Justice Matters
#Justice@SJE News: Justice Matters Seminar
On Wednesday 26th August, our Year 10 Leadership Group and a couple of Justice volunteers spent the morning attending an online seminar hosted by the Justice Team from Sandhurst Diocese. The theme for the day was Just Together For The Environment.
The guest presenters were Kerry Stone from our local Caritas Network, and Clare Vernon, who is an Ecological Justice Resource Specialist and is also with Caritas Australia.
The day began with a discussion with the students present about what Justice means to them, with responses mainly focusing on ‘equality’ ‘opportunity’ ‘fairness’ ‘peace’ and ‘happiness’. All great responses!
Clare Vernon captivated the audience with her life story about her ‘journey to justice’, in particular Ecological Justice, with perhaps the advice that resonated most with the young audience being that they should work to ensure that their dreams for their future career matches their values and morals. And that it is ok to go at your own pace in working out what these values and morals actually are.
We then got down to business and began discussing ‘The Case For Action On Climate Change’. We started by looking at how Climate Change is going to change our world:
Link to image: https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Climate-change-impacts-in-Australia-projections-for-the-year-2100-under-different_fig2_315098350
We were then introduced to the truth that Climate Change is a Social Justice Issue because it has a flow-on effect that ultimately ends with those communities and people who depend on the environment for agriculture and life-provisioning systems (water, soil, temperature, ecosystem cycles), farmers from all parts of the earth being impacted with higher rates of disease, less access to food, more droughts, poor-health and political instability. And that it will be the poorest of these, from the poorest of nations, who will be most severely impacted by Climate Change.
This is such a pressing issue that Pope Francis wrote to us all in 2015 imploring us to unite in Our Care For Our Common Home in his encyclical Laudato Si. In this letter, Pope Francis is clear that human activity is at the root of climate change and our ‘ecological crisis’ - and that therefore, the solution also lies with us. Please watch:
Link: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1FoO6FF5L8W28ZC__sIxpc_zcytqDAFL4/view?usp=sharing
The final part of the seminar focused on actions we could take in our school and school community, and perhaps even more importantly, how we get more involvement from students, teachers and families. This section was titled Advocacy And Campaigning.
Clare discussed with the students acknowledging what kinds of things were in their ‘Circle of Control’, their ‘Circle of Influence’ and their ‘Circle of Concern’.
Using these three concepts as a base, this is what our group was able to highlight:
CIRCLE OF CONCERN: Ecological Justice, Climate Change, Global Warming, Carbon Emissions, Poverty, Refugees.
CIRCLE OF INFLUENCE: Educating the school about Global Warming; highlighting to students groups such as School Strike For Climate and the AYCC (Australian Youth Climate Coalition); advocating for more Solar Panels and raising awareness around the benefits to our school from the installation of Solar Panels; advocating for the introduction of a four bin system to sort waste and educating the school on how to use them; advocating for more Climate Change in the school curriculum.
CIRCLE OF CONTROL: Banning single use plastic water bottles at school (once the threat of COVID is behind us and we can use the bubblers again!); a school veggie garden and composting equipment; upping the campaign for ‘LIGHTS OFF AND BLINDS UP’ in our classrooms with a focus on how much energy we can save as a school community; continuing raising funds for the vulnerable and poorer members in our community, nation, earth who will be most impacted by Climate Change; and interestingly, mentioned by all our representatives - CLEANING UP AFTER OURSELVES IN THE YARD AND IN OUR CLASSROOMS (sometimes, it is the smallest and easiest of actions!).
With many thanks to Tess, Oakley, Dermot, Indiana, Olivia, Jess, Macy, Hannah, Milly, Holly, Sophie and Ella for representing our school so well during the seminar, for their consideration and sharing of the issues that concern them, and for their determination to follow up on the seminar with real Actions For Climate Change in Term 4.
“We are the first generation that can end poverty, and the last generation that can avoid the worst impacts of climate change.” Ban Ki-moon, United Nations Secretary General
“There is nobility in the duty to care for creation through little daily actions;” Pope Francis, Laudato Si.
Please Watch:
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WgbulUhT_Ec
#JUSTICE@SJE