there were over 300 workshops and presentations about climate change by many of the finest experts on these issues on the planet! Your correspondent learned more about these issues in 2 weeks than any student could from several, expensive 3-year university courses. The discussions about Carbon Capture and Storage(CCS) were particularly interesting: everyone knows that CCS is coming: the EU wants 12 demonstration plants by 2020 – but how do you pay for them? If you get industry to pay for it 100% - they will demand all the patents making future technology transfer to poorer countries very expensive. So public funding has to be invested. But what about liability and public resistance? - storing hundreds of tons of liquid carbon underground, and transporting it perhaps hundreds of miles from the generating plant, carries with it a huge risk of leaks: few insurance companies are even prepared to talk about insuring against those risks. And – few understand the critical importance of CCS. If asked: “Do you want millions of tons of compressed carbon stored under your back yard?” - what would you say? Think about it! “Public resistance could,” as Paal Frisvold of the Bellona Foundation said, “be the final show-stopper.”

The education community was conspicuous by its absence from Poznan. Of the 300+ side events and seminars, not one dealt with education about climate change. The 2 degree threshold remains the strongest campaigning point of most of the UK’s campaigning groups. And yet, as one who visits schools regularly, I have yet to find a student who can explain to me what the 2 degree threshold is. When will policy makers realize that it is the town hall meetings, and movements like Transition Towns that will awaken the hunger and the appetite for genuine convergence on a climate change agreement in Copenhagen next year. What, in light of Poznan, should the public expect from Copenhagen? Of all the speakers, Al Gore put it best. In his special address to the summit, he said: “Where Martin Luther King said, “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere!” - I say, ‘increased CO2 emissions anywhere are a threat to this planet’s climate balance and integrity everywhere.’ The old divide between North and South is obsolete. We must, together, embrace today what few generations have ever had the privilege of embracing – a generational mission. A compelling moral purpose. Because ultimately this is not a political issue. It is a moral issue, and a spiritual issue. A question of right vs. wrong. It is clearly wrong for this generation to destroy the habitability of our planet and ruin the prospects of every future generation. Our children have a right to hold us to a higher goal. They deserve better than politicians who sit on their hands in the face of the biggest challenge that humanity has ever faced and a public that seem more interested in the fortunes of OJ Simpson, Paris Hilton and Anna Nicole Smith than the survival of civilisation.”

Echoing the calls we heard at the Schumacher Lectures this year, Gore told the delegates: “The truth is – the goals we are reaching towards are incredibly difficult: and a goal of 450ppm, which seems so difficult today, is inadequate. We will soon have to toughen that goal to 350ppm…” HUGE Applause/standing ovation! “We have to make the link between stating the goal – and reaching the goal. Once we start going for those right, tough goals, we will find it gets easier. The process will strengthen our economies, it will create millions of new jobs and it will increase the standard of living. To those who are fearful that it is too difficult to reach a decision in Copenhagen a year from now, I say: “It can be done. It must be done.” (see the whole speech @: http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=JRHhluUK4gE)

Indeed, it must be done – and, we all hope, that the new US President, Barack Obama, with his promising appointment of John Holdren to lead his climate science team, will accelerate the momentum. For Oxfam is right: the Annex 1 countries have failed on their commitment to propose hard targets. Now they have to do so by February ‘09 ahead of a meeting in Bonn in March. A negotiating document has to be ready by June – ready for discussion and comment by Heads of State when they meet at the opening of the UN General Assembly in September.

2009 has to be a year of mobilization the like of which has never been seen on the planet: few observing the bleary-eyed bureaucrats walking the halls in Poznan and listening to their hedged-about statements, would disagree with one young commentator: “If the fate of the planet is in the hands of these guys, we may as well not get up in the morning.” But – of course – our fate is not in the hands of those guys. It is in our hands! We must generate a tsunami of protest in every country of the world. The Youth Delegation in Poznan led the way: in between their jokey and irreverent Fossil of The Day Award and ‘Yvo da Bear’ video(http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=JRHhluUK4gE) – they got 80 governments to sign up to a defining resolution: “The survival of all countries and all peoples must be assured!”

Survival is indeed not negotiable – therefore it must not be left in the hands of negotiators with their cynical financial bribes and deals. We must educate our young people about the challenge they face – a challenge that will, more than likely, be left to them to face! Peace Child International’s Post Carbon Futures project and its new musical, Kids on Strike, calls for all school students to demand a Day of Action and Learning on climate change issues: (see: http://www.peacechild.org) If their school or college refuses to give them one, they should call a strike and organize the day themselves. Climate change must move to the front and centre of all our learning activity. Because, as Thomas Edison recognized over a hundred years ago: “The answer lies in solar power: I sure hope we don’t have to wait until oil and coal run out before we harness that one.” Everyone recognizes that future prosperity lies in building the clean, green, post-carbon economies. Doing that requires leadership – and some of that leadership was on show from the academics, the businesses and the youth attending the Poznan Summit. Shame that not much of it has yet been translated into commitments and investments from our political leaders.

2009 is the year when it is incumbent upon all of us to ensure that this translation is made!

Copenhagen Information:

There really could be no better place to host the World’s crucial summit on Climate Change. Denmark has always been in the vanguard of renewable energy – already,10% of its energy comes from wind-power. And their conservation ethic is extraordinary: they have doubled their economic output since 1990 – and have not increased their carbon footprint at all. Public transport is excellent and bicycle lanes are everywhere. The Danes are justly proud to be hosting the summit: “It is a great showcase for Danish energy technology, “says Hans Christensen, managing director of the Confederation of Danish Industries, “We have great opportunities to show our strong competencies in renewable energy, district heating, biomass and biofuel as well as in energy saving products and services in the period leading up to and during the climate summit,”

Background Reading:

The Danish Government has a wonderfully informative website devoted just to the Conferece: http://www.cop15.dk/en

The UNFCC website is now counting down the days to the Copenhagen summit at: http://unfccc.int/2860. php It has a fact sheet on the Road to Copenhagen which outlines most of the major practical and political obstacles to agreement at Copenhagen. (click here to view it)

Civil Society is getting active too: one of the major group of activists working from Denmark is: ClimaX, a network of climate activists from Denmark. They are planning a climate action camp September 13-14, 2009 - a festival of renewable energy and a showcase on how a world without carbon emissions will look like. It is also planning a large mobilisation for direct action against the root causes of climate change in Copenhagen and throughout the world during the UN Climate Conference and to coordinate activist events throughout the year leading up to the Copenhagen summit. http://klimax2009.org - in English: http://klimax2009.org/?page_id=2

The other big campaign which we support – and you should check out regularly are: www.350.org

Other sites we find useful about Copenhagen include: http://knowledge.allianz.com/en/globalissues/climate_change/climate_politics/poznan_climate_summit.html http://www.rockwool.com/energy+efficiency/climate+change/un+climate+summit+2009

These are corporate sites, but interesting to get their take on the issues.

