Hanna Van der Ploeg
A crisis to make change, it was the motto of the EFSD excursion at Texel. With 30 students we designed a future scenario of 50 years, in which two crises would happen. We didn't want to make it more 'interesting', we didn't want to animate the Teselaars or the municipality of Texel, but we needed to create future innovations. There was more than just these two created crises, though. The week got his crisis too. Working for 5 days together with 30 students, discussing all day long for 10 hours a day about what the sustainable future of Texel will look like, a crisis was inevitable. The enormous effect of a crisis, reminded me on something that happened to me ten years ago.
Ten years ago, I went with my parents to the Louis Hartloper complex to watch the movie An Inconvenient Truth. I still can remember the feeling afterwards. I was so shocked and felt so confused. In one way I strongly believed that we (and I) had to change our life's immediately, on the other hand: what could I do? The graphs of changes over the years and visuals of the consequences convinced me totally. My parents (and also others) were still so relaxed, while I had the feeling that we couldn't wait. Now a couple of years later, the climate change doesn't drive me that much anymore. What did the documentary do to me by then?
It was the crisis Al Gore sketched what succeeded this documentary. The detailed visualisation of the future touched people their feelings, instead of their mind. People already knew what was going on, but this documentary made it real. I remember how the movie helped me to change. The things my father told me to do before, like turning of the lights, showering not too long, taking the bicycle instead of the bus, were things I accepted from afterwards. My father telling me what were good or bad habits for the environment, and knowing this, didn't really make a change. Being confronted with the affect of the climate change, the crisis it will lead into, made me motivated to change myself.
It was not that from that moment, my life changed totally. Why I mention this memory is to show, how this worked for me and probably for others as well. Furthermore I believe Al Gore his documentary was really smart. It was not that Al Gore researched and discovered the environment issues. He did a good job in the representation of research results to the normal world. He succeeded in convincing the world and motivating people to change. Al Gore affected people by the sketched future scenario, including the climate crisis. This tactic was something that came back last week at Texel. Last week I understood that the documentary made use of a strategy and after last week I am even more convinced that this strategy really works.
Published by Hanna van der Ploeg