A Message from the Director

Rejuvenating Climate Education: Wonder+Experience+Mindfulness

Yesterday, on June 12, 2023 two Climate Events occurred, 2,000 miles apart.

In Montana, the first Our Children’s Trust case, in all of the 8 years of cases, was permitted to go to trial. It is the first-ever constitutional climate trial in the U.S.
See more here: https://www.youthvgov.org/held-v-montana.

In Massachusetts, I joined a theatre filled with citizens of Cape Cod, where Bill McKibben, reported on the updated Good and Bad news about climate.
Bill McKibben reminded us that we have 6. 6 years, exactly, to get what we need to get done, done.
Sobering to be sure.

The Global Warming Express (GWE or Global W.E.) has been running for 10 years. Ten years ago, Marina Weber-Stevens wrote her book to give to President Obama in hopes that he would stop the Keystone Pipeline and “fix the problem of global warming.” He received her book and stopped the pipeline, but he didn’t fix the problem.

It took 8 years for Our Children’s Trust to have a lawsuit come to trial.

6. 6 years is not very long. The GWE program works with children ages 8-12. Global Warming Expressers who are 10 years old will still be in high school and not able to vote by that time.

Why even try to educate kids about climate now?
What good will it do, with climate change already upon us?

The curriculum for the GWE program contains changes every year, because the children’s needs and the climate developments change each year.

Currently, our mentors bring earth science, climate science, solutions to the climate crisis, sustainability practices, visual arts, performing arts, public speaking, letter writing, and community engagement to the children in our weekly program, with remarkable results.
But it’s not enough. The world and our way of teaching are both at a tipping point.

It’s time to think about what the children of today, who will be the young adults of tomorrow, will need. They will be living in a new world – one with which not one of us adults have had any experience.  They will need more than climate science and solutions. They will need to be carrying inner resources and practices which help them to feel solid and calm during a crisis and continue to fuel their well-being when things outside them are not well.
And they also need more time.

For this reason, the GWE is now incorporating training in mindfulness, compassion, empathy and connectedness into everything we do in our programs, weaving these trainings throughout each week of science, arts and action. And, as a bonus, the GWE volunteer mentors and GWE school teachers will learn these skills for themselves, to incorporate into their mentoring and into their own lives. Newly published science proves the effectiveness of training in such practices, as a solution for all people, even those with chronic, emotional or physical pain, to all them to source healthy lives for themselves. [1]

At the GWE we believe that everyone, not just the children, can benefit from a climate program which is based upon the foundation of mindfulness and results in concrete, real-world community action creating tangible innovations.

The world is not out of time.
Time is a tricky concept. Children carry the Wisdom of Wonder. Children live almost completely without a sense of time as we define it. Their world is filled with moments of wonder, in which time seems to expand. As adults, when we experience wonder, time also falls away for us. The simple practice of mindfulness brings us the same gift. When we act with mindfulness, time expands to fill our needs and work with seemingly impossible deadlines is completed before we know it.  

Grownups, and especially grownups who are elders, carry the Wisdom of Experience.
At the GWE we bring the young together with the older ones- Wonder + Patience.

What if we could create Climate Education and a Climate Movement which allowed all participants to feel better and better instead of worse and worse?

What if all Climate work was sourced in Rejuvenation and Resilience?

What if that energy was able to reach others in no time at all? 

How fast could meaningful, lasting change happen then?

The great news about mindfulness and inner wellness is that it is contagious.

Good things happen faster when people’s motivations are grounded in calm and resilience.

Take a moment. Take a breath. Consider the consequences of your actions. Right now.
Consider joining us as a GWE Mentor or Teacher.
Consider supporting us by donating money or donating time.
We need more of both.
And with your help, we all will benefit.

To jump onboard The Global Warming Express, connect with us through the box at the bottom of this Home Page.

 In Trust and Gratitude,

Genie Stevens,

Executive Director 

The Global Warming Express

_________________________

Fadel Zeidan- Mindfulness and Pain, May 18, 2023

Join the GWE/
Global W.E. solution

Join us in mentoring climate science, regeneration

and becoming part of the solution with leadership

training, public speaking, letter-writing and

performance skills grounded in nature-awareness

and mindfulness practices.

Apply today to mentor with the Global W.E.-Global

Warming Express program, now in its 11th award winning

year, in partnership with the Rio Grande

Sierra Club.

Train to co-mentor students in grades 3-6 once

a week for the 2023/24 school year. Generous stipend.

Send inquiries to: genie@theglobalwarmingexpress.org