Some Questions and Answers:

What do the pundits expect from Copenhagen?

The Pew Charitable Trust’s special unit on Climate Change made itself very unpopular in Poznan by announcing, just before all the Ministers arrived, that it didn’t expect anything to be agreed in Copenhagen. The diplomatic reaction was that their ‘intervention was unhelpful and regrettable’; others were far more angry saying that they undermined the whole momentum of the Copenhagen process. Indeed they did – and it was an extremely stupid thing for them to do. Because Copenhagen is all about building momentum –building the certainty that absolutely something must happen. Just like the Make Poverty History campaign made it inevitable that governments would agree radical increases in overseas development aid in 2005, the success or failure of Copenhagen depends on whether or not governments feel that their people really, really want them to do something about climate change. Pundits, generally, do not expect the people to rise up as they did for MPH – they think we will be very, very lucky to get a 450ppm target agreed; some don’t even expect a target to be agreed – beyond the already stated ‘80% cuts by 2050’ – which is so long term as to be almost meaningless.

What do the Activists and true believers expect?

They, like the characters in this musical – still believe that a miracle can happen: that President Barack Obama will lead the world in laying out international standards for the Post-Carbon Infrastructure – and that, alongside a 350ppm target for Carbon Emissions, we will have massive adaptation funds, multi-billion dollar CDMs and emission trading schemes – all driven by a worldwide movement of youth and elders who are committed to the absolute TOP priority of saving the planet for future generations. Amazing things could happen: legal requirements to close down coal-fired power stations by – say – 2015 – if they don’t have CCS systems installed. A legal requirement for the airline industry to find non-carbon fuels to fly their airplanes on by 2020 or face being forced out of business. A system of personal carbon quotas – which means that each person on the planet will have a ‘quota’ of so many tons of carbon that they can emit during any one year. If they want to emit more carbon – they have to buy the quotas of poorer people. Everything is possible – but the people have to fight for it. As Bill McGibbon, leader of the 350.org coalition said, “We will have to undertake the biggest piece of political heavy-lifting the world has ever seen….” As Hansen said in his paper: this is a battle on the scale of the 2nd World War – but now it is not just freedom that’s at stake: it is the survival of civilization as we have known it these last millennia.

What happens if governments fail to reach agreement at Copenhagen?

Nobody is asking that question. Well – we are but we are on the fringes of this movement. Most commentators assume that an agreement of some kind will be reached at Copenhagen – because it has to be in order for it to be implemented in a timely fashion post-2012. Of course, we hope that they are right. But – experience suggests that governments are always capable of finding ways to duck out of difficult decisions and make it seem like they are doing things when they are not. In truth, no one knows what will happen if no decision is reached in Copenhagen. The best guess is that the COP process will continue – another summit will happen somewhere else in 2010 – and the wagon train will roll on until it hits the buffers in 2012. If no decision is reached by then – basically, the Kyoto process is at an end. A new process will have to be invented from the ground up. No one seriously expects that to happen. Kyoto and the UNFCCC secretariat are the only game in town: a way will be found to make it work. Somehow. But public pressure is the essential driver. And inspired leadership from one or more political leaders. Mr Obama? – the world awaits you!

Why didn’t the USA sign up to Kyoto?

Well – they did sign! Al Gore, as Vice President, signed it. They just didn’t ratify it – because President Clinton realized that the ratification bill didn’t have a prayer of a chance of being passed by a heavily Republican Congress. Then, when President Bush came in in 2001, he distanced his administration from the whole Kyoto process and said that he was going to devise one of his own. There were odd initiatives that dribbled out of his administration – but none that really grabbed the world’s attention like his old electoral foe’s film the Inconvenient Truth – and the Oscars and Nobel Prizes that he won for making it. It was therefore a considerable breakthrough when, at Bali in 2007, the US delegation were sufficiently stung by a remark from the delegation of Papua-New Guinea, saying: “If you don’t want to sign, fine – but please get out of the way and let the rest of sign up to it….” Faced with that global isolation, the USA signed up to the Bali Roadmap – which leads to Copenhagen.

Some Homework:

This is the time to review all that you have learned from these ten lessons and to come up with your cast’s own, innovative take on the climate change challenge: what new solutions have occurred to them as they have learned about the issues?? Where are the kids in the story going wrong?? What might they do better? – be more effective?? Ask each cast member to go home, reflect on all they have learned – and come up with ONE new idea – a new initiative, a new character, a new scene or a new song that could add something to your version of the play. Ask them to summarise their suggestion briefly – 50 words or less – then give an explanation of why they think it might work in up to 100 words.

Some ideas for New Enquiries: New Scenes, New Characters, New Story-line, New Songs:

It is almost 20 years since Pavel Sydor wrote his wonderful “We want this world to survive for ever!” – and we are always hopeful that some new Peace Child will write another, newer – fresher – anthem to celebrate the success of the young people in achieving their goal. Something with a totally 21st century upbeat appeal. New Story line: It’s a bit late for new characters – but, if you could look Post-Copenhagen and bring the scene back to the UN Security Council in New York. Climate Change is, ultimately, a massive threat to the security of all of us – so the Security Council is a good place to choose. BUT – for this year, 2009 – we urge you to set it in Copenhagen. Why? – because the scene we envision might actually happen!! – The level of frustration amongst the youth delegation at Poznan was such that several young people were on the point of invading the stage – confident in their certainty that they could do a better job than the bozos sitting at the negotiating table. (The reason they did not was that they did not want to be blacklisted and barred from attending Copenhagen: next year, this will not be an obstacle.)

