Climate Conversations: Global We

A powerful narrative was extracted from almost 3,000 recorded Global We conversation excerpts between people in 25 portals across the globe. This gave indigenous youth activists in Alaska the opportunity to have conversations with waste pickers in India, musicians in South Africa talked and rap battled with Syrian refugees in a camp in northern Iraq, youth in Gaza expressed their concerns to environmental groups in Jakarta and people in disaster prone Barbados focused on developing mitigating solution ideas together with similar groups in Colombia, to name a few examples. 

Science Gallery Bengaluru along with Bengaluru Sustainability Forum facilitated climate engagement programmes through the “Global We for Climate Action,” with the Museum for the United Nations – UN Live, supported by the IKEA Foundation. Seeking to broaden the climate conversation by engaging people who are generally left out and feel little agency in shaping the future of the world – especially younger generations, people disproportionately affected by climate change, and people in conflict-ridden societies. The initiative also aims to help establish channels to bring these perspectives to leaders who have the power and means to accelerate the decisions and actions to protect our planet.

The ‘Global We’ programme featured ten immersive conversation portals, one of which was launched at the Jawaharlal Nehru Planetarium, Bengaluru on 8th November 2022. The engagement took place through mediums of film screenings, conversations with experts, workshops and other diverse formats of programming around the theme of climate change.

Top findings:

• Empathy Sparks Urgency: emotions like caring and empathy are important drivers for participants who also expressed a shared sense of urgency, emphasizing the need for immediate climate action. 

• A Global We Unites for Action: shared empathy is a powerful driver of climate transformation. The feeling of global belonging – a global we – in a fragmented world creates deep human connection across borders and barriers which fosters engagement and agency.

• Culture makes action relevant: popular culture can ignite and fuel climate conversations. Participants forged deeper connections when climate change was linked to subjects close to their hearts, while being universal across locations, such as human well-being, food, art, and music food, art, and music.

Explore more on the Global We and the Museum for the United Nations here.