Background
Nature never seems to be involved in climate-related agreements. It has not been present at any of the human discussions, and has never been more than a spectator of any outcome, responding to human production activities. In this “protocol reaching” process, human act as a complete proxy, and nature’s response becomes a measurement tool (e.g., at what rate we need to slow or control warming).
The frequency of extreme weather events such as heavy rainfall, heat and drought has brought climate change into people’s lives in a more everyday palpable way. The story we want to tell here is that nature has participated in the development of protocols in different languages and ways, and has driven public action.
The Domains we responded to is Protocols for climate action/terraforming, and the Problem Areas we chose are Protocols and rare or exceptional events (including “long tail” or “black swan” events) and Protocols and patterns of conflict (ranging from military and policing to economic and cultural).
Team member Carolyn studied materials engineering in college, and has worked on projects in the degradable plastics lab. During university years, she was involved in public service activities with several organizations, and is able to contact managers and long-term practitioners of environmental organizations in Guangzhou and Shenzhen for interviews.
Base on corporate experience, She understands listed companies’ annual report requirements and ESG guidelines, and is skilled in policy analysis. She also recognizes how the consumer trend toward “sustainability” is shaping the value proposition for today’s youth.
Second Member: In Search
Contact：1350713887@qq.com
Research Methodology
- Desk research on climate change and ecological issues (China-based, combined with international trends, e.g., climate quitting in the U.S.)
- Top-down climate agreement and its policy evolution
- Bottom-up public response to environmental issues
- How the agreement works in both directions (possible directions: consumer trends, disaster coverage, social media contributions…)
- Interviews with ordinary people who have experienced extreme weather such as heavy rain, high temperature, drought, etc., to find out how their lives have changed and whether this has affected their views on climate issues, if so, to what extent, and whether there are relevant practices in their daily lives, if not, possible reasons
- Interviews with public interest practitioners in Guangzhou and Shenzhen who have been involved in environmental projects to understand the possible resistance to the implementation of the project and the current efforts to fulfill the commitments.
- Women-centered ecology as an additional reference or another branch
Ideal outputs
- An essay that summarizes how various parties have come to understand the importance of environmental issues, how they are acting on them, what the challenges are, and possible improvement suggestions for different areas and different parties. (for PIGs).
- A fiction story based on what we know of an ordinary person’s life, using other information gathered as a backdrop (for PILLs)