Further Discussion:

Inevitably, all discussions revolve around the question of ‘What more can we do?’ Based on the homework suggestion above, we suggest that you hold a cast brainstorming – where each cast member has to read out their new idea. Once all the ideas are on the table – or written up on the blackboard – discuss: “Are we reaching for the best ways to solve this, the greatest challenge that our – or any previous – generation of human beings living on the planet has ever had to face??” Whenever we have tried to do this, the default response is: “Yes! – great! – can’t do any better than what’s in the play….” – which is a lazy way of saying: “We don’t want to hurt our brains any more about this topic….” So – lead from the front: get some good ideas out there, and, if – as we hope – something really outstanding appeals to the whole cast, figure out some way of re-shaping the plot of the play to accommodate it.

So – that’s it with the study of the subject. I hope you found it as exciting as I do – and a challenge worthy of your sturdiest intellectual attention. But – for all artists and writers – there comes a time when you have to STOP – stop reading and researching. Start now to put the play together: learn the lines, prepare the dances, internalize the harmonies: think settings, backdrop visuals. Think timbres of voice, pauses, positions on stage – voice projection, costumes. All the things that make theatre productions magical. For – vital though the research and learning is – in this process, you have the enviable privilege of communicating your findings via the unique medium of musical theatre. And – no matter how brilliant your learning and knowledge, if you deliver a bad or boring musical, you may as well not have done any of it! As Prince Hamlet famously said, “The Play’s the thing!” And – remember how he went on? “ – wherein we’ll catch the conscience of a king!” If you do a decent musical, you will definitely catch the conscience of your community. If enough of us do it, you may touch the conscience of a whole planet. So – Go for it!

PRODUCTION NOTES XI

© World Youth Congress 2008

PRODUCTION NOTES

1. Cast List:

Peace Child has been performed by casts as small as 9 persons, or as large as 900. It is best used as a community or school musical where the majority of participants are young people. Schools get most out of it when staff and students do it together. However, many adults observe the dictum: “Don’t act with animals or children...” so the majority of Peace Child performances have been all-youth shows with older students playing the “adult” roles. Though this has some benefits, (rehearsals don’t have to be fitted around adult schedules) the power of the show increases immeasurably if you can persuade older thespians to participate. In this script, there are 45 named parts comfortably covered by a “Core Cast” of 35, 28 kids and 7 adults. In addition, you will need a Chorus of 50-100 + a Dance Troupe of 5-15 dancers.

The Storyteller

An older man or woman with commanding presence, a kind and dignified face and an affectionate way of relating to children;

Luke

A bright, appealing young man – age 14-25; very passionate, romantic and committed;

Lian

A stubborn but very bright Chinese exchange student -15 - 23-years old;

Jake

The green campaign leader; quite bitter, cynical – but still hopeful and kind;

Hassan

A young muslim man – an enthusiastic young campaigner, but a person of faith and one for whom the campaign is not the be-all and end-all of everything;

The Boffin

The Policeman

The TV show Host

A ghastly 2-dimensional TV bimbo with teeth; male or female;

The company President

A

The UN Secretary General

A

Diplomats 1-6

A

Youth 1 - 8

The Children from the Girl’s Side. Sometimes, they are from a different language group so speak with accents. They should have some distinguishing feature, eg. girls with headscarves, boys in heavy boots.

Children 1 - 6

The youngest kids; 7-12 year olds, seen at the beginning of the show and again in the Epilogue. Cute, but inquisitive with big voices;

Soloists

At least 2 Sopranos and 2 Baritones; age 13-19; often drawn from main cast, they sometimes make a small chorus to lead the main chorus from the microphones. Sometimes, they also provide 4-part harmony.

Dancers, Press Men

5-15 trained dancers aged, generally, 11-19; a dance class that’s training together finds Peace Child a useful departure from normal work. It gives them a chance to try speaking parts, singing while dancing, creating a role etc.

The Chorus

50-500 kids, including all between the ages 7-17 who can carry a tune;

2. The Staff & Crew

Producer

Peace Child requires the services of a strong Producer, familiar with all aspects of musical production, in particular hiring of competent artistic and technical staff, booking theatres and rehearsal space, insurance, adhering to budgets, seeking sponsorship and underwriting, publicity & promotion, advance sales etc. The producer must also dictate the spirit of the show, reminding the artistic staff of the basic goal of empowering children and building their self-esteem;

Artistic Director

Responsible for casting and all aspects of the production. Must work well with children, drawing out their ideas rather than imposing his/her own.

Writer

Usually doubles as the Artistic Director; is responsible for adapting the dialogue and lyrics to the chosen topic, for including the fruits of the children’s improvisations, adjusting lines to fit their voice patterns, accents etc. Must stand at arm’s length from the subject matter, allowing only the children’s ideas to be included.

Musical Director

Responsible for all that happens musically on the stage: training the chorus and soloists; adjusting and transposing songs to fit the children’s voices; arranging the parts for the band(if you have one); hiring/rehearsing the musicians etc.

• Musicians: Most Peace Child productions employ professional musicians; generally a rhythm section of drums, bass & lead guitar + synthesiser, piano, & a woodwind/brass player to add flute, trumpet, clarinet or saxophone lines

Choreographer

Responsible for all movement on stage; the most successful choreographers have been those with a class or school of dancers to draw from . This gives them a core of artists to build around; must work closely with Artistic Director and Musical Director to ensure coherence of all musical and movement numbers.

• Dance Captain: Choreographer’s assistant. Leads, and dances with, Dance Troupe, working the routines set by the choreographers, doing physical warm-ups with the Dancers and the whole cast;

Technical Director

Responsible for providing sound and lighting effects within an agreed budget. Is traditionally distant from the children which is a pity: it’s good if the technical director discusses his/her plans with the cast, drawing on their ideas, helping them to understand the technical side of the show.

• Lighting Designer: Prepares lighting cue sheets;

• Sound Designer: Most important person in most shows! He/she is responsible for ensuring that the kids voices are heard throughout the auditorium, and over the band;

Designer

Even when working on a bare stage, the designer can provide ideas for creating different levels, dropping backdrops, raising flags or tabards; preferably a painter, he/she should be consulted at an early stage to create a “look” for the show;

• Set Builders, Painters: When working with scaffolds, or with large backdrops, you must find volunteers to assist the designer in the erection and strike of these.

Wardrobe Mistress

Responsible for every costume before, during and after the run of the shows. Must be good with children, able to rehearse them in quick changes etc.

