Letters from the future
What might the world look like if we took meaningful action on climate change today? How would our choices change if we could glimpse a future in which we had successfully tackled the climate crisis by 2050?
Driven by this curiosity and inspired by 'back to the future', we ran two sustainability workshops during UoBXtra 2016 at the University of Birmingham for staff and students. The sessions explored climate change and challenged participants to use their imagination to envision a positive future while considering how we might address some of the world's most pressing climate challenges.
Participants learned about the science of climate change, the drivers of greenhouse gas emissions, and the actions needed to reduce them. They then "travelled" to the year 2050 and, with a little creative licence, wrote letters back to the present day describing a future in which meaningful action on climate change had succeeded.
Your future is whatever you make it. So make it a good one.
Session outcomes
The workshops increased participants' understanding of climate change, boosted their confidence in discussing the topic with others, and strengthened their sense of hope and optimism about the future. They also left participants feeling more motivated to take action in the present day.
Workshop resources
Access all workshop materials in a single download, including the presentation deck, session planning template, time travel activity script and letter-writing prompts.
Acknowledgements
Acknowledgements
We are deeply grateful to the University of Birmingham Sustainability Project Fund for making this project possible. Our thanks go to Jess Taylor for leading and shaping the project, and to Dr Ruth Geen, Hayley Lambert and Alina Siraj Zaffar for their collaboration and support.