• Seamstresses: To assist in the making of costumes for Storyteller, orphans etc.

Stage Manager

Key person, especially in a large cast show. Responsible for schedules, call sheets, phone trees, all the above technical team; will make lists of hand-props, stage props; have copies of all technical cue sheets, costume sheets, all movement orders etc. Peace Child has been called a “stage-manager’s nightmare”; it has also been known to be their most satisfying show!

• Assistant Stage Managers: Vital to have enough. Minimum is four: two on deck(stage right/stage left); one Front of House, and one calling the show.

Publicity Coordinator

Works closely with the producer to coordinate Public Relations events. Should have close knowledge of all local publicity outlets - local radio, TV, and Print media. Should also have a good sense of what posters and handbills will work in your community; where to place advertisments; how to get free publicity.

• Volunteers: Give help hanging posters and handbills; for phone trees to local media;

Ticket Selling Coordinator

Is responsible for the preparation and execution of a ticket selling strategy.(see sample strategies below) In Peace Child, the cast are the sales agents and should be honored as such. The TSC should form a relationship with the cast early in rehearsals, informing them of the Ticket Sellers competition, the various prizes available etc. Also responsible for keeping track of all tickets, money received, tickets held at the Door etc.

• Volunteers: These are adults who support and assist the TSC;

Fund-raising/sponsorship Coordinator

Generally doubles as “Programme Editor” as most local sponsorship comes in the form of paid advertisments in the programme. The FRC works closely with the producer to prepare the budget and establish a fund-raising strategy. He/she is then responsible for executing that strategy and reporting back to the Producer regularly. Checks all adverts and sponsor or Patron lists for accuracy. Must be well-connected in the business and local affluent community.

3. Set & Staging:

The 7,000 or so presentations of Peace Child around the world have all been different. Some have been performed with huge casts in prestigious Concert Halls like the Kennedy Centre in Washington DC or the Royal Albert Hall in London. Such productions usually use a bare stage with the chorus sitting on risers at the back. The organ pipes provide an eery backdrop to the action.

Other productions have used small, intimate studio theatres with casts of 30-50, and many hand or stage props. Common to all of them is that Peace Child uses the whole theatre: the cast should feel as at home amongst the audience as up on stage. Likewise, the audience must feel caught up in the whole action become players in it.

If you have movable seating, the following stage structure works well. The chorus sits on the proscenium stage while the principle children are able to come closer to the audience where you can be sure their voices will be heard.

Proscenium Stage

4. The Lights & Sound:

Peace Child should give the impression of being a lively, spontaneous, hastily thrown together show. In order to work, the technical side must have meticulous preparation.

• SOUND: The most frequent criticism levelled at a Peace Child show is - “I couldn’t hear what they were saying!” It is hard to hear young children’s voices. Radio mikes are an answer but in our experience, they are generally unsatisfactory: kids tend to break them and, unless you have a mega-budget, you can only mike up a few characters. Far better to design the show so that the performers can get close to shotgun mikes, perform songs to hand-held cable or radio mikes, or be in a hall where the acoustics allow everyone to be heard. Always do vocal exercises at the start of every rehearsal, and do some basic elocution / voice project lessons. Trained voices are always much more audible and understandable than untrained ones. Be sure to allow enough time for sound checks with the band and ALL KEY SOLOISTS so that the kids are all comfortable with their entries, where the foldback is coming from, where to hold their mike in relation to their mouth etc.

• LIGHTS: Compared to sound design, lighting is easy! The typical Peace Child set has a bare stage, cyclorama at the back on which you can project a set of colours. Typically, there is a warm stage wash; cool nighttime stage wash; green exterior stage was. There are various effects - like the Street Scene, the Orphanage, where you will need pre-set gobos or slide effects; area lights - like the Storyteller’s area, downstage right; the President’s Specials where they come in and stand in pools of light; the deep left / right division down the stage representing the two sides of the conflict: there must be an area of darkness in between. Lighting, of course, will dictate the pace of the show. It must be fast-paced. Where a black-out is indicated, fade up quickly on the next cue, forcing the cast to move quickly to their new positions. The big debate in every Peace Child is to use or not to use Follow Spots. Much as I am irritated by shakey amateur follow-spot operators wobbling around a soloist using the wrong gel, on balance - if you can afford it - use them. There are star characters in the show who need to be picked out boldly; many members of the cast will have their moment in the spotlight: it builds their self-esteem to step into it, and feel the spotlight moving with them as they sing, dance or present their resolution. If you can decide where you solo spots are going to be, back fill the follow spot with fixed specials and cross lights. Use footlights too, if you have them.

5. The Songs:

• Peace Day

• If you Close your Eyes

• War

• I Want to Live

• Wargames

• I Gotta a Story

• I’m Sorry

• Sing

• Mr President

• Through the Eyes of a Child

• Reach out for a Star

• I Have a Vision

• I Want to Live II

• Living Together

• Child for a Day

6. Essential Costumes:

• Storyteller’s Cloak

• TV Host’s Jacket/Dress

• Guest’s Costume - as desired

• Panellists suits

• Press Men’s Hats & Vests (waistcoats)

• President 1 & 2’s Regalia

• Singer’s robe

• Soldiers’ Fatigues

• Commander’s Uniform and Cap

• UN Guard’s Uniform & blue beret

• National Groups’ National Costumes

• Dancer’s Costumes:

- for Peace Day & Sing;

- for War

- for Wargames

- for I Gotta Story

- for the Great March

• Children/Chorus Costumes:

- 2025 Clothes (Peace Day & Epilogue)

- Normal clothes (School yard, President scene)

- Kids(orphans) rags

7. Promotional Strategy:

There are at least five moments in the Peace Child production process when it is possible to get free publicity in local media. Here’s how:

• Announcement: Give dates; venue; artistic director’s name and producer. Provide the local media with backgrounders on Peace Child history. (Sample Press Backgrounders are included amongst the Forms at the end.)

• Auditions: Some of our best press stories and coverage have been about the audition process. Get the TV crews to come along and watch the children staggering through their improvisations. Get them to record you explaining why Peace Child is important.

• Cast Open Day: Get the cast to do something - a fund-raiser in the town square for some noble peacerelated cause; a beach or pond clean-up; a backwards march for the future; a sit-in in a sewer against pollution - some daft thing that the kids themselves think up that, preferably, will advance the cause of Peace and grab the attention of the media.

• Open Dress Rehearsal: If you are smart, you will get some local character to play the Storyteller. It must be someone who will draw local media attention. Have an Open Rehearsal where he/she prepares for the part, and get the cameras to film the rehearsed sections of the show, with the Storyteller looking on approvingly. Make it a Press Event.

• Opening Night: Particularly important if you have a long run; make it a glitzy, up-market affair with many local dignitaries, Bishops, Rabbis, school principles etc. there. Entertain the press with a small reception; introduce them to members of the cast if they wish to be; have a question and answer session at the end of the show if the press or dignitaries want it. Build the First Night up into a major event for your community. But first, be sure it’s a good show!

Other Promotional Strategies:

• Posters & Flyers: Saturate the Neighbourhood with them. Put them in every shop window; every library and school noticeboard. Get Private Houses on the High Street to put them in their windows. But be careful: don’t fly-post or pin them to trees. If you have a classy poster, this will make your production look cheap, and a little desperate.

• Paid Advertising: Who knows if papers write more about productions that advertise in their pages. Some do; some don’t. Check your budget very carefully and, if you have enough to buy a sizeable space - a quarter or eight of a page - do it. If not, don’t bother. A small announcement which might still cost you a fortune is going to look silly beside the double-page spreads of feature copy that any respectable Peace Child production can earn.

8. Financial Strategy:

Before starting, you must decide on how much you want to spend on your show. This should depend on: how much sponsorship or underwriting you feel you can raise, how much you think you can earn from ticket sales, and how much merchandise you can sell (coffee, cakes, T-shirts, programmes etc.) Peace Child has generally been a financially successful show as it has a large cast of children whose parents and friends will naturally support it; also the subject and process is unusual thus it gains press and TV features. We enclose here three sample budgets, one Big, one Medium and one Little:

SAMPLE BUDGETS

(in US $ dollars)

SAMPLE BUDGETS (in

1. Ticket Sales: Gala Performance with tickets varying from:

$100 - $25 per seat (average $35) x 1,500 seats: 52,500

$15-$25 per seat (average $20) x 600: 12,000

$5 -$7.50 (average $6) x 400 seats:

2. Ticket Sales: 3 x normal performances with tickets varying from:

$10-$15 (half price for children, average $8.50 x 1,500-seats) 38,250

$5 - $10(half price for children, average $4 x 600 seats) 7,200

Free - but take collection (average 500 per show)

3. Sponsorship: Companies, Government ministries, churches, local service groups, rich individuals, charitable foundations etc. 25,000 2,000 1000

4. Sales of Merchandise - T-shirts etc.: (profit only) 5,000

Notes:

* You must be sure that the children who participate, and the building in which you rehearse and perform, are properly insured for all eventualities.

1) This budget is based on the one used for the Kennedy Center Concert Hall performance; costs will vary, but large performances can cost close to $100,000 +;

2) Based on an excellent performance in Derry, N.Ireland;

3) Based on a small performance arranged by the choir-mistress for a church in Minnesota;

GALA: All productions should aim to have a “Gala” Opening performance, or last show to which local officials and dignitaries may be invited; not only will this raise money to help cover the budget, it will also ensure that the children’s message reaches the ears of those in a position to act upon it.

Travel Costs: This can include bringing children from disadvantaged areas of a city or region to rehearsals, to a research or relaxation trip out for the whole cast;

NOTE: ALL PRODUCTIONS ARE DESIGNED TO RAISE FUNDS FOR ON-GOING WORK! PROJECTED

THE PROCESS XIII

© Simone Cabral, Brazil

THE PROCESS

When Peace Child got co-opted by the educators in North America, it became fashionable to say: “Peace Child is not so much a play as a process...” True - up to a point. In introducing this section, it’s important to stress that what emerges at the end of the process is a performance. It must have integrity and quality as a piece of theatre, as a performance of songs and dances. It is my conviction that a proper execution of the process enhances the performance - makes for more compelling acting from the children, more emotive and accurate singing, more passionate and coherent delivery of the message - a message that the children for the most-part have written themselves. If the performance shows signs of falling apart or needing that dreaded soubriquet “Workshop Performance” - please DUMP THE PROCESS - and get on with the job of doing a good play!

1. The Audition:

The audition sets the tone for the whole production. Peace Child auditions must always be fun and educational. They must be extremely carefully organized to give children, and their parents, a sense of confidence in the production. In our experience, the following format works well:

• Take the children in groups of 10-15; sit them in a circle and go round getting each one to speak their name and phone number in a loud, clear voice;

• Explain to them the story of Peace Child and how you are looking for children who are going to help write it. Ask them to do an improvisation - any one from the lesson plans will work, but I generally use the one where a kid who has been cast in an overseas production of Peace Child runs in to tell a friend who is sceptical. They argue for a while about the pros and cons of going. Then switch roles: have the sceptic run in and gush with enthusiasm for Peace Child. Change cast members until everyone in the group has had a go.

• Hear the prepared song. Those that have not prepared a song should sing something simple but testing to see how they can hold a tune. “Silent Night” is our favorite - shows off a range, the timbre of a voice. Recently, I have found “From a Distance” a good song, particularly for possible soloists.

• Talk about the rehearsal schedule; ask if any one has any questions about the show; tell them when decisions will be made about who will be in the core cast, who will be in the chorus etc. Ask if the Music Director wants to hear anyone again.

• Send them off to work with the choreographer - even those who have no intention of dancing. Finally, ask them how many of them would like to be in the show. Tick those who raise their hands.

• Mark each child out of 10 for:

• Voice Projection;

• Improvisational Skills;

• Singing;

• Movement;

Do it immediately before you see another group. Compare notes with the Choreographer and Music Director. Split the names into two lists: those for the Core Cast and those for the Chorus. Those who want to be in it but who have no ability to move or sing, and are uncomfortable in improvisation should be offered backstage roles.

General Points:

If you are doing a community performance, it is good to do auditions in different sectors of the community. For example, for a production in Seattle, the artistic staff auditioned in several parts of the city to draw in children from the various ethnic groups.

Be sure to advertise your auditions widely!! Your success in getting people to auditions is an indicator of your ability to get people to buy tickets to the show!

2. The Read through:

Even if you are going to spend some months doing classroom study of the Lesson Plans, it is good to begin the formal process of preparation with a “Core Cast” read-through of the script. The Chorus, sadly, cannot be a part of this: it’d be just too many people. They should be rehearsed separately and their movements rehearsed into the play in the final week.

• Get everyone into a circle and start reading from Page One - reading all stage directions, everything!

• Everyone should read something, including the music director, the choreographer, the stage manager. Make everyone feel involved in the words on the page. Even you.

• Be sure to circulate the lines for the Boy and the Girl amongst all possible candidates. Choosing one child over another to play a “lead” is an inherently un-peaceful act which must be left finally to the judgement of the Artistic and Musical Director(s). Making the whole cast feel ownership of the Boy and Girl’s characters during the read-through can help ease the blow of that decision.

• Mix up generations and genders: let adults read kid’s parts; kids read adult parts.

• Do not Stop. Read the whole thing straight through pausing only if you need refreshment or bathroom breaks.

• At the end, discuss the following question ahead of all others:

3. “Where are we?”

The first thing you must decide is where your Peace Child is set. Which conflict are you looking at? Every other decision you make about your production will flow from this first decision. I have tried to create a “generic” script that will adapt to any conflict.

You can set your story anywhere. Write down the name of Bosnia, South Central Los Angeles, Guatamala City, Hebron, Belfast or Colombo at the top of your script. Then slide down through the scenes and see how many simple changes become necessary to you. Think about this before the read-through, but do not make a decision.

First hear which conflict troubles your cast most. Go round in a circle, hearing from everyone. Make a list of all the possible conflicts your Peace Child could address. Allow those that feel strongly to make a final statement on why they think one conflict more interesting or more relevant than another. Then take a vote.

Note: I have recently been told of two productions, one in Ireland, where the producer preferred to leave the “place” indeterminate, hinting at conflicts in many parts of the world. This is clearly another solution.

4. Improvisations:

Once you have made a decision on Place, it’s time to work through the lesson plans with your cast. The information and ideas that come from these discussions and improvisations enrich, incalculably, the final production.

The best way for a community cast to do this, especially if you are pressed for time, is to split into small groups of 5 or 6 (including stage managers, choreographers, dancers - everyone!) - and take a lesson each. Each group should read the background material, discuss the discussion points, do the improvisations and present their findings to the whole cast. Include an improvisation in each presentaion along with suggestions on how to adjust the script.

Make time to discuss each group’s presentation. Get others to join their improvisations. Take copious notes and write up on large sheets of paper lines or ideas for scenes or characters or songs that people seem to like. Give the notes to the writer and let him/her fashion it into a First Draft script.

The frenzy of activity and improvisation doing the lesson plans should allow you to get to know your cast well. Many parts will have cast themselves. Names must now be ascribed to the others so that, in the First Draft Script, Child 1 will have become “Malcolm” - Kid 5 will be “Natalie” etc.

5. Naming of Parts:

It’s a big debate in Peace Child as to whether children should perform using their own names. Some psychiatrists have told me it could be damaging, but I cannot see why: no character in Peace Child is anything other than normal. By contrast, I see many benefits: when a kid called Marco plays a character called Marco whose purpose in life is to bring Peace to the world, that child will carry the experience for the rest of his life. He will become, in a sense, a Peace Child, as others become Boy Scouts, or Brownies, or soldiers. The Presidents, commanders, TV Hosts etc. are character parts: the kids should invent outrageous names for them. But for themselves - for the core group of children that spread out across the world and end up at the United Nations, let them carry their own names. Let them be Peace Children.

6. Preparing the Drop-ins:

A Drop-in may be defined as a section of the script which has a clear beginning point and a precise endpoint. To complete the First Draft Script, these need to be written. There are eight:

• State of the Planet Report

• Questions for the President:

• 21st Century Resolutions

• Atrocity Stories

• TV Show

• Children’s Summit Resolutions

• Lines for Great March National Groups

• Questions for the Epilogue

(for help on writing individual drop in sections, see the Scene-by-Scene Production Notes). The cast should re-assemble in small groups and draft the drop-ins for the writer. He/she can then fit them into the First Draft Script which should be printed out as a “Line Text” (ie. in as few pages as possible) and photocopied for the entire cast.

7. Rehearsal Hints:

You are now ready to start the normal business of rehearsal - learning lines, doing the blocking, setting the songs. In my experience, kids learn the lines in a second. If they don’t there is something wrong with the lines. They should be changed. A good way to do this is to “Take the dog for a walk” through the script. You know the way a dog on a lead scampers from one side of a path to another, exploring different smells. In a similar fasion, allow your actors to wander down the woodland path of your script, straying wildly from the text, exploring side-paths, jumping in ponds, relaxing in clearings. See what new ideas emerge. If you like them, splice them into the script.

• In 2-hander scenes, switch characters: let each see the other’s reactions.

• If a funny line isn’t being funny, work it. Find a bit of business that makes it funny - that allows that particular actor to get a laugh. If he/she still cannot make it work, change the line, or cut it. A Peace Child with flat jokes is deadly.

• Work the transitions. Make sure every child knows where they are coming from, where they have to get to, how they are leaving. Especially the principles.

• Do double-speed run-throughs to make sure that the kids know the text - very well! We never use a Prompter in Peace Child. If a kid dries, the others must cover.

• Have everyone do vocal and physical warm-ups at the beginning & end of rehearsals; go through the big numbers all together - Peace Day, Sing, Living Together etc. so everybody knows them inside out and backwards.

• The Dancers, the Chorus and the Singing Soloists rehearse separately, in different rooms. So will the Core Cast principles. This is good. Don’t present the scenes or numbers to the full rehearsal until you are happy with them. Then impress the others.

• About a week or two weeks before the show, type up a FINAL Draft Script. Try not to change anything after this; (though if something can be improved, I always do!)

8. Further Levels of Adaptation

New Characters:

Taking the “Child 1, Child 2” characters and, as well as giving them a name, giving them a characteristic: maybe one is a joker; another is the star of the swim-team or an ace chess player - one might always wear green or has a mother who likes hanging out at shopping malls. Develop new characters in new scenes.

New Scenes:

As you explore the lesson plans, ideas will come flooding from the kids; the script will quickly become constricting. Cut whole scenes: make space for new ones, new sub-plots - new jokes!

New Songs:

Nobody knows if they can write a song until they’ve done it. If they can write a lyric, they can write a rap; if they can write a rap, the next step is to write music. Work closely with the Music Director to help kids complete and perform new songs.

New Story, New Play:

New scenes, new songs, new characters will start to send tremors down the length of the play. New story ideas are bound to emerge. Pursue them: Peace Child gives you the freedom to explore major world events as they happen. Consider the summary script that follows: Peace Child at War. This was created with/for a group of particularly depressed young people from ex-Yugoslavia, building out of scripts created for the Middle East, Central America, and an oratorio performed in Coventry Cathedral. It is a quintessential Peace Child. I urge you to be as daring in your departure from the generic script. However, you should observe some ground rules.

Ground Rules:

We cannot include for you all the new plays and story-lines that have been built around the Peace Child idea over the last 15 years. There are literally thousands. What we can do is to give you a sense of when the play you are creating ceases to be Peace Child and starts to become something else. There are five bench-mark tests which can tell you:

• Is it set in the Future,(ie. 2025) with a flashback to the present?

• Is more than 60% of the music from the Peace Child songbook?

• Does the story feature a friendship between children of opposing communities?

• Is some of the dialogue written by the members of the cast?

• Are most of the solutions proposed at the end to be carried out by children? If the answer to all of the above is “Yes!” - you are doing a Peace Child. If the answer to any is “No - “ you’re probably not. Look carefully at what you are doing, and consider calling your performance something else.

DAYS OF LEARNING AND ACTION ON CLIMATE CHANGE (D-LACCs)

DAYS OF LEARNING AND ACTION ON CLIMATE CHANGE (D-LACCs)

Just like the characters in the play, we call upon children everywhere to ask their school principles to allow them to have one day – October 24th, November 30th – or any day leading up to the Copenhagen Summit –where they can plan a Day of Action and Learning about Climate Change. Our strong suggestions are:

• that the students themselves plan the content of the day: they can deliver that content themselves, or with the assistance of teachers, outside experts, videos, films, performances of all or part of this play! – and –

• that the day end with an action – or a commitment to a series of actions, again to be chosen by the individual students themselves.

We do NOT want to pre-empt the young planners of the day – but we thought we might give you some ideas of three very different approaches to the day which, we hope, will help you start planning your D-LACC. The first is aimed at younger students – the second at middle schools – and the third at older High School and University students. Take your pick - ‘n-mix!

D-LACC ONE:

Primary School Session: clearly staff will have to be involved in the planning and the delivery of the Primary School D-LACC – but the more you can get the pupils, especially the older ones, to deliver the workshops, the more impactive and empowering it will be.

Assembly: Start with a Whole School Assembly – Explain what the day is all about. You might do a performance of a scene from the Play: (Scene THREE – where Lian asks if this stuff about climate change is really real! Add some of your own lines – and may be sing a song: “World” or “Inventions”) – So lay out the problem in a way that the young students can understand. Then – crucially! – let them know how we are going to crack the problem: how building the new ‘post-carbon’ world we’re going to build in their lifetimes is better, cleaner, better for all the plants and animals with whom we share this planet – and for the humans themselves! Up to you how much detail you go into – and also how much time you’ve got. Important thing: finish the Assembly on a positive note. That will lead into a positive series of short (40-min.) workshop sessions. We suggest you organize so that the FIVE sessions run concurrently through the day – so that each student gets a chance to attend all five sessions at different times.

Session ONE: Science – the basic biological / chemical reactions that cause climate change;

Session TWO: The problem with coal and other fossil fuels: 1) they’re running out; 2) they cause global warming; - explain with the games from Lesson FOUR;

BREAK

Session THREE: The United Nations and the Politics of Climate Change -

Session FOUR: The Post-Carbon World – go deeper into the detail of what this world will look like: fire up the children’s imaginations and get them imagining and thinking about what their world will look like with polluting smoke and exhaust fumes from factories, cars and airplanes.

LUNCH

Session FIVE: What we can do? – introduction to the kinds of actions that all young people can take to start building the post-carbon world – and prevent global warming.

ACTION Session: Based on what you learned from Session FIVE – get the students to decide what they will do in each of the following areas:

• In your own, personal life

• In your home and family life

• In your school –

• In your wider community

• In your nation

• In the world!

Obviously what each student does in their personal life is the most important – and here, maybe you can use the Peace Child Lifestyle Contract (www.peacechild.org/education) to get students to sign up to certain personal actions. But seek to go beyond that – get them thinking about how the subjects they choose to focus upon in their school careers can really make a difference: choosing science is good – as scientists – like the Boffin in the play – are the ones who really know what’s going on. But – think how other career paths can help prevent climate change. And – though the politics may be a bit beyond students of this age – get them thinking about how governments work, how each of us – governments included – need to make priorities. And how saving the planet from catastrophic climate change should be the top priority of all governments –local, national, and international.

2nd Assembly:

You might choose to finish the day with another Assembly: a selection of students tell the staff what they have learned about Climate Change - and what actions they are going to take as a result. Finish with a rousing song – like SING! or We want this world to survive for ever!

D-LACC TWO:

Middle School Session: Students aged 11-15 will be able to take on much more of the organization themselves. And, with parental permission and proper supervision / marshalling, they may wish to organize a march or a demonstration outside the town hall with speeches – like in the early scenes in the play.

The format of the day could run in a very similar way to the Primary School Format – Assembly, followed by subject-specific workshops, followed by a final Assembly and ACTION! Or if the students are sufficiently wellinformed by doing the Play – they could plan a whole day of Action, going into the neighbourhood, informing citizens of the dangers of catastrophic climate change, getting petitions signed, building awareness of what needs to be done in their area and inviting people to get more information about the Post-Carbon Future.

Media is very important too: students should set up a media committee to work on getting Press Releases and photographs and short videos out to the media. We attach a sample Press Release below – but actually a short power-point, or video appeal by one of the students works just as well, probably better. Meet the press/media before your D-LACC and get them on your side.

Parents can help: a trawl through the careers of parents of students at the school will usually reveal some who are working for companies involved in building the post-carbon future. Get them to come along and take part in seminars, and help lead/marshall the actions. Peace Child does not believe in a youth-ruled world: rather we believe in co-management – elders and students working together in equal, mutually respectful partnerships to achieve common goals. (see: www.co-management.info)

‘Celebrity Speakers’?: people always turn up if you get a film star, or Bono, or Bob Geldof to come and speak at D-LACCs, but don’t get your hopes up: Leo di Caprio probably won’t come! You may find an inspirational speaker locally – but often it is better to use your own resources: find and figure out inspiring speeches on your own. It is your day! The only exception you might think about is inviting your local MP or Town Mayor: if they come, you will have to put up with their speech for 5-10 minutes, but then you have them cornered – and you get them to go on record with commitments for how they are going to vote and make policy to avoid serious climate change and build the post-carbon future in your community?

Cabaret, Open Mike, Party?: Any Activist will tell you that celebration is a big part of the fun of being involved in a campaign. There’s a scene at the Post-Demo party in the play. You should think about having a big party at the end of your D-LACC to celebrate the fact that you actually pulled it off. And that is one thing that we will absolutely NOT offer any guidance in how to plan!

D-LACC THREE:

Senior High School, University or Community Youth Group The UN defines ‘Youth’ as citizens between the ages of 15-25. And no revolution – and no struggle - has ever been won without them. The struggle to avoid catastrophic climate change and build the green economy is no different. So – we look to this age group to make the biggest impact. You can use the format of the Primary and Middle School D-LACCs – but we would hope you would go much further: Al Gore, who won an Oscar and a Nobel Prize for his campaigning on Climate Change was gob-smacked when a friend of mine asked him: “Would you be prepared to go to jail to stop climate change?” - no one had ever asked him that. He said: “Let me sleep on that” – and at breakfast the next morning, he gave his answer. “Yes – I believe I would!”

Now, listen up, folks: Peace Child is not known to be a radical, campaigning organization – but, on this issue, we are fairly confident that results will not be achieved by singing a few songs from a musical stage. Like Al Gore, we need to be prepared to go to jail to get the attention of our politicians and the media. It’s called ‘Civil Disobedience’ – and very few campaigns have succeeded without it. Gandhi and Martin Luther King – who I have quoted throughout the Lesson Plans – were masters at non-violent civil disobedience. And we need that kind of leadership now – to overcome a threat far bigger than British Imperialism or racial discrimination.

We will see as 2009 plays out – but I suspect that the Copenhagen Summit will be very pleased with itself if it gets the Governments to agree to a 550ppm target, and 80% cuts by 2050 – with a vague commitment to 20% cuts by 2020. That is NOTHING LIKE ENOUGH!! That guarantees the Arctic will be ice-free by 2015 – and most of the world will be ice-free by the end of the century. 10-15 meters of sea-level rise – our worst nightmares fulfilled. That is what we have to stop! “Keep the Coal in the Hole – and the Oil in the soil! STOP GLOBAL WARMING NOW!” You have to demonstrate, occupy, noisily – and NOW!!

However, we in Peace Child have an equally serious commitment that no action we take should risk harming one hair on the head of any young person working with us. Any action has to be SAFE!! (We would never sanction the kinds of pranks that Luke and Lian get up to on the motorway bridges and powerplant cooling towers! Suicide is no part of our plans!) There are many safe ways to make your point – and get the attention of the media and politicians. Here are some – safe - ideas:

Campus-wide Action: Kids going on strike is perhaps one of the best ways of getting attention. Sit-ins, occupying administration buildings, taking over lecture halls and seminar rooms and canteens for a day of learning about climate change and debate about climate change would make a pretty big impact at your university. The staff and faculty might be persuaded to agree to take part – and learn and debate the issues themselves. Getting everyone – everyone including cooks, gardeners, bus drivers, vice-chancellors, secretaries – EVERYONE! – involved in a university or high school in one day of serious learning and debate would be great. And then get the whole student body + staff to march through the city with placards.

Critical Mass: this is a great way of closing down a town or city – and getting great media attention. Assemble every student with a bicycle in one inter-section in the city – and then cycle, very slowly in groups of 50-100 down the major thoroughfares of the city, slowing down, and stopping the traffic to alert motorists of their contribution to climate change. See: http://www.urban75.com/Action/critical.html

Closing down the Highway/Motorway System: this is quite simple and hasn’t been done in a while so might get attention – especially if a group of Universities got together to close down a series of motorways/ autobahns on the same day at the same time. What you do is this: get three students with three cars to join a motorway and, one mile ahead of an inter-section, drive in parallel across the three lanes (if a 2-lane motorway, you only need two cars; if a 6-lane, you need six cars etc.) As you see the next inter-section come into view, start flashing your lights and slow down. On that signal, the 50-100 students/demonstrators waiting at the next intersection fill the carriageway waiving their banners and placards, and sitting down on the road surface. You can then hand out leaflets about climate change to the drivers waiting in the queue – or just sit and wait to be arrested. But – be sure to alert the media to be there to get the photographs. If you are wellorganised, you can close down the traffic in both directions – but that requires brilliant timing and coordination. But – use cars to slow down the traffic. Running out on the motorway waiving placards is a sure way to get killed!

Closing down the Airports: This always gets a lot of attention for, although aviation is only responsible for 2% of greenhouse emissions, the media like it. Arguments over Heathrow’s 3rd Runway got consistent high media visibility – and the Plane Stupid demonstration which closed down Stansted Airport for a few hours, over-shadowed most of the news that came out of the Poznan conference that was happening at the same time. (see: www.planestupid.com) There’s no doubt that the demonstrators at Stansted were quite lucky, as well as quite brave to achieve what they did. It is much safer to do what the Thais did in closing down Bangkok International Airport – but, to do that, you need several thousand demonstrators. Turning up with a handful of students at Heathrow or Schipol is just going to be embarrassing, achieve little and possibly be dangerous: airport security staff tend to treat any protester as a terrorist – so be careful: they may be trigger-happy.

Your ideas!: Students have always come up with the best, most startling stunts to draw attention of the media and politicians to their causes. Whether it’s hoisting a car on to the roof of King’s College Chapel in Cambridge, or jumping naked off Westminster Bridge into the Thames, or driving a mini to the top of Ben Nevis – there are a myriad of astounding ideas out there. And you should do one of them. The Planet needs YOU to take action this year. So – what’s it going to be? Surprise us all! And GOOD LUCK!